The Aviator
There’s a scene about half way through The Aviator where Howard Hughes (a career-best Leonardo Dicaprio) crashes a spy plane he was building for the US military during its test-flight in downtown Beverly Hills. He emerges burning and bloody from the wreckage as a man rushes to him and douses the flames. “I’m Howard Hughes, the aviator” he gasps before collapsing unconscious.
That’s about as much as we learn about the real Howard Hughes in The Aviator but it hardly matters. This is easily Martin Scorsese’s best film since Goodfellas; a riveting, magnificent piece of work which benefits being seen on a big screen.
Really, it would be impossible to make a boring film about Howard Hughes. He inherited a fortune from his father who designed revolutionary oil drilling equipment, and promptly went on to spend it on self-financed Hollywood productions and developing his own aircraft. He directed and produced many pictures including Hells Angels, Scarface and The Outlaw. Hughes was also a womaniser and flirted with Hollywood’s hottest female talent, including Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner.
During World War II the US government gave him millions to develop spy planes that were never used (most notoriously the Hercules or “Spruce Goose” which wasn’t even fully built until after the war). Afterwards, he came under investigation for misuse of funds as a result of deal made by US senator Ralph Brewster and Pan Am, who were trying to gain a monopoly on international flights and keep Hughes’ TWA fleet on the ground.
All of this and more is covered by Scorsese’s film, and as a director, he is on top form. He makes great use of colour, from the two-tone technicolour accompanying the 1920’s sequences to three-tone in the 1930’s and full colour by the 1940’s. His encyclopaedia knowledge of Hollywood history and attention to detail are also fully evident. If you’re a major film buff like me, it’s a great deal of fun seeing the stories behind Hughes’ films (especially one hilarious sequence involving discussions with the censorship board about Jane Russell’s cleavage in The Outlaw).
As I mentioned earlier, Dicaprio has never been better. He is energetic, impulsive yet also shy and introverted. Hughes well-documented germ phobia is depicted well, particularly in the latter scenes where, unable to escape the demons of his past, he locks himself in a room for weeks refusing to wash.
Dicaprio is ably supported by the likes of Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett (superb as Katherine Hepburn), Kate Beckinsdale and Ian Holm. There are also several amusing cameos including Willem Dafoe as a journalist bribed by Hughes, pop group No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow and Jude Law as Errol Flynn.
Scorsese regular Thelma Schoonmaker edits the piece brilliantly. At 166 minutes long, it almost feels too short. Furthermore, the use of music, production design and cinematography are all first-rate.
To be fair, in some places the picture is self-indulgent, yet this is appropriate given Hughes own self-indulgence. It often feels like a film about a tormented genius made by a tormented genius and perhaps that’s why Scorsese takes it easier on Hughes than the subjects of his previous biopics. Given the director’s obsession with cinema, its perhaps unsurprising The Aviator has gentle echoes of another film about a man born rich who made and spent as much money as he could: Citizen Kane. The Aviator is unlikely to be remembered with such reverence, but still comes highly recommended.
Simon Dillon, January 2005
You posted your review ages ago, but we only saw the film last night so haven’t been able to comment yet. I agree that this may be Scorsese’s finest film since Goodfellas (although I have to say I think I got more out of Gangs of New York, despite it being a much less ‘pleasant’ viewing experience). I also agree that you don’t find out a lot about Hughes, but this was my major sticking point with the movie - to me it doesn’t make sense to make a biopic if you’re not going to delve a little deeper than the average programme on the Biography Channel. I already knew he was paranoid about germs, a womaniser and loved planes. Tell me something I wasn’t aware of. Actually, there was one scene - dinner with the Hepburns - that I thought was fascinating and one of the only ones where Hughes came off better than those around him. The ‘mammaries’ scene was very funny, but it was a shame not to find out, for example, that in fact Jane Russell didn’t even wear the special bra that Hughes engineered for her, cos she didn’t need it and he never noticed! DiCaprio was fine, but I confess not to have a lot of time for him since Titanic, and the use of colour was nice, but the use of CGI less so. I know that it allows you to make the camera do all sorts of swoopy things, and that it’s infinitely cheaper than sending a load of planes up to recreate the dogfights, but I was actually surprised that Scorsese didn’t show that same kind of nutcase commitment as his subject - surely his track record is good enough to secure him leverage with whoever is financing his films to allow him to film things like that for real? To conclude, I didn’t feel the film was bad, but just not really enough to be termed magnificent.
Comment by Sparky — 7 January, 2006 @ 8:44 pm
Overblown, and self-indulgent, just like Hughes himself. Not my cup of tea, though.
Comment by Heidi — 24 March, 2007 @ 2:58 pm