Sully

Director Clint Eastwood’s Sully ranks among his very best films.

Working with a great script by Todd Komarnicki, expertly shot by Cinematographer Tom Stern and superbly performed by Tom Hanks as Pilot Chesley Sullenberger and Aaron Eckhart as Co-Pilot Jeff Skiles, in some sense, makes this a no-brainer hit.  

However, the secret sauce lies in the hands of Editor Blu Murray, who, up until now, had been the Assistant Editor of Joel Cox, who edited many of Eastwood’s works. Blu has brought a faster pace than previous Eastwood films, a pace that is suitable to the story in which quick decisions and actions needed to be made.

While almost everyone knows what happened that cold January day, most, like me, are not aware of the hearings Sully and Skiles had to face before the National Transportation Safety Board to determine whether their actions were justified.  After all, an expensive plane was lost.  

And, how do people, heroes or not, deal with their own near death and those of everyone under their charge?  What about Sully’s family with his wife wonderfully played by Laura Linney? 

This film shows the best aspects of the American ethos and is destined to become a classic, as well as a 2016 award winner. 

If you can get through a screening without choking up or tearing, I don’t want to know you.

I give Sully a 4.9 out of 5.