After the miraculous Hudson River landing of a U.S Airways plane in 2009 by Captain Chelsea ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, it was inevitable someone was going to make a film of it. Seven years later, the penny dropped for director Clint Eastwood.
In watching the film advertisement for ‘Sully’, you would think you have seen the whole film. A flight takes off, birds hit the engines a few minutes into the flight, engines die, the plane ends up in the Hudson River. Over and done with in a simple trailer… So how on earth did they make an almost two-hour long film on it?
The film was conveyed as a typical American hero film with a “God bless America” vibe to it. Yawn. Little does the advert tell you, Clint Eastwood’s film is actually based on the aftermath of the event and how Captain ‘Sully’ was depicted by the media and his superiors at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The media deems him a “hero” after successfully saving all 155 lives onboard, whilst the NTSB tried to pin the Captain’s choice of landing on the river as wrong one. Sounds more interesting right? To be fair, it was, and any film with Tom Hanks as the lead role has to have some form of credibility. Over the first weekend of the film’s release in the U.S it made $35.5million, so it must be doing something right.
From watching the trailer, you would believe the film is based on the crash itself, but ‘Sully’ largely looks at the aftermath. Also, there’s nothing unexpected in it; due it being based on a true event, it isn’t difficult to you to find out how the story ends therefore it takes away a bit of suspense. However, there is an element of suspense in finding out the board of inquiry’s end verdict – but that could be said to be arguably less “thrilling”.
In my opinion, the film is not award winning but overall, it was good. I did not leave the cinema feeling like I had lost two hours of my life over nothing – it was perfectly enjoyable. Tom Hank’s performance was outstanding as usual so that definitely gives the film a boost in people’s opinions; if the lead role was a smaller name than Hanks, there’s a chance the film wouldn’t have received the hype that it did.
If you’re struggling with things to do over the weekend, I’d definitely give the film a watch. It’s perfectly harmless which is why I think it did so well – it’s the kind of film than everyone wouldn’t mind seeing.
By Niamh Shackleton
@NiamhShackleton
Recent Comments