Review of Sully (2016) by Pipec — 17 Dec 2016

Clint Eastwood Synthesizes His Ambitions With "Sully".

Great feat or miracle on the Hudson took place on January 15, 2009, in extensive waters (503 km) of the river (national heritage), which serves as the borderline between New York and Jersey City. US Airways Flight 1549 (AWE1549) to Charlotte Airport - CLT (North Carolina); which would go to Seattle Airport (SEA) - SeaTac, took off from New York City exactly at local time 3:11 p.m. EST with 150 passengers and 5 crew members aboard. The huge aircraft ditched safely in the icy waters after a Canada geese flock struck on aircraft engines. Without any relation to terrorism events, the domestic commercial passenger flight was floated near Circle Line at local time 4:00 p.m. EST, where were numerous ferries and tugboats of the NY Waterway, which took part in the rescue. The expertise of the pair of pilots was honored and praised around the globe as "the water landing most successful in the history of aeronautic", a prevented misadventure, which become engraved in mostly American heads forever. Knowledgeable (and retired) airline captain Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger was socially deified—and rightly—for his heroic and unique wonder in Yankee history. It was a matter of time for a dramatization on the big screen was released in worldwide movie theaters, the trouble seemed to be the final amount of material for building a solid narrative (and homage) for the blessed survivors and demanding audience. As Sully argues, the answer is “yes,” although just barely.

With a surprisingly measured budget, keeping in mind that it is director's first motion picture shooted with IMAX cameras in its entirety and there is big visual responsibility, 60 million dollars of production were swiftly recovered—notably, American spectators dominated sale of movie tickets due to it was a shocking event into the country and besides, it is no secret that U.S.A presents the highest commercial demand in the industry—in its first days in movie listings, earning a whopping $26,820,803 DD in its second day of American projections. Although its highest grossing was thanks to Yankees' billfolds, multiplex cinemas beyond its borders providing—still producing money at the box office and it is necessary to deposit the gross from its digital, Blu-ray, and DVD release—a considerable sum of money ($94,000,000 DD), which added with American numbers generate nearly $218,779,510 DD, a resounding success in economic reception. As movie itself, the powerful alliance between Aaron Eckhart & Tom Hanks, crew of writers, Clint Eastwood and Warner Bros. is a simple and reflexive tribute for that brave action, with a usual powerful performance by the main leads, realistic special effects, and a correct direction. This one will portray through the passaging of years what happened exactly on January 15, 2009, and in its later hours.

Based on the autobiographical book "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters", director Eastwood and his team focus more on the nature of the character than in the event itself, even so, this is the major attraction of the full-length film. Rather than presenting events of early 2009 in a chronological order, they decided to employ an anachronistic narrative that relies—in large part—on layered, prolonged, and captivating flashbacks. While it tells the story in three periods interspersed with the reinterpretation of the water landing, which concludes with suffocating (and sometimes laughable) investigation by NTSB.

Tom Hanks as Sully is a fervent proof of the complicated control that the veteran actor has for portraying masterfully to ordinary people in extraordinary situations, and precisely that is what we wished, and for better or for worse, the decision to discern of giving more theatricality to the accident and limit themselves to psychology of characters gave more opportunities to shine.

As I mentioned previously, fragmented (and occasionally repetitive) water landing scenes are the ring of film. Projected from three different perspectives: outside of the passenger airplane, with passengers, and with pilots, their efficacy and efficiency around the reconstruction of events are visually stunning and CGI quality is almost complete. Perhaps, many would prefer giving more prominence to that moment, nevertheless, directors as Eastwood decide to put visual excitement aside to emphasize and delve into the life of their heroes: heroes and tragic facts will always be present in their films.

Simplicity and modesty in "Sully" by Clint Eastwood affect to the motion picture, comparing it with the most iconic works of the director, however, it delivers a correct level of solvency, a spectacular performance by Tom Hanks and an emotional, satisfying and faithful homage for rescued crew members and passengers.