Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Superman. Not quite. But, as Meatloaf heartily sung, two out of three ain’t bad. For the lycra-clad love-object of Lois Lane’s affections is nowhere to be seen. But there are birds: a flock of Canada geese to be exact. And there is a plane: US Airways Flight 1549 from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to North Carolina’s Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Into the twin engines of which fly said geese, barely a couple of minutes after take off, rendering both propellers out of action.
What’s a man to do? A: return to base? B: divert to the nearest local airport? C: say three Hail Marys and hope for the best? Or D: as Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and First Officer Jeffrey “Jeff” Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) decided, perform an unprecedented “forced water landing” (not “crash”) “on the Hudson River” (not “in”) saving the lives of all 150 passengers and 5 crew? As The Jackson 5 sung, A, B, C may be as easy as 1, 2, 3, but they would have led to a mass order of 155 coffins. D, on the other hand, though against protocol and firmly against the odds, was the correct answer. Though, sadly, the geese were goosed!
Under the restrained direction of Clint Eastwood, writer Todd Komarnicki makes a drama out of a real-life crisis not by focusing on the hair-raising heroism of the pilots (though the brief passages which cover the plane’s descent are captivating) or on the fate of the anguished passengers (a token gesture is made to sketch in a few of the personalities, but’s that all they are – sketches), but instead in pitching the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) against Sully and Jeff on the grounds that they are not “heroes” but “frauds” in that they deliberately disobeyed orders, mistakenly chose the wrong course of action and unnecessarily put the lives of passengers and crew at risk.
“I’ve delivered a million passengers over forty years,” said Sully, “but in the end I’m going to be judged by two hundred and eight seconds.” Two hundred and eight seconds which, upon reflection and after much self-doubting, he argued was the correct and only course of action which would have resulted in zero fatalities. But the NTSB pushed back: one of the engines was still operational; simulations showed that he could have landed at a nearby airport; losing both engines to bird damage was unprecedented; was he tired, did he have enough sleep, when was the last time he took an alcoholic drink or drugs and was he under any pressure at home? From hero to zero in seconds. Two hundred and eight seconds to be exact.
Sully, subtitled Miracle On The Hudson, is a fascinating story and Tom Hanks, as ever, steps into the American Everyman role with great grace, gravitas and subtlety. But given the dramatic subject matter, the immense courage not to mention cool-headedness displayed by the protagonists and the huge risks involved in terms of life and liability, the film lacks dramatic tension. Apart from the tense and challenging courtroom drama-like exchanges between the NTSB and Sully and his co-pilot Jeff, most of the film passes by like a fly-on-the-wall documentary: this happened and then that happened and then this happened. Fascinating, but far from gripping. Still, if there is one lesson to learn in terms of safety it is this: “A delay is better than a disaster.” Is it a turd? No. Is it plain? At times. Is it super, man? Don’t be Sully!
Video courtesy of: Warner Bros. Pictures
[imdb id=tt3263904]