ViewGuide

Created Sep 17, 2016 05:45PM PST • Edited Jan 02, 2017 12:50AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Tom Hanks does Chesley Sullenberger proud as Sully in Sully, an ideal combo of star and subject.
   Hanks is, of course, the Baby Boomer’s Jimmy Stewart, portrayer of self-effacing American heroes.

   Clint Eastwood’s capable eye, sense and music bring the Miracle on the Hudson to life. Eastwood maintains his standard of directorial greatness with Sully, a level he’s mostly maintained for almost 40 pictures now.

   Sully’s right-stuff heroism was the best story to play out in real life for the past decade at least. Or so it seems from seven years removed. It’s all very American: capable and humble, independent and decent.

   Sully brings to mind Flight, which drew from the Miracle on the Hudson as one of its three antecedents. Sully, Clint and Tom’s movie is better because it’s real, so doesn’t need to be sordid to attract attention.

   It also recalls Apollo 13, given Tom Hanks portraying a real-life American pilot who takes heroic action.

   Bottom Line

   Want a lift? Sully’s forced water landing delivers one better than even Hollywood can imagine.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Tom Hanks adds Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to a list that includes Walt Disney, Captain Phillips, Charlie Wilson & Jim Lovell: the real American icons he’s essayed on the big screen. Sully is a quintessential Hanks Type: capable and humble, independent and decent.

   • Aaron Eckhart crisply essays Co-Captain Jeff Skiles.
   • Laura Linney easily handles the homefront love and stress of Lorraine Sullenberger. Notably, Linney & Hanks interact only by phone, never appearing on screen together.
   • Anna Gunn smugly plays a federal bureaucrat.
   • Jamey Sheridan lends his handsome visage as a senior federal bureaucrat.
   • Katie Couric plays herself, a role she’s got down to a science.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    The film spends most of its time on the post-event NTSB investigation, when Sully’s career hung in the balance. This proves interesting, albeit not nearly as riveting as the water landing itself.

    Clint delivers the time in the sky – 208 seconds – outstandingly well, including an alternate reality where Sully ends up crashing into midtown Manhattan. Them’s high stakes, well delivered on the big screen.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

    Clint Eastwood drains visual color from his highly dramatic films better than any other director. It focuses attention on the people involved in the drama. He doesn’t go full sepia with Sully, as he did in Changeling, more like he did in American Sniper or J. Edgar.

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.4

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.1

    Remarkably real, albeit some dramatic aggrandizement has been applied.

    History-vs-Hollywood on Sully

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.3

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0