Just Flying Around

By Jeremiah Wainwright

Thanks to Cox Cable’s On-Demand movie service, I finally got to see “Amelia” with Hillary Swank and Richard Gere.

If it ever showed up in a movie theater, I never heard about it.

First, let me say that I’m one of those perfectionists who believe that if you’re going to make a movie about a real person and real events, then by golly, you should get your facts straight. On the other hand, I’m not one of those fanatics who reads everything ever written about the late Miss Earhart, but I’ve read enough to know when the producers either didn’t care, or didn’t bother, to get their facts straight.

For example, when Miss Earhart crashed on takeoff from Hawaii on her first attempt to fly around the world in a Purdue-owned Lockheed Model 10 Electra, there were four people on board, not just two as in the movie (the other two besides she and Fred Noonan were Harry Manning, another navigator, and Hollywood stunt pilot Paul Mantz). The ship they called the USS Itasca when she disappeared July 2, 1937 was actually a Coast Guard cutter, the USCG Itasca.

And NEVER does a Third Class Petty Officer salute a Second Class Petty Officer, and never inside, and never with your cover off. And in 1937, they wore their “crows” on the right sleeve, not the left.

Then there was Gore Vidal’s father, who started out with a Scottish accent, ended up with a British one but was really born in North Dakota. Go figure.

Okay, it’s just a movie but I kept finding so many faults here and there that I began to wonder just what was the purpose of this film. Swank seemed to be trying to emulate the stilted speech of Earhart from old newsreels and wasn’t pulling it off. But she got lots of close-ups.

Then I watched the credits and saw that Swank was the Executive Producer, which means the person who financed the film. Aha.

Of course, Earhart’s life was remarkable and she freely admitted that she hadn’t earned the fame and glory she got for merely sitting in the back of a plane that flew across the Atlantic. So, she went out to prove that women could do anything men could do.

But, as such things happen, she wasn’t considered that great a pilot in those days when it was really tough to fly those old birds with no hydraulic controls, primitive navigation and unreliable engines. Nevertheless, she set lots of records and deserved a lot better than what they gave her in this movie.

If she made one huge mistake, it’s the one everyone knows about. Trying to find an island 6,500 ft. long, 1,600 ft. wide, 10 feet above sea level and 2,556 miles away without even a sextant (according to the movie, anyway) and over a cloud-shrouded ocean; it would have been near impossible.

The movie tries to imply that it was somehow Noonan’s fault because he’d been known to have a few here and there. But read the actual history of the flight and that’s not even mentioned.

What is is the fact that their radio procedures were confused , their equipment was substandard, she didn’t apparently know how to use the DF receiver There was some belief that the radio antenna had been knocked off either taxiing or on takeoff.

If I had to grade this movie for a film class, I’d give it an “A” for the flying scenes, a “C” for the acting, and a “D” for accuracy.

However, I loved the poster.