Tom Hanks portrays the man behind the hero in ‘Sully’
Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood, two of Hollywood’s biggest legends, are teaming up to tell the extraordinary story of American Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in Sully.
On January 15, 2009 US Airways Flight 1549 lost both of its engines, and Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was forced to make a high-risk emergency landing that saved the lives of 155 passengers and crew, and was called as the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’. This is the story of every moment that lead up to that climatic event, and the fallout that followed Sully as he was hailed as hero after the landing.
Eastwood’s decision to direct a film on the life of Sullenberger is interesting, and parallels the work he did in 2014’s American Sniper. Both film projects were designed to look at the inner workings of a modern heroic man, and the decisions and choices that made them who they were.
Eastwood’s pedigree and talent as a director always lands him the best talent in the business, and it doesn’t get any better than two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks. Hanks’s Sully appears to wrestle with the fallout of instant heroism and the fame the followed, as well as having to fend off the accusations that he took unprecedented risks in landing the flight.
Sully will definitely be on the mind of the Academy during the lead up to Oscar season next year, and this thought-provoking film should strike a chord with audiences when it released on September 8 in New Zealand and Australia and on September 9 in the US and UK.