Sully (2016)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Todd Komarnicki, Chesley Sullenberger (book), and Jeffrey Zaslow (book).
Cast: Tom Hanks (Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger), Aaron Eckhart (Jeff Skiles), Laura Linney (Lorraine Sullenberger), Valerie Mahaffey (Diane Higgins), Delphi Harrington (Lucille Palmer), Mike O'Malley (Charles Porter), Jamey Sheridan (Ben Edwards), and Anna Gunn (Elizabeth Davis).
Opening Sequence:
2016 came and went, it was a good year, at least for me it was. My daughter Delaney Quinn Knight was born on December 26. Yes you guessed it, the day after Christmas. The year of birth also came with so much loss. Many celebrities had passed away. 2016 had taken great people, and the end came fast, and hard. Here are the folks that died. David Bowe, Pat Harrington, Alan Rickman, Dan Haggerty, Glen Frey, Abe Vigoda, George Gaynes, Tony Burton, George Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Robert Horton, Joe Santos, Joe Garagiola, Ken Howard, Peter Brown, Garry Shandling, James Noble, Patty Duke, Doris Roberts, Prince, William Schallert, Morley Safer, Alan Young, Mohamed Ali, Anton Yelchin, Noel Neill, Gary Marshall, Steven Hill, Gene Wilder, Hugh O'Brian, Arnold Palmer, Robert Vaughn, Florence Henderson, Ron Glass, Van Williams, John Glenn, Alan Thicke, Bernard Fox, Zsa Zsa Gabor, George Michael, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, and William Christopher. Hopefully i got everyone. The list is long, these folks will not be forgotten. And as we continue to 2017, lets pray and hope for great things to come.
Review:
The screen goes from black to white, a flash of a monster of an airplane dropping to abnormal levels in altitude. Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) maneuvers the plane with in the cities tall buildings. The plane dives to low and crashes into a building. The explosion had killed every passenger on the plane. Sully had failed as a pilot, and a human being. His control was lost, somehow the plane with a suicidal endeavor managed to crash into the building the Captain did not want that type of tragedy.
Sully awakens from a very deep connected nightmare. sweat pours down his cheek. The night has been long, and hard. The dreams are getting worse.
Sully had landed a plane, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River. He had saved 155 human beings. The media has called this incident, "The Miracle on the Hudson."
"You know, it' been awhile since New York had news this good. Especially with an airplane in it." -Carl Clark-
This film is based on true events, so lets get that out of the way. Secondly Clint Eastwood directed this amazing masterpiece of a film. The scenes with Sully's having a nightmare, and worrying consistently about the ordeal, even after it was over showed how classy Sully was. Eastwood direction made the film very believable; Which as the story progressed, so did the characters. I understood why? He was having those nightmares. The grief and just how he used everything he knew as a pilot to make sure the passengers were safe was awesome. The folks aboard the plane were instructed by the flight attendants, everyone played the part, and nobody had died, which in the end that's all that really matters. Sully worried so much that he even dreamed about the plane crashing. He thought about what could've gone wrong if we had gone the other route. Turned around to the airport, which according to the simulations he would have survived without damaging the plane, perfect landing. What the NTSB did not account for was the human cause, and when the simulations imputed the human element, the airplane crashed.
The director deals with the cast, and when you have a film that is flows like this one did, you kinda give the guy behind the scenes some credit, because without him the film would not have succeeded. Yes there could've been other directors, but to Clint Eastwood's credit he gives something different to the table. It showed in Gran Torino (2008) and it really showed in this film, Sully (2016). Eastwood established connections between the characters from the beginning of Act 1 to the finally in Act 3. Sully (Tom Hanks), and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart). They both knew what to say, and when to say it. Tom Hanks spent sometime with Sully in order to get to know him so he could play him well. The actor did his homework like he does in all of his films. The flow of the film is great, but what happens next is even better. Special effects are part of our new age society, it must be used in some way or the picture will take a dive in the box office. But here is what separates Eastwood from the other directors, and his strong cast as well.
"You got hugged by a total stranger" -Carl Clark-
Imagine you're at around 2800 ft and suddenly a flock of Canada Geese slam into your engines. Loss of power, engine kicks off, the plane starts to descend. The damn Geese were about 10 lbs, what would you do? Sully and Skiles handled the landing perfectly. A decision needed to be made and the Hudson was their best shot at survival. The film was based on the autobiography, "Highest Duty." The book was written by Sully himself and Jeffrey Zaaslow, about a safe landing on the Hudson River. The whole ordeal, and the aftermath. Sullenberger (Tom hanks) was a member of the U.S. Air Force Academy 1973. What would you do? The plane falling out of the sky. The basic human element is projected in one moment. A decision that will either kill you, and your passengers. The fact that these brave men and the crew of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 touched the Hudson River and lived is a miracle, but give credit to the amazing set of skills of both men at the helm.
"You were looking for a human error then make it human." -Sully-
The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) had to display the human factor in their simulations, Sully had told them each pilot in the pod had training. All the simulations ended up in crashes, after adding 35 seconds. The pilots couldn't react quick enough. The addition was the human element, adding, then reacting to the crisis. The main reason was the human factor. The time of the bird strike was 58 seconds, 23 second difference. The board wanted to prove that Captain Sullenberger (Hanks) had time to turn around to LaGuardia. 155 passengers were saved on January 15th, 2009. You can't review what was true, pure at heart. The realism of a Flight was the reason this film is so good. You can't review what was real, according to the accounts of the Pilot and his wonderful story of courage.
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