The Aviator
(2004)
biography
directed
by : Martin Scorsese
featuring
: Leonardo DiCaprio - Cate Blanchett - Kate Beckinsale - John C.Reilly
- Alec Baldwin
running
time : 2 hours 46 minutes
Martin Scorsese directed this fast-moving,
epic-scale biopic documenting the life and loves one of the most colorful
Americans of the 20th century,
Howard Hughes. The Aviator follows Hughes
(Leonardo DiCaprio) as the twentysomething millionaire, having already
made a fortune improving the design of oil-drilling bits, comes to Hollywood
with an interest in getting into the picture business. It doesn't take
long for Hughes, with his passion for airplanes, to jump from producer
to director of his first major film project, a World War I air epic called
Hell's Angels, which took three years to complete thanks to the shift from
silent to sound filming and Hughes' relentless perfectionism. However,
the film was a massive hit, and the eccentric inventor became a mogul in
Hollywood, making Jean Harlow (Gwen Stefani) a star and enjoying a romance
with Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett). But Hollywood's old-boy network
never fully accepted Hughes, and in time his passion for flying began to
reclaim his attentions as he began designing new planes, setting air speed
records, flying around the world, and risking his life testing aircraft.
Hughes also found time to romance Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale) and founded
his own airline, Trans-World Airlines, though as his ideas became bolder,
his approach became more eccentric, and he gained many powerful enemies,
including the head of Pan-American Airlines, Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin),
and Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (Alan Alda), who attempted to prove that
Hughes' radical design ideas were actually part of an effort to bilk taxpayers
for millions of dollars through government contracts. The Aviator's star-studded
cast also includes John C.Reilly, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm, and
Frances Conroy.
The Aviator is a rousing entertainment
that does not shy away from the darkest aspects of Hughes' life. The first
hour of The Aviator feels like the most fun Acorsese has had behind a camera
in over a decade. The extended sequence of Hughes attempting to get Hell's
Angels completed to his detailed ideal is the closest Scorsese himself
has ever come to an onscreen biography of his own work habits. A notorious
obsessive, Scorsese recognizes those traits in Hughes and with the assistance
of a never-better DiCaprio creates an affectionate but realistic look at
Hughes' successes and demons. Though the film feels a bit overlong, it
never loses the audience's interest, thanks in large part to DiCaprio's
determined blue eyes. Those eyes are always able to communicate the intensity
of Hughes' feelings — be it his passion for women and aviation, or his
fear of losing control. He is matched in the early part of the film by
an as always first-rate Blanchett, who manages to embody Hepburn without
turning her into a caricature, showcasing her intelligence and humor without
shying away from her own faults. They make arguably the most sympathetic
couple in a Scorsese film since Kris Kristofferson and Ellen Burstyn in
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. From his decision to replicate the look
of the old two-strip Technicolor process, to his first ever use of CGI
effects, Scorsese utilizes every tool at a filmmaker's disposal. But for
all of the filmmaking pyrotechnics, it is the clear-eyed empathy Scorsese
brings to The Aviator that makes it one of the most emotionally rewarding
films of his career.