Sully -- a slightly ESOTERIC review

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2016)

First, the film itself:
* technically perfect. What Clint Eastwood shares with Ron Howard is that they are both actors-turned-directors who consistently make technically perfect films. (Howard, on the other hand, was never voted "sexiest man alive" in his acting career. Just a trivia point...)
* what they also share is a penchant for taking larger-than-life people and literally making them much-larger-than-life on the big screen. After this, you will feel like you have known Sully as long as his family.
* in the presence of such directorial talent, it is easy to overlook the casting choices. In this case, I suggest that Hanks may not get the credit he is due. This may be the best performance of his career. He sets a deer-in-the-headlights tone early; and by mid-movie, the viewer starts to feel as paranoid as his character. Amazing performance.
* recommended for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that it is one of the best films of the year.
And now the esoteric part of the review:
* have a friend, a university professor, who once explained to me, at some length, that the #1 most "unnatural" event in life is an MRI scan. You are placed immobile in a life-size cassette and then inserted into an appliance that bombards you with EM waves while deafening you with noise unlike you have ever heard before. Like a baby, you are completely dependent on outside help, and, if the machine failed, it is far from certain you could escape on your own. Yet this is a part of our culture, and the common wisdom is we should be grateful the tech exists in the first place.
* the second most un-natural event in our culture? Air travel, he said. (You can do the comparisons on your own.)
* the kicker is that my friend ended his dissertation by mentioning there are "standing" MRIs which do the same job and are more comfortable but expensive, so many hospitals and clinics avoid them. We are, after all, a society that is all about money.
* watching the people leave the plane in the film I remembered my friend's strong views. A century ago, air travel was a very different experience. If you think about it, as is the case with the MRI, it is really all about the money.