7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
On January 15, 2009, the world witnessed the "Miracle on the Hudson" when Captain "Sully" Sullenberger glided his disabled plane onto the frigid waters of the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, a federal investigation questioned his actions and threatened his career.
Starring: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Mike O'Malley, Anna GunnBiography | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English DD=audio descriptive
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
On January 15, 2009, a US Airways flight collided with a flock of Canadian geese shortly after
takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport. Both engines were destroyed, and the plane's
veteran pilot, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, rapidly assessed that he lacked sufficient
altitude and speed to reach any of the nearby airports. With no other option, Sullenberger glided
the massive Airbus A320 onto the surface of the Hudson River, the first-ever successful water
landing of a jet airliner. All 155 passengers and crew survived, with only minor injuries.
Sullenberger was promptly hailed as a hero, and the press dubbed his accomplishment "the
Miracle on the Hudson".
Sully is billed as the "untold" story of what happened after that miracle, as investigators from the
National Transportation Safety Board (or "NTSB") second-guessed the actions of Sullenberger
and his co-pilot, First Officer Jeff Skiles, and computer simulations indicated that the damaged
plane could have returned safely to LaGuardia. While Sully was being lionized by the press and
public, the regulatory investigations threatened to end his thirty-year career as a commercial
aviator.
Clint Eastwood's account of these events uses the NTSB investigation as a narrative frame, but
the film's real subject is the ambiguity of heroism. As the script by Todd Komarnicki (Perfect Stranger) repeatedly emphasizes, Sully's remarkable feat occurred at a moment when the country
needed a hero as an antidote to war, recession and a future that looked increasingly dark and
uncertain. But the man who finds himself abruptly thrust into this role keeps insisting that he's
not a hero; he was simply doing his job. Like Chris Kyle in Eastwood's American Sniper, Sully must cope with private trauma while simultaneously bearing the burden of becoming a legend.
Sully was shot by Tom Stern, Eastwood's regular cinematographer since Blood Work, on the Arri
Alexa 65, which Arri is calling an IMAX camera. Post-production was completed on a digital
intermediate at 4K, which no doubt accounts for the stunning clarity on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. The detail on closeups of faces is almost
painfully real, and the minutia of the
cockpit controls are plainly visible. The exceptional resolution gives the CG-enhanced re-creation of the wounded aircraft's descent and landing a sense
of hyper-realism, which continues
as the passengers flee the sinking plane onto the wings to await rescue.
Although a number of scenes are set at night, much of Sully plays out in bright daylight under a
steel-gray winter sky or in well-lit neutral interiors such as airport corridors, hotel suites and
conference rooms. The cool palette and clean, almost sterile production design provide a
counterpoint to the chaotic events of Flight 1549, as well as to the scrum of reporters who
routinely besiege Sully and his family. In the extended public hearing sequence, the numerous
attendees are readily visible and easily distinguishable from one another in the crowd. Several brief flashbacks
to Sully's initial training on a crop dusting plane and his experience as an Air Force fighter pilot
are given a warm and nostalgic glow, in contrast to the chill of the present-day sequences. I saw
Sully theatrically, and the Blu-ray presentation retains all of the visual impact of the theatrical
presentation.
Warner's theatrical group has fallen back into bad old habits of wasting much of the available
space on a Blu-ray disc (here, about 10 GB), while holding the average bitrate in the mid-twenties (specifically, 24.57 Mbps). Nevertheless, the encode
is capable, and the image is
unmarred by artifacts or distortion.
As with the photography, realism is the hallmark of Sully's Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Even
before anything has appeared beyond the abbreviated opening titles, the viewing room has come
alive with the sounds of Flight 1549 taking off, followed by the engines failing and the rotors
clattering to a stop (the latter will be repeated several times during the course of the film). All of
the scenes from January 15, 2009, play out in a meticulously sculpted sonic landscape replicating
the realistic environments from the boarding jetway at LaGuardia to the plane's passenger cabin,
cockpit and exterior—and the sounds shift positions with precision as the camera's perspective
changes. Anyone who has ever flown a commercial flight will recognize the accuracy of the
sound design up to the moment of the bird strike. The remainder of the experience is composed
of sounds that most of us have never heard (and hope never to hear), but the impression of
realism persists, with the engines sputtering to a stop, the plane hitting the water and the fusilage
straining and groaning as the aircraft floods and sinks.
The soundtrack thoroughly exploits Dolby Atmos' ability to position specific sounds at precise points within the
listening environment, whether it's the slam of overhead storage bin doors being closed, the
waters of the Hudson cascading over the nose of the plane as it hits the river's surface or the
accusations of the NTSB investigators echoing in Sully's memory while he jogs. Helicopters,
ferry boats and emergency vehicles are all convincingly rendered. Quieter scenes such as the
NTSB proceedings and private conversations between Sully and Lorrie are accompanied by
subtle environmental cues.
The track's dynamic range is broad, and the bass extension is especially powerful during the
plane's taxi and takeoff, when the engines are performing normally. Dialogue is clearly rendered,
although it is sometimes submerged in the cacophony of mechanized harmoics (which, I suspect,
is a deliberate choice by the sound designers). The sparely used score is by Christian Jacob and
the Tierney Sutton Band, with a main theme composed by Eastwood.
Among other things, Sully is a reminder that expertise really does count, especially in a crisis.
Sully's ability to successfully achieve a landing previously thought to be impossible depended on
his intimate knowledge of the A320, his Air Force training, his work as a crash investigator and
forty years of piloting craft of numerous sorts. Faced with a scenario for which there was no
precedent or established procedure, he relied on everything he knew to improvise a solution that
averted what could easily have been one of the worst disasters in aviation history. Eastwood has
captured both the uniqueness of Sully's accomplishment and the toll that it took on him
personally. Warner's Blu-ray presentation is first-rate and highly recommended.
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