By DAVID CARR


Fame is fleeting, of course, but certain types last longer than others. More than seven decades after her death, the aviator Amelia Earhart still fascinates. Known for her willingness to attempt ill-advised, even foolhardy feats, she has been the subject of more than 100 books, and her name is plastered on bridges, United States Navy ships and museums.

Now she is the subject of a biographical film, “Amelia,” directed by Mira Nair, starring Hilary Swank, which reverently portrays a celebrity who remained remarkably irreverent and curiously humble until her death while trying to circumnavigate the globe. It opens this month in the United States and has a wider global release this winter.

The mystery about Earhart’s disappearance in 1937 accounts for some of the ongoing allure, but she endures because she was a pioneer whose adventures went beyond personal aggrandizement. She took on the laws of nature (humans were not meant to fly) and the conventions of the time (adventure was a man’s business) and seemed to soar above both. “I want to do it because I want to do it,” she said, as a way to explain her desire to accomplish what no woman had.

Ms. Nair, director of Indian-theme movies like “Salaam Bombay!,” “The Namesake,” and “Monsoon Wedding,” calls Earhart America’s first modern celebrity. A hero of the protofeminist movement for her single-mindedness, Earhart was also commercially shrewd.

But what put her in the cockpit of all those endeavors was an ability to fly airplanes, often over long distances, at a time when flying was considered a sport, and a risky one at that.

“In the last week I have flown from Los Angeles to Italy, back to L.A., then a few days later I flew to Dubai, then Dubai to London, and in two days I will be flying back home,” said Ms. Swank, who won best actress Oscars for her performances in “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby.” “We take all of that for granted, but people paid a price to make that a reality. Amelia Earhart found something that she loved, a passion, and went after it.”

The magic of flying, the sheer improbability of it, is restored in “Amelia,” which traces how civil aviation came to be a commonplace part of American life. At the same time you can see the birth of modern media management. George Putman had published a successful book on Charles A. Lindbergh and he asked Earhart, who was not well known at the time, to be part of a transatlantic flight attempt in 1928.

A former newspaper publisher, Putman had an idea for a book (Lindbergh in a skirt) and he cast Earhart as the heroine.

“I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes,” she observed ruefully, but in 1932 she accomplished the feat on her own, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross for her bravery. She and Putman were a powerful promotional team and eventually fell in love and married, but “Amelia” makes clear that she continued to live an independent life, striking up a separate romantic relationship with Gene Vidal, an aviation pioneer (and father of the author Gore Vidal).

Born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897, Earhart was the daughter of one of the first women to reach the summit of Pikes Peak, and her father, although crippled by alcoholism, was a lawyer and inventor. Earhart received her flying license in 1921, broke the women’s altitude record in 1922 and in 1928 flew as a passenger across the Atlantic, writing about it in “20 Hrs., 40 Min.,” which established her fame. After her solo flight across the Atlantic four years later she became the first pilot to fly solo to California from Hawaii in 1934.

But if Earhart’s life was lived under the spotlight, her death remains a mystery. Earhart, who disappeared at 40 during a flight over the Pacific, has never been found.

On July 2, 1937, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, took off from New Guinea, about 35,400 kilometers into their effort to circumnavigate the earth. They aimed for Howland Island, a sliver of an island 4,000 kilometers into the Pacific. They most likely ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. The plane was never found.

For the team behind “Amelia,” the forces that compelled Earhart to take those risks are common, even if hers led to uncommon ends.

“The more I read about her, the more I thought she is like I was,” said Ms. Nair, who comes from a small village in India. “Beyond the enigma of how she died, I’m hoping that people will see themselves in her decisions to set aside her fears and live her life to the fullest.”


GETTY IMAGES; RIGHT, KEN WORONER/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

Hilary Swank, above, portrays Amelia Earhart, left, in a film on her life and disappearance while trying to fly around the world. A flight in the film, below.

FOX SEARCHLIGHT