A better recent Eastwood, but still (typically) flawed.

Rating: 7/10 (22 February 2017)

Eastwood's more recent films have often left me wondering if he has been approaching, or even reached, the logical end of what has been a lengthy career. I have often considered him one of my favorite directors. While his films are sometimes and somewhat imperfect, perhaps self-indulgent, they are usually interesting, and possess a particularly unique quality.
I can recall this film being criticised for it's re-showing the last few minutes of the flight. In another film this might provide greater insight, or reveal a new dimension to the event, perhaps a twist of some sort. In Sully this appears to both serve as a departure from the rather pedestrian events before and after the landing, keeping the viewer interested, and also to reinforce that this was an event that was experienced by many New Yorkers. Perhaps reinforcing to Americans that this was a significant national event. Eastwood is certainly no stranger to infecting his films with his personal ideologies, and I suspect this film yet another example of the director's politics at work. This was most apparent in the decision to depart in corny and dramatic fashion from the truth of events following the event.
Such significant distortions in a film pretending to be factual and biographic should come as no surprise to viewers familiar with the liberties taken in Eastwood's other biopics, particularly American Sniper. I can only attribute these unnecessary deviations from an honest portrayal of events and characters to the favorite tricks of a beguiling, but sometimes clumsy storyteller/myth-maker, if not the direct effect of a director whose political axe requires grinding with each and every film. Be that grievance one with big government, or the crippled that can't access his restaurant, or his love affair with war heroes that are confirmed notorious bullshitters with the moral fiber a gnat.
Like most of Eastwood's films this is a quality product, it is dry, but well filmed, and remains engaging. It is unfortunate that while his films appear so convincingly authoritative, and grounded within the real, they are persistently undermined by their creator's decision to be creative or dishonest regarding the characters and narrative.
7/10