Sully: Miracle on the Hudson

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: Todd Komarnicki
Released: September 2016
Starring: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart and Laura Linney
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If this film was a human, it would be:
A white American male holding the US flag in one hand with a hamburger in the other, a bald eagle perched on his shoulder, while sitting on a mustang, wearing a cowboy hat and a shirt that reads ‘God bless America’, with keys in his back pocket to his Chevrolet and his white-picket-fenced suburban home in the distance… This movie was an all-American film indeed.

Based of course on the spectacular events of January 2009 where Chesley Sullenberger (Sully) landed a commercial plane on the Hudson river after an birdstrike took out both the plane’s engines. All 155 souls onboard survived.

What Sully: Miracle on the Hudson focusses on is the aftermath where our hero is interrogated as questions over whether both engines really did stop working arise, and whether or not Sully really did make the safest decision to make a water landing.

The reenactments of the plane crash were remarkable, and Tom Hanks did a marvellous job of portraying the self-doubt and desperation his character experienced as he tried to keep his reputation as a pilot and safety expert intact. But of course Tom Hanks did an incredible job; he’s Tom Hanks.

The actors playing the parts of the passengers, I reluctantly say, were particularly poor at acting. Over-acting made them extremely unbelievable.

Imagine if this incident happened in the UK – I would love to see that movie. Because Great Britain doesn’t hail heroes, we hail underdogs. As Ricky Gervais once said, that’s the difference between the English and the Americans – we love a good underdog story because we focus on the negative, whereas they focus on the positive. ‘Anyone can be the next president’ versus ‘it would never happen to you’ kind of attitude, which feeds into our society and films. As my media studies teach once said, films are the mirrors held up to society.

Our Sully movie would be down-to-Earth (no pun intended) and probably a lot of depressing. Which, strangely I would probably relate to more. Therefore, I enjoyed Sully, but it was a bit difficult to relate to as it was a tad ‘happy-clappy’ and a bit too intensely positive.

I wouldn’t say it’s an inspirational epic, but it was an enjoyable story.

Jodie’s rating: 6.5/10