Amelia

Amelia is a 2009 biographical film about the life of Amelia Earhart. The film was directed by Mira Nair and starred Hilary Swank as Earhart and Richard Gere as her husband, George Putnam. The cast list also included Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor. Most of the story is told in flashbacks before ending with Earhart's dissaperance . The film was written by Ronald Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan, using research from sources including East to the Dawn by Susan Butler and The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell. The film has garnered predominantly negative reviews.
==Plot==
On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) and her navigator, Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston), are on the last leg of an around-the-world flight. Moving in vignettes from her early years when Earhart was captivated by the sight of an aircraft flying overhead on the Kansas prairie where she grew up, her life over the preceding decade gradually unfolds. As a young woman, she is recruited by publishing tycoon and eventual husband, George Putnam (Richard Gere) to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean, albeit as a passenger. Taking command of the flight results in a success and she is thrust into the limelight as the most famous woman pilot of her time. Putnam helps Earhart write a book chronicling the flight, much like his earlier triumph with Charles Lindbergh's We. Earhart gradually falls in love with Putnam and they eventually marry, although she enacts a "cruel" pledge as her wedding contract.
Embarrassed that her fame was not earned, Earhart commences to set myriad aviation records, and in 1932, recreates her earlier transatlantic flight, becoming the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic. Throughout a decade of notoriety, Earhart falls into an awkward love affair with pilot and future Federal Aviation administrator Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). In a display of romantic jealousy, Putnam quietly tells Amelia that he does not want Vidal in his house. Earhart is annoyed by the seemingly endless agenda of celebrity appearances and endorsements but Putnam reminds his wife that it funds her flying. Earhart returns to her husband on the eve of her last momentous flight. Earhart's last flight was her biggest and most dangerous adventure to date. Her plan was to fly around the world. Earhart's first attempt ends in a runway crash in Hawaii, due to a collapsed landing gear, and her aircraft requires extensive repairs before the flight can be attempted again. Eventually, she takes the repaired Lockheed Model 10 Electra, sponsored by Purdue University, in a reverse direction, leaving the lengthy trans-Pacific crossing at the end of her flight.
Setting out to refuel at tiny Howland Island, radio transmissions between USCGC Itasca a Coast Guard picket ship, and Earhart's aircraft reveal a rising crisis. Earhart radios to Itasca that the sky has become cloudy and overcast. When Itasca attempts to radio her back, however, all Earhart gets is static. For the rest of the approach, Earhart cannot hear Itasca's transmissions, although they can hear hers. The Coast Guard radio operators realize that they do not have sufficient length to provide a "fix". Itasca has a directional finder with a dead battery, and weak radio communications prevent Earhart and USCG Itasca from making contact. Running low on fuel, Earhart and Noonan continue to fly on over empty ocean, as Earhart informs the Itasca that she is on position line 157-337, running north and south. She is not heard from again. A massive search effort is unsuccessful, but solidifies Earhart as an aviation icon.
==Cast==
* Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart
* Richard Gere as George P. Putnam
* Ewan McGregor as Gene Vidal
* Christopher Eccleston as Fred Noonan
* Joe Anderson as Bill Stutz
* William Cuddy as Gore Vidal
* Mia Wasikowska as Elinor Smith
* Cherry Jones as Eleanor Roosevelt
* Divine Brown as the "Torch singer".
* Ron Smerczak as Interviewer
Category:Canadian films
Category:Canadian aviation films
Category:2009 films
Category:2000s drama films
Category:Canadian biographical films
Category:American drama films
Category:British drama films
Category:American films
Category:British films
Category:English-language films
Category:Canadian epic films
Category:Films directed by Mira Nair
Category:Films shot in Hamilton, Ontario
Category:Films shot in Nova Scotia
Category:Films set in Oceania
Category:Aviation films
Category:Fox Searchlight Pictures films
Category:Films set in the 1920s
Category:Films set in the 1930s
Category:Films shot in Cologne (Germany)
Category:Screenplays by Ronald Bass
Category:Dune Entertainment films
Category:American biographical films
Category:British biographical films
Category:American aviation films
Category:American epic films
Category:British epic films
Category:Articles with red links
Category:Rated PG