Director: Clint Eastwood
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 1.5
Eastwood covers the remarkable "Miracle on the Hudson" incident from January 2009 in which American pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks), along with co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), managed to safely land US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after birds flew into the engines, disabling the plane (all passengers and crew were saved). While it's fine as a re-enactment, there isn't a whole lot there - Eastwood, in order to extend the running time, replays the emergency landing twice and his attempt to show Sully 'agonizing' over the incident (and subsequent hearings with the National Transportation Safety Board questioning his judgment) is over-done, dramatically speaking (this is what we do to heroes, it's saying: we criticize them). I personally wonder whether this is another case of "Too Soon" filmmaking (in which the event is so fresh there's no chance for actual reflection) ... although there is no doubt it's the Republican filmmaker's opportunity for some good ol' flag-waving (making this a more hopeful, less tragic companion piece to American Sniper).
