Sully (2016) - Everyone Is A Hero!

★★★☆☆

I like Clint Eastwood as a director more than an actor in fact. At an old age like he is now, he’s still diligent at exploring different kinds of stories and turning them into films that may not be so great to be remembered but absolutely good enough to move and stimulate us at certain moments, like his ‘Million Dollar Baby’, ‘Gran Torino’, ‘Hereafter’, and now ‘Sully’.

‘Sully’ tells a true story back in January 2009 where Captain Sully was forced to land his plane on New York’s Hudson River as birds broke down both of the engines shortly after the takeoff. It’s an accident happening in a flash that only lasts 208 seconds, but Clint Eastwood manages to make it a film of 90 minutes without a moment of boredom thanks to the terrific editing work, certain details of the hearing, and of course Tom Hanks’ convincing performance, despite the fact that you may not find it so engrossing since you already know how it would end. This is not a film to glorify one single hero like Captain Sully but a calm objective look into what really happens during those 208 seconds; and to argue if it’s an avoidable forced crash or a successful landing on water.

Like Sully said, he’s no hero. It’s just the job he did. And without the co-operations of the passengers, the crew, the rescue workers, the coast guards, the police, etc, they wouldn’t have survived at all. Every single one of them is a hero in such a triumphant incident. If anyone of them went wrong, there would’ve been chain reactions and the results would’ve been so different. When you pull of something, you usually feel like you’re the key to having made it. Yeah, you might be the key but making it requires not only the key but also many other factors to seamlessly work with it! A hero is a hero when he doesn’t feel like one. It’s like a good man is a good man when he doesn’t feel like he is. So if you think you’re something, you’re actually nothing. We’ve all got something to learn from ‘Sully’ for sure!