Watched "Sully" And Was Surprised...

Even before the movie came out, I--like many others--was intrigued by the story of US Airlines Flight 1549 and Captain Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger. I mean, what's not to like about the story? It's got an everyday man who becomes a hero by doing the job he was trained to do. It's about courage, determination, and the best part, no one died as a result of a passenger jet landing on the Hudson River.

Then we heard they were making a movie about the incident. And I thought, why?

I don't think I was the only one who thought this either.

I'm all for a good story, but what I knew about the event (which, admittedly, wasn't much...), didn't seem to be enough to fill an entire movie. And since I personally don't see movies in the theater very often, we decided to give this one a shot after it had been out on DVD for a while.

Turns out, there was enough there to fill an entire movie, or, perhaps it's better to say, the writers, actors, and Clint Eastwood and all involved created an engaging enough story that kept me more than interested the entire time.

I haven't done the research to see whether or not the National Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB rode the pilot's butts as hard as they showed they did in the movie. Maybe they did--maybe it's that intense. I would have thought they'd cut the pilots some slack considering everyone lived. Like I said, I have no knowledge of this. It made for good drama in the story, but it seemed a bit Hollywood for me.

What I did enjoy was getting to know better how such an event affects the people involved, not just the passengers, but the air traffic control employees, the rescue teams, the pilots. I thought about one scene especially, when they showed Sully worrying about everyone making it out alive. In the chaos there was no way to know. Seeing the relief on the pilot's face was one of the best parts of the movie for me. I imagine to a pilot, those people on his/her plane are the most important thing to them, or should be. We put a lot of faith and trust into those professionals. It was nice to see that aspect in the film.

After watching the show, I was glad I saw it. I was glad it was made. I was glad his story was told. Yes, the real event that happened was like a delicious dinner, satisfying, incredible. The film was the perfect dessert.