After I went to bed last night something popped in my head that made me question Eastwood’s motives for making the movie Sully. Did Eastwood want to throw darts at incompetent, uncaring big government as some sort of message for the American electorate? The movie makes much of the suspicion and hostility of the NTSB in investigating whether Sully didn’t have other safer and prescribed alternatives to landing in the North River.
My quick answer after doing a little googling is No. I don’t think so.
I base this on this story from the Denver Post about what the real Sully thought of Eastwood’s movie and the fact that this movie started life well before Donald Trump was imagined as anything other than a media celebrity with the tag line “Your fired” attached to his reputation.
According to the article Eastwood when considering the story wondered who the antagonist could be in a five minute miracle landing. Of course, as the screenplay made clear to Eastwood, it had to be the officials second guessing Sullivan’s hasty decision.
I don’t know if Eastwood ramped up their overbearing a notch or not but Sullivan explains that his heartbeat was still racing months after his landing and his appearace of calm, by the books, confidence. And Sullivan bears no ill will to the NTSB which according to the movie he had to set straight on the realities he faced in the cockpit. In fact, as the movie makes clear, he was in the process of transistioning after retirement to safety consultantcy – just what the National Transportation Safety Board is all about. Its their duty to unearth the facts after tragedies no matter the tender emotions of the victims.
All this does is confirm my first judgement of the movie. I give it four stars.
