No one died, not even the few who ended up for one reason or another in the chilly Hudson. "Sully" became a household name, and the biggest aviation hero since Lindbergh, though he would be the first to point out that the copilot, the stewardesses, air control, nearby passenger ferries, and rescue helicopter crews were also requisite for all to have survived.
But the ordeal wasn't over for Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and copilot Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), who must convince unfriendly baldie Porter (Mike O'Malley), the leader of the FAA investigation, that the plane was unlikely to safely land at one of two nearby airports.
Laura Linney has a small role as Sully's wife.
How others will see it. Sully was yet another commercial success for both Hanks and director Clint Eastwood. The film's worldwide gross was about four times its budget. Sully won sundry festival awards and nominations, including Best Foreign Language Film at the Kinema Junpo Awards.
Today at imdb.com, the movie has an impressive 190K user votes, and a high user rating of 7.5 out of 10, which rises to 7.8 among women over 45, who enjoy a happy ending. A typical user review is titled, "terrifically detailed work directed by a living legend, and starring one too!"
How I felt about it. Cinema loves the drama of trials, ignoring their typical tedium. Trials, in the movies, have formulas such as last-minute witnesses striding dramatically into the courtroom, witnesses or defendants melting down into confessions, one-sided judges, and various other clichés.
The climax of Sully is the hearing, effectively a trial on the pilots' actions after a bird strike took out both engines. Apparently, this hearing is a Hollywood version of what is generally a much more sympathetic and slow-moving assessment of what contributed to a plane crash.
We are too believe that Sully was set up to be publicly condemned, terminated, and stripped of his pension. All that saves him is his bold request that a 35-second delay be added to the simulation, which virtually immediately proves his exoneration. All this is strictly Hollywood.
The hearings are indeed the most bogus portions of the film. But they don't hurt the movie much, if at all, because the pilot and copilot are believable, down to the sense of humor displayed by Skiles, instead of the ever-conscientious Sully.
One can argue that Tom Hanks plays himself in every movie. He seems to always be this nice, decent fellow whom you could trust to feed your dog while you are away. He wouldn't accept money for this, or even help himself to refrigerator snacks.
But with all those Oscar and Golden Globe awards and nominations, Hanks has earned the right to accept only those roles in which he plays an idealized version of himself. It's been a long road since he was a transvestite in "Bosom Buddies", or in dreadful movies like The Man with One Red Shoe (1985).
Hanks' charisma dominates the project, but it is worth reflecting on the long directorial career of Clint Eastwood. Initially, he directed to control his lucrative status as tough guy actor. This was even the case for his best movie, Unforgiven.
But as Eastwood gradually aged out of credible leading roles (not that he has given up trying), it is his skill as a director that his kept him a Hollywood power player. Not every one of his films is worth seeing. But many of them are, some of which are underrated, such as Bird (1988), and, yes, Sully.