Amelia Earhart - Der letzte Flug

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.

This film is just a recycling of the mountain of myth that has surrounded Amelia Earhart's disappearance: she was on a spying mission (although she didn't know it, her husband was approached to pump her for information about Japanese activity in the Pacific); she and her navigator Fred Noonan disliked each other; Noonan was an unreliable alcoholic; she was panicky and low on fuel towards the end of the flight and ended it by deliberately ditching her aircraft.

Sorry, dear viewer. There is no evidence at all that Earhart was a spy, or that the Japanese were up to no good in the South Pacific four years before WWII. She and Noonan liked and respected each other. Noonan was probably the foremost aerial navigator in the world at that time (he pioneered Pan-Am's China Clipper route across the Pacific) and a consummate professional. The last messages heard from the aircraft indicate that Earhart was still in control of herself, following her contingency plan. At this time she would have had enough fuel for another four hours flying time.

I'm afraid this film is a conspiracy-theorist's fantasy extravaganza.

This movie is a real insult to a brave woman. It is just lies and slander all the way through. I cannot believe it was even made it is so base and false. Amelia was a true heroine and a pioneer who paved the way for other woman pilots. I cannot believe that ridiculous story that she was spying for the government! Amelia and Fred were involved in an aircraft accident, it is that simple. There is a man named Elgin Long who has spent years researching the case and I think he found the answer. Due to a combination of empty fuel tanks, faulty navigation and exhaustion, Amelia's plane went down in the sea about a hundred miles from tiny Howland Island. The impact alone probably killed them both, even if it hadn't the plane would have sunk like a rock within minutes.

This movie was decent for a TV Movie, it was well directed and fairly well casted (Although the casting of Dern as Putnam could have been better), and handled the era quite nicely.

I liked how it explored the angle of Amelia gathering information about Japanese movements - if you consider the condition the country was in at the time of the real Earhart flight, you'd understand that it very well could not be a myth. It included Noonans alcohol problem (A little known, yet on the record fact) as well as Amelias stubbornness to carry extra equipment.

One thing I did not like about this movie is the "afterwards" angle. It ended with them raising their altitude in some final acceptance scene into the sunset - Amelia was stubborn, she wouldn't have accepted the fact that she may very well be DEAD in an hour that easily.

Also, I think it would have been prudent to tell the viewers that not only would a Lockeed C-35 Electra (The plane she was flying) float with empty fuel tanks, but also that there were several islands in the vicinity of Amelias last transmissions... the (real) main theory is that she crashed on one of these islands and was later executed by pacific Japanese troops... the plane was then burned (Almost confirmed by pieces of a C-35 found on one of the islands) Overall it was an amusing movie. I thought it was overacted in some parts, and the drama was stereotypical and drawn out, but it was worth the two hours to watch it.

This movie despite its shortcomings got me started researching the life of Fred Noonan nearly ten years ago. Rutger Hauer looks nothing like Fred who was tall and thin yet the movie although stereotyped is fairly accurate. It is true that Fred did indeed have a drinking problem for which he was fired but evidence shows that much of this was due to the immense strain he was under rather than a wilful character defect.It could be said that he was the worlds first commercial aerial navigator. He was nothing short of brilliant. He is shown as a likable character and this was so in real life. The video cover could have done without the image of him in a grimy shirt,cigarette in mouth, poring over a chart with a bottle of booze. Untrue. He was sartorial dresser who worried about the cleanliness of his clothes and the cigarette ash would have burned a hole in his precious chart.

One scene shows him laying back in the plane reading a magazine. For years I thought 'No way!' until recently I found out that he is reputed to have done just that in the Clipper planes which he navigated on their pioneering flights across the Pacific.Only it was thrillers rather than holiday brochures! This movie is well worth seeing. Its not brilliant art but is more factual than much of the stuff that is written about and discussed in Earhart circles. For those into the disappearance, Elgen Long's book, is in my opinion the best and most informative. But there IS also considerable 'evidence' for the theory that they may have been captured by the Japanese. In addition its not impossible that they might have perished on Niku.

Jackie Ferrari