Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

One of my all time favorites.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This movie has some value to introduce viewers to who Amelia Earhart and GP Putman were and how they marketed Amelia like laundry soap to a public hungry for a hero during the depression. It also accurately portrayed Amelia as a less then stellar pilot - absolutely brave but not technically proficient, and lackadaisical about radio communications (without which she will not find the speck of land in the Pacific where she needs to land). Where it falls apart is the myths portrayed as facts in the movie. The spying on the Japanese islands theme has been discredited for years - not only is there a lack of evidence, the simple fact is that the only time Amelia Earhart was flying over Japanese controlled islands would have been during the flight from New Guinea to Howland Island when it would have been dark, she would have been too high to really see anything, and she was quite busy flying the plane under a very tight fuel management protocol and not looking out the window.Her navigator Fred Noonan could have sued the makers of this movie for slander if he was still around. Noonan pioneered long distance aerial navigation over the Pacific Ocean working for Pan Am on the famous China Clippers, and was widely recognized as the best in the business. His drinking is a widely known story, that only has one written reference - a comment by a journalist in a private letter to a friend. Noonan learned his skills as a merchant seaman and as most sailors probably went on a bender during some shore leaves, but was known to be a consummate professional when working.The movie shows Earhart and Noonan as constantly bickering during the flight - by all accounts (including Earhart's own press releases filed during the flight and newsreels shot during the flight) they got along very well. Add to all of this are the little details like their constantly grimy appearance during the flight (they were basically flying an airliner and the actual newsreel shows them emerging from the plane clean and dapper at Lae) a completely made up engine failure during the round the world flight, and images of them camping by the plane in remote airstrips (they stayed in the best hotels available on each of their stops) and you have a tragic story made far more tragic by all of the inaccuracies.

It would be impossible to make a biographical film of Ms. Earhart then or now without some included elements of myth. Noting them would be not so much a criticism as an observation.Re: comments about her pilot skill shortcomings, I think the issue was well served by the takeoff accident depiction. I agree that her busy schedule seemed to have precluded enough up to date stick time.The cinematography was above the made for TV standard throughout. The aerial shot of the lonely taxi and lineup to the last takeoff was one of the most visually evocative scenes in the history of film.It will be interesting to compare this modest effort to the impending release. Diane Keaton vs Hilary Swank, no comment from me. Rutger Hauer Vs Christopher Eccleston. Bruce Dern vs Richard Gere will be interesting. I like them both but would lean towards Dern, all else being equal. But it won't be. The tale will be told in the battle of the writers. Given the tone and level of the work today, I will bet on this film. The trailer makes the new version seem a bit florid, but it is just a trailer.

I like flying movies, but being a professional pilot, I have found misleading info about Earhart, that was probably more the fault of her sponsors than herself However, she did not shy from the limelight, and was an ardent feminist.This made for TV film appears to be a little short on facts and long on the myths that have made Earhart the most famous of female pilots. This mythology is not fair to other aviators,male and female, who made more contributions to aviation as a commercial venture and towards safety.This film thus centers on the myth, rather than stick to the facts. Earharts aviation contributions are substantial, however, she seemed to have more than her share of accidents, some of which indicate a basic failure of pilot judgment. Engines can fail, weather is unpredictable, gas may be exhausted before landing, but a pilot's judgment must be constant to meet the various challenges.The real Earhart apparently had so many irons in the fire, her skills as a pilot became questionable. One of a pilot's requirements is recent experience. Making historical flights in questionable aircraft could not be a part-time job. In a recent biography of Earhart, none of her warts which would show her humanity rather than the public image which we already know. This film does nothing for me but watching aircraft fly.

The film is interesting, with a good Dern and a good Hauer, but Keaton is badly miscast. Her hectic, slightly quirky style doesn't fit the role of this woman at all. And I can't imagine Keaton riding a bicycle without help, let alone flying an airplane; she looks as out of place in that cockpit as Ernest Borgnine in a bedroom putting ice-cubes on Kim Basinger's stomach. It was obvious that the PC 90s would add a feminist touch to this woman, whether she really was a hard bitch or not. They just forgot to mention the fact that she dumped her husband (and kids, I think) and some other less heroic details. The way they make Earhart scream and bitch all the time seems a little exaggerated, but there is no question that this must have been a woman with the ego of a Warren Beatty. The aerial shots are nice.