Sully (2016)

I haven't seen many pieces of entertainment, in any medium, based directly on events that I heard about when they were news. In this case, it's hard for me to believe that the event happened nearly 11 years ago.

I speak of the "Miracle on the Hudson," in which long-time pilot Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) lands a damaged commercial plane on a river instead of heading for either of two nearby airports. Everyone survives, but that's not the end of Sully's troubles. He develops PTSD symptoms, he and wife Lorraine (Laura Linney) are not crazy about all the public attention, and the National Transportation Safety Board, while impressed at his landing skill, thinks he made a dangerously wrong decision and should not be allowed to fly again. Can he convince the Board that its analyses are incorrect?

Sully doesn't exactly blame the NTSB for coming down on him like this. He made a highly irregular decision to try something that always killed somebody before. Even after a relatively smooth touchdown, there was a high risk of passengers freezing to death (or drowning, for the naive ones who went swimming without putting on a life vest) while awaiting rescue. Furthermore, having a flock of birds take out two engines at once would be a first, and until the left engine can be recovered, the Board is inclined to believe computer data claiming it to be still functional enough to reach LaGuardia or Teterboro. Most importantly, numerous simulations suggest that Sully could have made the conventional landing even with both engines dead.

Nevertheless, Sully rarely has any doubt that he judged the situation correctly. Copilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) supports him at every step, approaching the hearing with less patience yet more humor. Lorraine also retains faith in him, tho their phone conversations indicate a lot of stress.

Not for the first time, director Clint Eastwood employs some time jumps to justified effect. Showing everything in chronological order would make for terrible pacing. As it is, we start with a nightmare shortly after Sully's fame has begun and get staggered flashbacks in the middle, including a couple glimpses of his pre-airline flying experience. The transitions did not confuse me.

More jarring to me were the few scenes focusing on passengers, especially back in the airport. I understand the desire to make them more human to us, but the perspective shift tells us that these aren't Sully's memories after all, and since nothing important to later scenes occurs in them, they seem a rather dull digression. I have more respect for the inclusion of footage of the real passengers during the end credits; that reifies them.

I did learn a few things besides recent historical details here. Mainly, I picked up a bit of jargon and gained a better idea of how the aviation industry works. That's more than I can say for most of my fare.

This is one of my favorite Eastwood-directed films, possibly topped only by Unforgiven. It helps that the style doesn't scream his name. There's very little grit and no moral ambiguity. And for all the good that Sully did in those 208 seconds, the picture doesn't overly revere him; he aptly notes that (1) it was his job and (2) lots of other people have to share the credit for averting a tragedy.