THE REAL CAPTAIN MARVEL
Tom Hanks is in total control as the hero pilot who crash-landed a plane on the icy Hudson waters
‘The final scenes are wonderfully tense, no mean achievement when we all think we know how it ends’
For all the very worst reasons, the sight of a passenger jet flying abnormally low over the skyscrapers of New York has become one of the most iconic images of modern times. And, controversially, it’s an image that director Clint Eastwood uses repeatedly and provocatively in his new film. Has the veteran film-maker – now 86 – strayed into what, for him, would be the unfamiliar territory of tastelessness?
After all, the subject of his film is meant to be the emergency landing that pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger made on the River Hudson in 2009 when his plane, carrying 155 passengers and crew, suffered engine failure after running into a flock of birds. What could the events of 9/11 possibly have to do with it?
Well, quite a lot, Eastwood would argue. And while I initially had my doubts, he eventually won me over. For if 9/11 was the day when everything went wrong in New York, this – albeit on a smaller scale – is the day when everything goes right. It’s the stark, life-affirming contrast that gives this film its unexpected emotional power. As someone eventually says: ‘It’s been a while since New York had news this good… especially with a plane in it.’
Without that emotional impact, Eastwood would certainly have had a struggle on his hands because there’s not a lot of basic material to work with here. Yes, the landing was astonishing, and it does indeed seem like a miracle that everyone survived, but the fact is, from bird-strike to ditching lasted only 208 seconds. You try carving a feature film out of that.
So it’s no surprise to find Eastwood using every trick in the film-maker’s book. Our first piece of 9/11-style imagery comes courtesy of one of the nightmares that haunt Sullenberger immediately after the event. Then there are the vivid daydreams and the flashbacks, fleshing out Sully’s hitherto largely incident-free, 40-year flying career. Throw in a resourceful ferry captain and a team of gung-ho emergency divers and we just about have a proper feature film on our hands.
Where some have suggested they have gone too far, however, is in ratcheting up the dramatic tension in the days and weeks after the emergency landing, as the inquiry into what happened got under way. For while New York instantly proclaims Sully (Tom Hanks) and co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) as heroes, the men and women of the National Transportation Safety Board are portrayed
– to a properly demeaning degree – as cynics and doubters.
Was ditching in the Hudson really the only option available to Sully? Couldn’t he have successfully returned to La Guardia or made an emergency landing at a nearby New Jersey airport?
Sully is initially certain he could not, but then the doubts set in. Might he have made a mistake after all?
I’m not equipped to say how accurate all this is but there’s no doubt, dramatically, that it works. The final scenes at the inquiry are wonderfully tense, which is no mean achievement when we all think we know how this story ends.
Hanks is spot-on as this modest, all-American hero who, like so many before him, seems ill-equipped for the adulation and media attention that engulf him. Sully is a dry, meticulous man not over-blessed with a sense of humour but, of course, he loves his wife (Laura Linney) and children. Eckhart has slightly more fun as his co-pilot and is even allowed to make a joke or two. ‘Would you have done anything differently?’ asks one of the investigators of the landing, which happened in the depths of January and left the survivors with a real risk of freezing to death in the Hudson. ‘Yes,’ replies Skiles deadpan, ‘I’d have done it in July.’ Visual effects are key to a film like this, and while they’re excellent for most of the film – which was shot on IMAX cameras and is best seen in that format – they are no more than good-ish when it comes to those key few seconds when plane meets icy water. But I found that didn’t matter, and while I’m sure Eastwood’s film will have a particularly powerful impact on US audiences, it’s certainly not going to be wasted over here. For if something does go wrong one day when we’re in a plane, this is what we all hope will happen next. And, besides, we all love a proper, real-life hero, don’t we?