Amelia Blu-ray
Amelia follows the turbulent life of Amelia Earhart from her first command of a long distance flight to her final moments as she tried to circumnavigate the globe.
Film making 13/25
Video 20/25
Audio 19/25
Bonus Features 15/25
Total 67/100
Taking center stage was never a problem for Amelia and the last place she wanted to be was in the rear of a plane logging the flight as they crossed the Atlantic. That was the exact position she found herself when she was made “commander” of a long distance flight instead of pilot.
While this may not have been the start of her flying career it does mark the start of a race to fly farther than anyone else in her dream of flying around the world. Hilary Swank plays the role of Amelia Earhart and Richard Gere plays her soon to be husband and financial partner George Putnam of the publishing family fame.
The film does a great job of portraying the turbulent and odd life of Amelia as she does everything she can to fund her flying feats such as selling luggage and waffle makers. Putnam funds much of her flights after they are married but even his enterprising endeavors cannot come up with enough money.
George spends much of the film working toward her next big adventure while she plots and plans the flights but the film did not portray as much of the flights and staging before them. They tried to make Amelia more of a love story but failed to tackle the bigger picture of her life and love of flying.
In this day of bigger and more effects ridden films I was surprised that more flying was the focus but much of the film highlights the love and times between flights. The film also does something that was not surprising with the constant back and forth between her life of flying, promoting flying and women’s rights as well as steering clear of her less than stellar life.
The film to say the least stays away from any controversy and tried hard to shine a light on Amelia Earhart even when she was not the steadfast married type. She did have an affair with Gene Vidal but they skip over this part quickly with a single kiss and one argument between her and George when it is brought to the forefront that he knows.
Amelia is not really that dramatic, kind of like Titanic where we know what’s coming but we still sit through the show to watch the crash. The final minutes of contact between Amelia and navy personnel who where monitoring and George are somewhat dramatic but more of a letdown than anything.
As Amelia tried to make landfall on the small island of Howland south and west of Hawaii she made several intermittent radio calls to listeners but eventually all contact was lost and she flew into history. The film ends with George announcing she is gone and credits role for a finale that sums up her life very well.
While Amelia is lost somewhere over the South Pacific her story continues in history but the film just lacks something, drama and her love of flying. I found the entire film just did not really show her love for flying and there was just something else missing that I am guessing is more drama.
Flying before the World War in the 1940’s was a risky adventure and anything beyond the normal getting in a plane above land was risky. The film did not portray flight in the early days of multi engine aircraft as anything but a walk in the park for the most part.
They did not hone in on at least one grand crash as Amelia and navigator Fred Noonan fail to take off during their attempt at circumnavigating the globe. Another glaring error in this scene is there were three people on board as the plane looped on takeoff and skidded to a halt.
Just reading Wikipedia you can see there were three on board but it makes at least a little more dramatic to only have the two on board. Of course we see Amelia and Fred dash out and run for it as the plane is heavily loaded with fuel but that ends pretty much the most dramatic scene of the film.
Amelia was a good movie but I was expecting to at least see her fly more and have more about her love of flying and why she was so enraptured with flight. The Blu-ray edition contains plenty of extras to make it a worthwhile purchase and the high definition quality is great.
Video has a clear and well done transfer to Blu-ray with vivid and well toned colors with an exceptional quality such as bright red in many of the scenes. Red roses that Amelia holds during their ticker tape parade after the successful crossing of the Atlantic highlight the duller colors of the streets of New York and the period clothing to make a stark and poignant contrast.
The color and quality is great and really puts the film in the period for a great video experience that really creates the feel for the time period. The audio is also well done with good surround but not as much depth to the surround as I had hoped but I think this is more from a lack of action.
The film does more talk and less action so the fact that surround sound is low key may be from the lack of fast paced scenes. The audio does have the great DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound for good technical quality but they kept things to a dull roar even in scenes were they could have blasted us with planes zipping by in races.
The bonus content on the Blu-ray edition is well worth checking out at least once but they could have added so much more that I was actually disappointed. The Blu-ray film includes four making of features and news reel footage from coverage of Amelia from the time along with some deleted scenes.
I was kind of hoping for a bit more on her and not the film, it’s not for a lack of content both new and old that they could have included something more. The Blu-ray edition is great but I was kind of disappointed that they did not film more of her flying and reasons behind why she loved the sport as well as why she wanted to fly around the world.
Amelia ends up being just another film about the life and times leading up to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart that could have been so much more. Rent it for sure but a part of your collection may not be in the making for Amelia on Blu-ray.