Sully: Tom Hanks Reminds Us He's Still Got It

I'm sure many of you remember that crazy story about a pilot who landed a plane in the Hudson River several years ago.  This was an extraordinary case because all 155 passengers survived the crash, let alone the severely cold temperatures which would have killed many of them had they not gotten rescued sooner.  I remember seeing the news reports and thinking what a hero the pilot was.  I had no idea that this same man was also being scrutinized for his landing as some felt he could have safely landed the plane back at the airport from which he took off.  Yeah......people suck.

This film gives us an inside picture of that entire day in which the plane took off then shortly after, literally ran into a flock of birds.  This caused the engines to malfunction and gave the pilot seconds to decide his best course of action.  He determined the safest route was to land in the Hudson River and refused to leave the plane until all passengers were off.  He also wouldn't be interviewed or meet with the mayor at the time until he had a count that assured all passengers survived.  As days since the crash passed, he and his copilot were investigated by the commission which was proper protocol to ensure the best course of action was chosen and that he was in good condition to fly.  When things started to get challenging was when computer simulators were stated to have shown the plane could have landed safely back at the airport had he chosen that option, which seemed to show he did not make the right choice and infact endangered 155 souls.  I know........poor guy.  It was up to Sully to show the commission how computers may be able to predict outcome, but there is one thing they were missing-human input and real life events.  Would he be able to prove this or would he be forced into early retirement and changed from a hero to zero?

I was worried this movie would be a long one as it was directed by Clint Eastwood and let's be honest folks, his movies are great but do tend to drag on a bit.  I am happy to report that it was well paced and did such a great job of portraying how intense it was in the air that day and the internal conflict Sully went through as he began to doubt his own efforts.  Even if you are not familiar with this real life event and just want to see a good movie, I highly recommend this.  I mean come on, it's got Tom Hanks who apparently is always going to kill it on the big screen.