Four stars. Rated PG-13, and much too harshly for dramatic intensity and fleeting profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 9.9.16
Coulda-woulda-shoulda.
We are a species of
second-guessers.
 |
| With precious seconds ticking away, after losing both engines to a bird strike, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks, right) and co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) contemplate several equally unpleasant options, every one of which carries the risk of killing hundreds of people. |
Even when something has been done
properly, with the desired outcome, we often wonder: Might things have
concluded even better, with a different set of actions?
Far worse, of course, is when an
optimal result is challenged by others who question our judgment. Armchair
quarterbacks who insist that, really, it should have gone down this way.
Human nature. Quite infuriating.
At first blush, Capt. Chesley
“Sully” Sullenberger would seem to be the last man on Earth to be confronted in
such a manner; he is, after all, the hero who glided the disabled US Airways
Flight 1549 Airbus A320 into a flat-out miraculous pancake landing on the
Hudson River, on Jan. 15, 2009, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and
crew. As any pilot can verify, water landings aren’t nearly as “soft” as a dive
into a swimming pool; depending on speed and angle of impact, it’s more like
slamming into a brick wall.
Who, then, could argue with
Sully’s actions, given the results?
Ah, but that’s the hook behind
director Clint Eastwood’s new film, which gains its dramatic tension from a
crackerjack script by Todd Komarnicki, based on Sullenberger’s best-selling
book, Highest Duty. Komarnicki and
Eastwood manage a seemingly impossible feat, by injecting suspense into a
narrative whose outcome we already know.
But that’s the point: Most folks don’t know the full story. Granted,
everybody watched the amazing events on that January afternoon in 2009,
many of us glued to TV sets. But while it’s true Sully saved all 155 people, he
wasn’t able to save the plane itself ... and — sad to say — neither Airbus nor
its insurance underwriters were going to take the loss of a $70 million
aircraft lightly.
Ergo, the second-guessing, and
this film’s suspense, as Sully — played with gravitas by Tom Hanks — and
co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) are grilled, after the fact, by National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators who insist, armed with
computer simulation test data, that the plane could have returned safely to the
nearest La Guardia runway, or one at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport.
And we can’t help wondering:
Could it be true?
At which point, Komarnicki and
Eastwood have us hooked.
