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Eight years ago, the world was deep in an economic crisis. In the United States, the country was hopeful for change as Barack Obama, the first black president, was about to take office. On January 15, 2009, five days before his inauguration, an incident occurred that many saw as an omen of good things to come. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, a veteran pilot and safety expert with US Airways, safely landed a plane in the Hudson River off Manhattan that had been disabled by geese flying into both engines on takeoff of his plane from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. All 155 souls on board were saved.

Immediately dubbed “the miracle on the Hudson,” Sully was heralded as a national hero, receiving many accolades and attending Obama’s inauguration. Shortly thereafter, however, he was the subject of a National Transportation Safety Board hearing that initially claimed that one of the engines was not completely damaged and that he could have safely returned to LaGuardia. Ultimately it was found that the water landing was his only choice. It was proven when the missing engine was found, examined, and determined to be inoperable.

Clint Eastwood’s box-office success, Sully, concentrates on the pilot’s preparation for the hearing, his testimony and in several flashbacks, the landing from different perspectives. Tom Hanks, the go-to guy for portraying middle-aged heroes for much of his career, portrays Sully with the same low-key modesty that he brought to his celebrated portrayals of the hijacked cargo captain in Captain Phillips and the American lawyer hired to defend a Soviet spy in Bridge of Spies. This time, though, the film that surrounds his character does not give him the dramatic heft that helped make those characters so memorable. Sully is portrayed as the strait-laced hero we know him to be from beginning to end. The film is a technical wonder when exploring the water landing. Dramatically, however, there isn’t much meat on the film’s bones. Aaron Eckhart as his co-pilot is the only other actor who has much of a part. Laura Linney, third-billed as Sully’s wife, is seen in a few telephone scenes in which she essentially says “I love you, get some sleep, I love you” over and over.

Sully is available on both Blu-ray and DVD as well as the new 4K Blu-ray.

Twilight Time has released limited editions of upgraded Blu-rays of two films about fictional heroes that have long been available on standard DVD.

Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby was the author’s third novel. Its serialization immediately followed that of Oliver Twist in April, 1938. Following the life of a contemporaneous young man from birth to marriage, the novel has been frequently performed on stage and television, but rarely on screen. There was a 1947 version directed by Alberto Cavalcanti (Dead of Night) that paled in comparison to David Lean’s films of Dickens’ Great Expectations the year before and Oliver Twist the year after.

The 2002 version from Douglas McGrath (Emma), on the other hand, was one of the best films of its year, updating the principal action to the midst of the Industrial Revolution in the 1850s. It was honored with a much-deserved ensemble award from the National Board of Review and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, but shamefully ignored by Oscar. Despite its designation as a comedy by the Globes, the film was not a comedy. It did have many comedic moments, which served mainly to alleviate the sense of despair that almost overwhelms the first half of the film.

Charlie Hunnam, in what is still his best big screen performance, plays the title character with great vulnerability, compassion, and, yes, passion. Jamie Bell at 16, just two years after Billy Elliott, delivers a performance of great sensitivity in a 360-degree turnaround as the put-upon crippled orphan, Smike, who thought he would die young and alone until he is rescued by Nicholas. Christopher Plummer, in one of his great late-career performances, plays Nicholas’ Scrooge-like Uncle Ralph with great flair. Tom Courtney has his best role since The Dresser as Plummer’s worldly-wise servant. Anne Hathaway, fresh from The Princess Diaries, shows early signs of her extraordinary versatility as the poor girl who captures Nicholas’ heart. Romola Garai (Atonement) also shows great promise as Nicholas’ sister, and Jim Broadbent, fresh from his Oscar for Iris, is merciless as the abusive head of the boys’ school to which Nichols is apprenticed. Given less to do, but welcome in their roles as well, are such laudable performers as Juliet Stevenson, Nathan Lane, Barry Humphries, Alan Cumming, Edward Fox, and Nicholas Rowe (Young Sherlock Holmes) as Garai’s eventual suitor.

The Twlight Time Blu-ray imports all the extras from the original MGM DVD including McGrath’s highly informative and entertaining commentary.

During World War II and in the years immediately following, religious-themed films were in great vogue. Three of them, The Song of Bernadette, Going My Way, and The Bells of St. Mary’s were box-office behemoths. The best of them in many ways, however, was the 1944 film of A.J. Cronin’s The Keys of the Kingdom, written for the screen by Nunnally Johnson (The Grapes of Wrath) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (A Letter to Three Wives), and directed by John M. Stahl (Leave Her to Heaven).

The film benefits mostly from Mankiewicz’s rewrite of Johnson’s original script which imbues not only the main characters, but many of the supporting characters, with a wealth of detail. The A-list cast adds immeasurably to the quality of the film as well. Gregory Peck, in only his second film, was catapulted to major stardom as the self-effacing missionary Scottish Catholic priest who spends most of his life in pre-Communist China. Thomas Mitchell, in a role patterned after Mankiewicz himself, is an unapologetic avowed atheist who is also Peck’s best friend. Rosa Stradner, Mankiewicz’s devout Catholic wife, is the haughty Mother Superior who is humbled by Peck’s humanity. Benson Fong, Charlie Chan‘s number 3 son, is Peck’s loyal 30-year servant. Edmund Gwenn is Peck’s original bishop and mentor. Vincent Price is his supercilious current bishop. Cedric Hardwicke is Price’s emissary and the film’s narrator. James Gleason and Anne Revere are Protestant missionaries and Peck’s quick friends. Roddy McDowall, Peggy Ann Garner, and Ruth Nelson are seen briefly as Peck’s character as a boy, his childhood sweetheart, and mother, respectively.

The Twilight Time Blu-ray includes all the extras that were contained in the original Fox DVD including commentary by film historian Kenneth Geist and producer Chris Mankiewicz, whose insights into his parents’ professional and personal lives are quite fascinating.

Rosa Stradner was a great star on the Vienna stage, Luise Rainer was her understudy. Stradner could never get over the fact that her understudy could come to Hollywood and quickly win back-to-back Oscars while she (Stradner) could barely find work. Her first Hollywood film was 1937’s The Last Gangster in which she played Edward G. Robinson’s wife and James Stewart’s mother. Her second was as Ralph Bellamy’s wife in 1939’s Blind Alley. The Keys of the Kingdom was her third and last. After that, her only role was in a guest-starring capacity on TV’s Suspense in 1953. Off-screen she was a larger-than-life character who was her husband’s inspiration for Bette Davis’ Margo Channing in his All About Eve. Years of mental illness and alcoholism took their toll and led to her suicide in 1958 when her two sons were still in their teens.

This week’s new releases include Snowden and The Dressmaker.

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