Coluna Claquete – December 5th, 2016 – Movie of the Week: “Sully”
Newton Ramalho
colunaclaquete@gmail.com – www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com– @colunaclaquete
Movie of the Week: “Sully”
In one of those strange situations when Life imitates Art, at the time of the premiere of the film “Sully” happened the tragic crash of Chapecoense’s plane, forcing exhibitor postpone the launch. After the shock of the moment, the premiere has been rescheduled for this week for the luck of spectators, as it is a great movie.
This film is based on a real 2009 incident when a US Airways plane, carrying a total of 155 people collided with a flock of birds and even without any engine running, it managed to land in the Hudson River, the river that borders the island of Manhattan in New York.That incident caught the world’s attention, mainly because no one died or was seriously injured.
There was no doubt about the key role of pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who would be played by Tom Hanks in the movie.Any filmmaker certainly would focus on the accident itself, and the pilot experienced skill that made the risky landing in the water, in one of the most densely populated areas of the planet.
But the director Clint Eastwood has taken a different approach, starting from the time after the event, when a rigorous inquiry commission investigated the accident, putting in doubt whether the pilot’s decision had been the right one, since occasioned the loss of the aircraft.
The film is exceptionally built, because even knowing the event, the viewer does identify with the protagonists and anger with the “bad guys”, the inquiry committee, the manufacturer of the aircraft and insurance company.
The story is shown by Sully’s optic, which along with the co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), lives a strange pop-star routine, with appearances on TV and acclamations of the public, while struggling to prove his innocence in the investigation committee.After all, the script was based on the book of Sully own memories, already available in Brazil, with the same title of the film.
It is remarkable the physical resemblance of the main actors with real characters, as can be seen in a post-credits scene in a commemorative meeting of the survivors of the accident. And it was the right choice casting Tom Hanks to represent Sully, as the actor, with his eternal good boy look, fit like a glove in the personification of the experienced pilot.
Once again it is clear the geniality of Clint Eastwood, who managed to turn a five-minute event in a film full of emotion, showing the human side of the accident without slipping into sentimentality or undue glorification.Furthermore, he showed how the human factor is important in this world increasingly dehumanized.
In fact, the human factor is a common point between the accident shown in the movie and the one that killed the Chapecoense team. While in the case of New York it was shown that humans were more important than machines, in Chapecoense case was the corruption and greed of men who caused the crash, forcing a suicide flight without sufficient fuel to arrive safely.
“Sully” is a film well done with the necessary elements to hold viewer’s attention and create identification with the characters, showing the stunning details of a real event. Moreover, the film suggests how terrible the tragedy could have been if the plane had hit any place in the city, in a disaster that would be worse then 9/11.
Original title: “Sully”