On 15 January 2009, the world witnessed the 'Miracle on the Hudson' when Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger glided his disabled plane onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 souls aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, an investigation was unfolding that threatened to destroy his reputation and career.
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Reviews
That was an excellent one.
Overrated and overhyped
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
I've always been very interested about aviation accidents and I've watched pretty much EVERY episode of Air Crash Investigations -TV program. And there is one story which most of us recognize and / or remembers, including myself. Yes, this movie tells the very same story. About the emergency landing on freezing water with almost full passenger plane.When I first saw this movie, I was like "Oh wow, there is actual movie out of it. It must be great." And then I looked cast "Oh my GOD, and my absolute favorite character (Tom Hanks) on the main role! Now I MUST watch it!" And yeah I did that.It turned out to be pretty different than I expected. I was expecting more catastrophe film like The Perfect Storm" or Titanic or something like that. To be honest, I didn't like those "hallucinations" and different memories that pilot saw. It's kind of weird that it shows the accident by piece by piece. But however, I understand it because this story was more on the pilot's side. I mean the investigation that focused on human errors. And it was great to see how they managed to fight back. And here, Tom Hanks really nails it again. Just gotta love every role he acts. He just is excellent actor, no matter what role.In the end, movie still turned to be very great, although I didn't get quite what I expected.
I thought "Sully" got off to a bit of a slow start. I remember the incident well from news reports - Captain Sullenberger landing the massive Airbus A320 in the Hudson River just a few minutes after takeoff because of dual engine failures - and everyone surviving the incident. It sounds like an exciting story, but it's made pretty clear from the start that this is going to be far more about the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board than about the incident itself. Which, I suppose, is understandable. As is pointed out several times in the movie, the entire incident lasted about 208 seconds. You can't really make a movie about a 208 second incident. And, indeed, for the first little while this movie had me a bit disoriented, wondering what really was going on. But the story picks up its pace well, and in the end director Clint Eastwood did a magnificent job of moving back and forth from the narrative about the investigation to what actually happened in the cockpit - and the cockpit scenes were dramatic and seemingly (to me, admittedly a non-pilot) meticulously recreated - as was the ultimate evacuation of the plane afterward. It really was a tribute not just to Sully, but to all of the flight crew, who acted professionally and calmly and ensured the survival of their passengers.The NTSB didn't come across quite as well. Sullenberger became (understandably) a hero almost from the moment this happened. After all, it happened in broad daylight in one of the world's largest cities - lots of people saw it. The depiction of the NTSB investigators was that they were antagonistic toward Sully, perhaps either disturbed or jealous that his media acclaim was getting way ahead of their work, and they came across as people looking to place blame for the incident rather than people who were looking for the truth. The actual investigators disputed how they were portrayed, and my understanding is that even Sullenberger disagreed with the liberties that the writers and Eastwood took with this part of the story. I suppose there was a feeling that a movie has to have a "bad guy" to create dramatic tension - and the NTSB filled that role perfectly, even if the portrayal was unfair.Tom Hanks is obviously the star of this movie. Aaron Eckhart is along for the ride as Scully's co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, but everything in this movie focuses on Hanks. His performance, I thought, was predictably excellent. It's an understated performance - not high on typical drama or excitement, but portraying Sully as a naturally humble man who finds himself thrust into the spotlight and tormented by the thought that he could have done something different - something safer - although it's made clear that for all his thoughts about alternatives in the end he's confident that he made the right decision - the evidence for that being that all 155 people on the plane survived.Ultimately, after that slow start that lasted for maybe 15 or 20 minutes when the movie seemed a bit off focus, this turned out to be an excellent story of a man who is, indeed, a real hero. (8/10)
Too long for me even though only 1 hr 36, short by today's standards. Part of the story has been exaggerated to make a story of it, namely the level of blame by the NTSB. But even this does not give enough interest to hold your attention for the full length of the movie. Nice acting, but that's about it. Just watch a short documentary on You Tube if you want to know about Flight 1549. Or read the Wikipedia page.
SullyOften biographies takes their time, mostly more than 2 hours or so but this one seems to be to the point and not far fetched, hats off to the editor. Sully brews a soft hearted characters through rough series of events which probably is the only reason why you root for the protagonist from the first frame of the movie; that and of course blend in by excellent execution and Tom Hanks. Clint Eastwood as always justifies each and every character and gives them enough space and range (even the passengers) holding the bits and pieces of the movie with the emotion that comes off it. Tom Hanks is as always magnificent in it and is supported strongly by Aaron through out the course of it. Sully's strength is its runtime which is short and to the point but the problem is that the material isn't sufficient for even that amount of time cornering the feature to rely only upon the performance by the actors and the final act of the interrogation which is the highlight of it.