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| Star Tom Hanks seen from an airplane window in pilot's uniform on this stark poster for Clint Eastwood's Sully |
A cold January day captain Sullenberger, a pilot with more than 40 years of experience, flies a passenger carrier, when, shortly after take-off, birds cause the engines to malfunction, and Sullenberger manages to land the plane safely on New York's Hudson River. - But was this the safest option available?
Sully is written by Todd Komarnicki (Perfect Stranger (2007)), based on the autobiography Highest Duty (2009) by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow (The Last Lecture (2008)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me (1971)).
Sully stands permanently in the shadows of another recent film of an unusual landing of a defect plane, Robert Zemeckis' fictitious and masterful drama Flight (2012). It appears that a riled up miracle atmosphere at the time of the blessed Hudson landing determined that the sensational event must also result in a good film, - but things are just not that simple.
Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger is a good man, who suffers some qualms after the landing, but of course he pulls through, although Tom Hanks (Ithaca (2015)) sculpts his face in so many wrinkled, worried folds that one could almost doubt it at times. Laura Linney (Maze (2000)) is the wife, who is exclusively shown in the Sullenberger home, and mostly worried, on the phone.
That Sully doesn't contain that much dramatically, except for the landing itself, of course, (which is anxiety-provoking), is only underscored by the film's continually returning to its portrayal of that formidable event, so that we experience it not only from the cockpit but from the passenger seat and the control tower as well.
The end credit roll is laced with pictures and video from reality, which are shown in great haste, as if Eastwood himself is also aware and doesn't want to give the wrongful impression that Sully can compare to the quality of his preceding bio-drama, masterpiece American Sniper (2014).
Technically and in terms of special effects, Sully is naturally top shelf, which is the best thing about this generally misjudged contraption.
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Letters from Iwo Jima/硫黄島からの手紙 [Öjima Kara no Tegami] (2006) - The Japanese side of Eastwood's remarkable WWII two-parter Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - Eastwood's Iwo Jima portrayal is captivating and profoundly moving
The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie (actor)
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair (actor)
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (actor)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Siegel, Tuggle and Eastwood's phenomenal prison escape thriller (actor)
Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business! (actor)
The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry (star)
The Eiger Sanction (1975) - Eastwood's mountain climbing dud
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (actor)
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life (actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (actor) For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer (actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (actor)
Watch a 4-minute clip from the film here
Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 240.7 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.01 times its cost)
[Sully premiered 2 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 96 minutes. Producers Frank Marshall and Allyn Stewart optioned the rights in 2010. Shooting took place in New York, Charlotte, North Carolina, Georgia, including Atlanta, New Mexico and in California from September 2015 - April 2016. The film opened #1 to a 35 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week at #1 and 2 more in the top 5 (#3-#5) and grossed 125 mil. $ (51.9 % of the total gross). It set a new global IMAX 2D opening record with 5.1 mil. $. A US comScore audience survey showed that 39 % of the film's audience saw it due to Hanks. The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 12 mil. $ (5 %) and Australia with 9.8 mil. (4.1 %). The National Transportation Safety Board objected strongly to its portrayal in the film, which was called 'mean-spirited dishonesty' and 'detrimental to aviation safety' as well as 'unfair'. Real-life Sullenberger agreed and asked that the NTSB investigators' names were changed for the film's characters representing them. The film was nominated for the Best Sound Editing Oscar, lost to Arrival. It won an AFI award, a National Board of Review award and several other honors. Eastwood returned with The 15:17 to Paris (2018). Hanks returned in Inferno (2016). Sully is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.21/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Sully?
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