Flawed, but inspiring nonetheless

Rating: 7/10 (7 February 2017)

Whether or not Captin Sullenberger was genuinely an American hero has been a much discussed topic ever since January 15, 2009. Some say what we did was incredible and certainly heroic, others will argue that he was simply doing his job (by the sounds of it he may even argue for the latter himself). Regardless of where you stand, no one could argue that he did his job fantastically well that day.
'Sully' is actually a film I can relate to on a personal level. I was a flight attendant for a couple of years and during my time we had a flight that was showing signals of a possible internal fire. We had to return to the nearest airport and I (as the sole flight attendant on board) had to evacuate 50 passengers mid-runway. I can confirm that that is a harrowing experience that sticks with you for a long time afterwards. What these people did, both the pilots and flight attendants, will never be easy for them to forget.
The film itself isn't perfect. The biggest flaw it has it that structurally it's a bit of a mess. A 3 minute event doesn't exactly lend itself to a film. The scenes of the actual crash are brilliant. They're captivating to watch and are filmed brilliantly. It's the filler that doesn't really sit that well. The board room scenes feel overacted and unnecessarily harsh. They are purely that way to add some conflict to the story. It was needed, but it feels far from natural.
'Sully' is a film that could have been a complete mess without a competent director. Luckily, Clint Eastwood was up the task. I imagine his job was more a case of paving over the cracks in the script than anything else. He did his job effectively though and the end result is a good, if somewhat forgettable, tribute to some people who did their job fantastically on that particular day.