Review of Sully (2016) by Grant S — 17 Jun 2017

On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 lost both engines shortly after takeoff. Thanks to the experience and skill of its captain, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, all 155 passengers and crew survived when the plane landed on the Hudson River. This is the story of that incident, and its aftermath.

Great dramatization of an amazing event. While the the events and skill involved therein are pretty incredible I was skeptical that this could be made into an engaging, entertaining movie.

I need not have worried. Director Clint Eastwood turns a story that could easily have ended up as a boring linear docudrama into something very interesting. Through starting the movie AFTER the climactic event, the use of back-and-forth time jumps and focusing as much on the aftermath as the event itself, Eastwood has made something very engaging and intriguing.

There is a degree of dramatic license involved, especially with regard to the NTSB hearings, but Eastwood and writer Todd Komarnicki needed a way to introduce an element of uncertainty and drama into a story with a known outcome, and that was it.