- I have two main faults with this movie: first, the narration, and second, the narrative structure.
I’ve whined before about unnecessary narration. I do not like voice overs that do not add to the story. This is one of those movies. We hear snippets of Earhart lushly describing the temptation of flight and assuming these snippets are coming from her written accounts of her voyages, I can understand why they’re laced with an amateur poet’s sensuousness. I have a well known difficulty with reading fiction meant for adults because so many writers get too caught up in crafting artful little sentences to dazzle their readers with that they forget to tell their goddamned story with any sense of urgency or interest. The narration had that same grating feeling to me, where I wanted to sock voiceover!Earhart in the mouth. [This should also explain my rather ineloquent writing style.]
Second, the back and forth between the transcontinental flight and the “how she got to that point” career building sequences was a little annoying. Perhaps it’s not the structure itself that I dislike, as I’m sure I’ve enjoyed it in other films before, it’s just that here there was nothing for Earhart or her trusty celestial navigator to do in the scenes where they’re just soaring through the clouds except squint into the sun. A straight chronological narrative might have worked better. Don’t over think this, writers!
- I thought Hilary Swank was excellent at playing Earhart with a really strong sense of self and autonomy without it coming across as the flat kind of fiesty you often get with female characters who won’t take no for an answer. I think more than anything, more than wanting to achieve intense publicity or to dominate in a man’s world, this movie does a great job of depicting a woman who does everything she does because it’s what she wants. This isn’t about intense ambition and making it to the top, it’s about a woman who goes after she wants in order to stay true to herself and to ultimately satisfy a passion. I’d call that a Hallmark sentiment if only Hallmark actually made movies about soft, strong, multifacted women. “Hallmark” seems to suggest that this kind of thing is so commonplace that it becomes trite and saccharine; I would love for women to be depicted like this on film so often that this actually becomes a problem.
- Ewan McGregor, I think it’s over between us. Here’s a box of all the stuff you left at my house. I’m keeping the mix tapes, though, and this VHS copy of 100 Great Goals.
- Euch, Richard Gere. I felt like his gross, Svengali-like pursuit of creating a profitable product out of the woman he apparently loved was a little violating and dirty. One wonders why, if this guy was really like that and Earhart is as headstrong as she is depicted, how they could have gotten together. That said, I liked the rather matter-of-fact way they dealt with their marriage, starting with their (hilarious) vows setting the tone for pretty much everything else. Putnam kind of turned into a wibbling blob of jelly when Earhart and Vidal were having their affair, though; he’s like that one half of a friends-with-benefits couple who inevitably falls in love, leaving the other person to say “Um, I told you from the start that I wasn’t going to stop sleeping with other people.”
- Fashion, as it appears in the movie version of history, was so much classier way back when. LOVED the dress Earhart was wearing in the elevator make out scene.
- It’s rather depressing that kids today no longer have heroes who are people with genuine accomplishments, like politicians or scientists or explorers. (Obama might change that for a lot of kids, of course.) There are several moments like the ones in A League of Their Own where there is some sort of display of praise to honour Earhart and little girls run up to her, inspired and wanting to meet this woman who has accomplished such amazing things. I’m sorry if people think it’s cheesy for little girls to feel empowered in their choices by the successful women they encounter.
- Speaking of which, it occurred to me that the second most famous aviatrix after Amelia Earhart is probably Pussy Galore, and naturally that depressed the hell out of me for all the obvious reasons.
- Also, I increasingly try not to used the feminized version of words when the “male” version will do (e.g. “actor” instead of “actress” for women who act), but “aviatrix” is too awesome a word not to use — far superior to “aviator”!
- I think I just really like old school pilots. The Aviator is definitely in my Top Ten movies of all time.
- Hey, old couple beside me: shut the hell up. For serious. Ugh.
- I really didn’t think this was as terrible as everyone seems to be thinking it is. I’m sure this is in part because of the soul-crushing misogyny I’ve encountered around the male-dominated movie blogosphere this year, so any movie that doesn’t scorn my gender for simply existing is a welcome one.
- Speaking of which, are they actually making more movies about awesome women or has my intense and visceral reaction to internet misogyny compelled me to seek out movies like this where I might not have before? Either way, I’m glad to see them.
Amelia
[Insert bad pun about the movie soaring or crashing or both here.]
IMDB Plot Synopsis A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world.
i haven’t seen the movie, but i agree w/ you on the male movie blogger misogyny thing. it seems that the geekier a blog is, the more it hates women (and anyone who isn’t a pasty fat slob).