Sully Brings Good News at Perfect Timing

Release Date：Sep/9/2016

Genre：Biography/Drama

Director：Clint Eastwood

Cast：Tom Hanks、Sam Huntington、Laura Linney

Viola's Rating：8.1

On January 15^th, 2009, there was an airplane landed on the Hudson River. Seven years after that, an amazing blockbuster landed within cinemas around the world. This is Oscar winning director Clint Eastwood’s latest feature film “Sully”.

Talking about the story of Chesley Sullenberger, an American pilot who became a hero after landing his damaged plane on the Hudson River in order to save his crew and the flight's passengers, “Sully” is based on Sully and his co-pilot, Jeffrey Zaslow’s memoir “Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters”.

Starring Tom Hanks, the all-time hero, the tone of the film was set to be happy-ending, but how Eastwood turned this zero casualty disaster into a brilliant flick is the secret to the success of “Sully”.

As said in the motion picture, people in the US hadn’t heard about any good news for a long time, especially with airplanes. After 911 and the economic crisis shown in “The Big Short”, American only received bad news from the media, so when Captain Sullenberg successfully landed the plane on the Hudson River, he was worshipped as a hero. However, there was an untold story behind the miracle, and that is what Eastwood wants to show with “Sully”.

From the movie, we not only understand the whole process of the incident itself, but the ugly investigation after the heroic deed. Of course landing on a river is a bad news for the insurance company, but what would a captain risk the life of all passengers on the plane to make a wrong decision as if he could know in advance that he’ll definitely succeed. The struggles Sullenberg and Zaslow had and the questioning give the audience a feeling of unease and Sullenberg’s wife’s emotion demonstrates how moviegoers feel perfectly.

Along with Sullenberg’s flashback, audience gets to experience the real-time incident with the characters a few times, and the focus is different each time. Even after the first time, the frightening horror and tension are still there. As same as many true-story pictures that provide footage or pictures as reference to highlight the fantastic likeliness, “Sully” shows a short clip of Captain Sullenberg talking to his crew and passengers at the time, and it’s clear that these people who experience a life-threatening flight together are all close friends now.

From the year, the season this happened, the hearing, the result to the book, the feature film and the casting, everything surround Sully and his incredible story is about timing. Being released after the summer, “Sully” ought to be a full-house work, and no matter you like Clint Eastwoo, Tom Hanks or the plot, it’s definitely a film you should watch before the Oscar season starts. Let “Sully” brings you good news even though you might need to wipe some tears in the theater.