Sully

Based on the autobiography of Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s ‘Highest Duty’ which deals with his account of the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’, Todd Komarnicki’s screenplay brings together two powerhouses of Hollywood Clint Eastwood and Tom Hanks.  The movie which explores themes of ‘Common Man’, ‘American Hero’, ‘Compassion’ & ‘Duty’ are not new to these legends as both of them have handled similar themes and characters even in their recent movies ‘Captain Philips’ and ‘American Sniper’.

Technically the movie excels on all counts lead by the haunting theme music of the film composed by Clint Eastwood himself. The major sequence in the movie has been shot with IMAX cameras and has provided the maximum impact and it is really a treat to see the veteran Clint work with boundary-pushing technologies but which are extremely justified within the narrative. Director Clint Eastwood’s long-time association with editor Bill Murray bears fruit when it comes to the presentation of the movie and at 95 minutes, the editing of the movie is sharp. An incident told from different angles plus a high ‘impact’ true story are extremely difficult to handle as everyone would love to employ shaky cameras and quick cuts whereas Sully is presented without any gimmicks but extremely effectively.

To express an amount of restraint and at the same time compassion, who better to play Captain Sully than Tom Hanks. The towering lead performance sucks the audience into the narrative as well as into the mind of Sully himself.  Aaron Eckhart who is best known for playing two face in the Dark Knight ably supports Hanks. The dialogues in the movie have dry humour tucked in the corners in the midst of drama and have very Coen Brothers- isque flavour to it. The sound designing in the movie deserves special mention as it comes nearly close in recreating the atmosphere of the actual event and manages to place the audience right at the centre of it. Another major pillar in the movie is the special effects which at most of the scenes wherein it was employed remain undetected and manages to almost recreate the events of the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ impact fully.

When Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood join together, maybe the expectations from them were to deal with a heavy weight subject but that in no way diminishes the endearing quality of this film. Keeping in tune with the attention span of the audience and the trends of so called ‘modern films’, this movie is presented crisply. Although it would have been engrossing to see Clint Eastwood dive more into the mind and psyche of Sully which road is very familiar to the director of Million Dollar Baby. The lighter tone of the last act of the film which is a subject matter of criticism from certain renounced critics is not well founded as the movie doesn’t masquerade itself as a thriller but more a drama based on a real incident handled delicately.

At the age of 86, Clint Eastwood manages to show that for a movie to engross audience, the same needn’t end with a big punch or a plot twist or for a movie to be an effective drama, it needn’t go overboard. Mr Eastwood and Mr Hanks succeed in painting an endearing portrait of Captain Sully and the events that unfolded on the river Hudson and their repercussions very subtly and effectively without being melodramatic. Sully also provides for a great solid start for the upcoming much-anticipated movie season. Do watch the movie in the cinema theatres.