Sully

With a news title like "Miracle on the Hudson" it's amazing it took so long to make a movie of it.  Clint Eastwood as director can take a historical story and turn it into a great movie (Flags of Our Fathers, Invictus, Jersey Boys).  He does the same here.   It will make you Proud to be an American.

Capt. Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) starts the story in a hearing from the National Transportation Safety Board.  Michael Brown would be a perfect choice for this job ("Brownie's doing a heckuva job")  We know the plane has been landed safely but that's not good enough.  As First Officer Skiller (Aaron Eckhart) noted, when an expensive plane is lost, there's going to be an investigation and a price to pay.

From there the story goes from Sully walking through the airport, getting ready and starting the takeoff.  It was interesting to see how short a time it was from takeoff to landing.  208 seconds.

Some good lines they used in their defense.  "Engineers say you could have landed at La Guardia"  Sully noted, "First, engineers are not pilots.  Second, they're wrong.  Third, they weren't there"

And Skiller said later "You're just not used to an investigation where there's a successful outcome"

The flight scenes were realistic and well done.  Very similar to the 747 flyover in Invictus.  

All in all, an excellent movie, telling a story that should be repeated.  Hats off to the whole crew who save all 155 people on Flight 1549.

* * * * * (highest)


1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed this movie! I thought it was interesting that the pilots had to defend their decision to crash-land in the Hudson River rather than in Queens. Also, it really captured the outrageous drama of a passenger jet going down.

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