This movie has some value to introduce viewers to who Amelia Earhart and GP Putman were and how they marketed Amelia like laundry soap to a public hungry for a hero during the depression. It also accurately portrayed Amelia as a less then stellar pilot - absolutely brave but not technically proficient, and lackadaisical about radio communications (without which she will not find the speck of land in the Pacific where she needs to land).
Where it falls apart is the myths portrayed as facts in the movie. The spying on the Japanese islands theme has been discredited for years - not only is there a lack of evidence, the simple fact is that the only time Amelia Earhart was flying over Japanese controlled islands would have been during the flight from New Guinea to Howland Island when it would have been dark, she would have been too high to really see anything, and she was quite busy flying the plane under a very tight fuel management protocol and not looking out the window.
Her navigator Fred Noonan could have sued the makers of this movie for slander if he was still around. Noonan pioneered long distance aerial navigation over the Pacific Ocean working for Pan Am on the famous China Clippers, and was widely recognized as the best in the business. His drinking is a widely known story, that only has one written reference - a comment by a journalist in a private letter to a friend. Noonan learned his skills as a merchant seaman and as most sailors probably went on a bender during some shore leaves, but was known to be a consummate professional when working.
The movie shows Earhart and Noonan as constantly bickering during the flight - by all accounts (including Earhart's own press releases filed during the flight and newsreels shot during the flight) they got along very well.
Add to all of this are the little details like their constantly grimy appearance during the flight (they were basically flying an airliner and the actual newsreel shows them emerging from the plane clean and dapper at Lae) a completely made up engine failure during the round the world flight, and images of them camping by the plane in remote airstrips (they stayed in the best hotels available on each of their stops) and you have a tragic story made far more tragic by all of the inaccuracies.
Where it falls apart is the myths portrayed as facts in the movie. The spying on the Japanese islands theme has been discredited for years - not only is there a lack of evidence, the simple fact is that the only time Amelia Earhart was flying over Japanese controlled islands would have been during the flight from New Guinea to Howland Island when it would have been dark, she would have been too high to really see anything, and she was quite busy flying the plane under a very tight fuel management protocol and not looking out the window.
Her navigator Fred Noonan could have sued the makers of this movie for slander if he was still around. Noonan pioneered long distance aerial navigation over the Pacific Ocean working for Pan Am on the famous China Clippers, and was widely recognized as the best in the business. His drinking is a widely known story, that only has one written reference - a comment by a journalist in a private letter to a friend. Noonan learned his skills as a merchant seaman and as most sailors probably went on a bender during some shore leaves, but was known to be a consummate professional when working.
The movie shows Earhart and Noonan as constantly bickering during the flight - by all accounts (including Earhart's own press releases filed during the flight and newsreels shot during the flight) they got along very well.
Add to all of this are the little details like their constantly grimy appearance during the flight (they were basically flying an airliner and the actual newsreel shows them emerging from the plane clean and dapper at Lae) a completely made up engine failure during the round the world flight, and images of them camping by the plane in remote airstrips (they stayed in the best hotels available on each of their stops) and you have a tragic story made far more tragic by all of the inaccuracies.