Flying by the Seat of Your Pants

I had a book once called ‘How To Be A Man’ that was a tongue in cheek instruction guide to teaching you everything you needed to know about how to survive in a modern world. It included a section on how to land a jumbo jet if you ever caught yourself in the plot line of ‘Airplane’ and all the pilots were incapacitated.

Basically, the crux of that section of the book was that all you had to do was radio the control tower of your destination airport, put it on autopilot, and then do nothing because it turns out that you don’t need to land a jumbo jet because they are quite capable of landing themselves.

In the modern world that we live in, with our political correctness, our safeguards, our mollycoddled expectations of luxury and our motivations of fame and financial success it is easy to forget that it is all built on the work of pioneers who were literally flying by the seat of their pants and that success merely meant not dying. Unfortunately, not everyone was successful in these exploits and Amelia, starring Hilary Swank, does a great job of connecting the viewer with the danger of being one of these pioneers and the fascination that the public had with flying as an endeavour in the 20’s and 30’s. It also does a great job of portraying the duality of living with both fear and excitement in the face of an adventure but I felt that this happened more as a side effect rather than through good storytelling.

The movie is entertaining and watchable. It runs at just under two hours and ticks all of the Hollywood boxes with the inclusion of Swank, Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor in the leading roles but there still seems to be something missing from it all.

Below: The physical resemblance between Earhart and Swank was enough without trying to copy her speech as well.



I know that Swank has all the acting credentials in the world but I just found her portrayal of Earhart annoying. She is obviously putting on a voice throughout the movie to give a more accurate portrayal of Earhart but it took more away from the entertainment than it added. Undoubtedly, Earhart as an individual was a strong woman, a pioneer of flying and an individual in a time when woman were not given the same opportunities as men. However, as a script the movie really does nothing to interpret her life, to add value to the story or do anything to create a hook to make her character compelling. The story shifts from one success to another without highlighting any drama, conflict or challenge and is guilty of glossing over the intriguing details for the sake of covering the whole story.

Below: One of the plotlines glossed over and not really explored was Earhart’s relationship with Gene Vidal played by Ewen McGregor.

However, it is really the actions of Earhart that create the drama as other characters suffer the consequences of her decisions. It is really because of this that Richard Gere is able to portray his character so well. He is able to transition seamlessly from portraying his character, George Putnam, as a charming, greedy and opportunist publisher to being a supportive, doting and vulnerable love interest and eventual husband.

Below: Richard Gere in the supporting role really outshines Swank with his portrayal of Earhart’s husband George Putnam.



Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. Some of the flying scenes are a bit amateurish as they look like model planes flying on strings through cottonwool clouds and I felt that seeing as it had such a compelling character to work with the scriptwriters really didn’t do the best job they could have. As with all biographical dramas there is no suspense in the ending (if you know the story) and felt that the absence of a link between the story and a greater theme left Amelia lacking what is required to call this movie anything more than watchable.

Jeremy White, December 2009