Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Valerie Mahaffey, Delphi Harrington, Mike O’ Malley, James Sheridan, Anna Gunn, Holt McCallany, Ahmed Lucan, Laura Linney, Katie Couric, Jeff Kober, Blake Jones, Molly Bernard, Chris Bauer, Jane Gabbart, Ann Cusak, Molly Hagan, Purva Bedi, Max Adler, Sam Huntington, Christopher Curry, Vincent Lombardi.
It could be argued that as a society we don’t honour heroes enough, the quick witted and selfless actions that save countless hundreds of lives every year and the only time we do it becomes a media circus, a haunting trial for the person involved as they take on the imposed mantle of celebrity. Heroes are not those that make money, nor in a way should they be plucked from the realms of politics, they get their congratulations in the reams of books that historians provide; instead it is too people such as Chelsey “Sully” Sullenburger that hero truly is a word worth associating with.
Sully: The Miracle on the Hudson is one of those rare extraordinary tales that have you reaching for the memory of your time on Earth and makes you question your perception of time, the events that unfolded around you that you may have skimmed over in the rush of the day and yet somehow sticks in the recall for one peculiar reason; did it truly happen, could one man’s quick thinking save the lives of so many people that in another’s hands would have surely perished.
It is in the quietly remarkable, the everyday person who history might not have even worried about in other circumstances, that the world is changed forever upon, an act of kindness, a moment of charity, an absolute 200 seconds of sheer courage and followed up by facing down the accusers who believe you to be wrong; in such moments Chelsey Sullenburger’s bravery in the face of death and derision as Clint Eastwood film shows, in which Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart as the two pilots in charge of the plane that was struck by twin disaster, is nothing short of the miracle promised in the title.
If the film also shows anything it is to stand firm in your beliefs, that your word is stronger than anybody’s preconceived opinions or any simulation lie about your actions. It is in this that the thread of the true story stands up and makes it a fine piece of cinematography, of true life heroism that requires deeper learning, of remembering the facts at all times and never wavering from your conviction. Sully: The Miracle on the Hudson might not win awards or go down as the finest film of 2016 but it by far the one that have anybody cheering for the heroism of the human spirit.
Ian D. Hall