I remember the events depicted in “Sully,” the movie about the events of Jan. 15, 2009. It was the kind of news that made everyday folks into heroes and legends.
That is also the case with this film. Tom Hanks provides the necessary vim and vigor in the title role as the aforementioned Sully, or Chesley Sullenberger. At his side was his co-captain, Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart). Together they accomplished something no one in American history has ever done.
The pair was thrust into a situation where the results of theiractions affected everyone on the plane.
In fact, Sullenberger saved the lives of the 155 souls on board US AirwaysFlight 1549 when it splashed down in the Hudson River. It was a “forced water landing,” something pilots do not usually train for.
Members of the National Transportation Safety Board scrutinized Sully to no end. The high-ranking bureaucrats were looking for someone to blame. In my opinion, they should have thrown Sully a ticker-tape parade.
Two-time Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood paints the hearings after the incident as routine. At one point, the audience finds out it took one person 117 attempts on a simulator to save everyone on board. At the end of the film, we are treated to the real people involved in “The Miracle on the Hudson.”
I liked the movie but do not plan to see it again. I admired and respected what Eastwood did with the story because it is a good theater experience. One of my colleagues at the Chronicle only wants to see the flicks I give an A or higher.
This should be one of the exceptions.
Grade: B
