The Aviator (2004)
Some men dream the future. He built it.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, Adam Scott, Kelli Garner, Alec Baldwin, Gwen Stefani, Ian Holm, Alan Alda
Director: Martin Scorsese
Running Time: 170 minutes
US MPAA rating: PG-13UK BBFC rating: 12a
Drama
As a boy, Howard Hughes had a dream: "When I grow up, I will fly planes, make movies, and be the richest man in the world"; and in 1925, he grabbed at the opportunity to realise it before he had even turned 21, taking control of his late father's drill-bit business. Over the next two decades he ploughed the company's resources into the air-battle epic "Hell's Angels" and other box-office hits, as well as into pioneering designwork for military aviation and the acquisition of a commercial transatlantic airfleet. High-risk industrialist, womanising Hollywood playboy, record-breaking aviator, independent filmmaker, survivor of several serious air accidents, media-shy celebrity and obsessive-compulsive paranoiac, Hughes was cut too large almost for life itself, let alone for a single film - yet Martin Scorsese's sprawling biopic 'The Aviator' tightly interweaves the different strands of his life into a highly compressed narrative that portrays not just the contradictions in the man himself (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), but in the American dream which he embodied.
Hughes made his last public appearance in 1958, and died (fittingly, on an airplane) in 1976, a deranged recluse so unrecognisable that medical tests were necessary to prove his identity. This well-known tragic end is omitted by 'The Aviator', which instead chronicles the more productive period of the mid-1920s to the 1940s - Hughes' flights and filmmaking, his relationships with Hollywood stars Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale), and his victorious struggles against America's Censors (over Jane Russell's outlaw "mammaries") and a corrupt Senator (Alan Alda) - but Hughes' madness is nonetheless a constant presence right from the opening childhood scene, imbuing the film with a gravity that viewers are all too aware will eventually bring Hughes' many meteoric successes crashing back down to earth.
It takes little imagination to see what attracted Scorsese to this project. For he is himself a great filmmaker, renowned like Hughes for his painstaking attention to detail and his many neuroses (including, ironically, a fear of flying). Scorsese points to this parallelism between himself and his subject both by recreating numerous sequences from Hughes' films (and brilliantly aping the Technicolor spectrum of Hughes' day), and by inflecting 'The Aviator' with references to films of his own - for the press photographers' exploding flashbulbs evoke 'Raging Bull' (also a biopic about a man who is his own worst enemy), while Hughes' (metaphorical) assertion "we're in a streetfight" makes him seem like a natural descendant to the all too real streetfighter also played by DiCaprio in Scorsese's previous 'Gangs of New York'.
In 'The Aviator', as in Gangs of New York, Scorsese uses critical events from America's past as a mirror on the present, foreshadowing not just the nation's extraordinary progress, but also her more contemporary catastrophes. Gangs of New York ends with an ominous image of the Twin Towers rising from the ashes of New York's streets, as though to suggest that America's founding history of violent conflicts and appalling casualties is far from over - while 'The Aviator' ends with Hughes at last attaining the rights to a new international air route leading all the way, as Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), president of rival Pan Am, so gravely puts it, "...to New York. Fuck!". It is of course a moment of triumph in the modernisation of America - but by outlining a vision of large passenger planes able to fly freely into New York City, Scorsese again evokes the 9/11 nightmare, and binds the fates of his hero Hughes and his nation - both have their heads in the clouds while their feet are still in the dirt, and both are blessed with the powers of flight while doomed repeatedly to fall. For in this retelling of American history as the myth of Icarus, full of ingenuity, hubris and madness, triumphs are always short-lived and "the way of the future" (Hughes' last utterance in the film) is a flight of fancy through very turbulent skies.
It's Got: A stellar cast, fastidious period detail, staggering production standards, a highly compressed narrative, a character's madness traced in a variety of scenes set in bathrooms, a vertiginous reconstruction of Hughes' crash through the roofs of Beverly Hills suburbia, and a defiantly downbeat ending reminiscent of Scorsese's 1970s heyday.
It Needs: A little more attention to character amidst all the beautifully shining surfaces.
Alternatives: Gangs of New York
Summary: In this stunning period biopic, Scorsese exposes the American dream to the law of gravity.
Review Date: 20th December 2004
External Links
Official Web Site
The Aviator at the IMDB
Comments8 Comments |
| um this movie seems ok for older people the only movie I like with Leonado decapro in it is Titanic! |
| Comment by:- Stephanie | | 21 December 2004 | ip: logged |
| It's an OK movie, but it's three hours long!!! It has long, boring parts, and it focuses on his Obsessive-Cumpulsive Disorder. The movie shows how horrible OCD is, somewhat like "The Passion" showed how bad crucifixion was. Even though "Aviator" is 3 hours long, it only goes into about half of his actual life. They stopped before the movie went into his ownership of half of Vegas, etc., etc., and locked himself in a room for 25 years. I would reccommend it strictly to those interested in history, aviation, and/or psychology, and maybe business. For everyone else, the movie might be a little boring."The way of the future."—Howard Hughes |
| Comment by:- Mike | | 27 December 2004 | ip: logged |
| It pains me to read these reviews. They reflect just how tragically stupid young Americans are. Anyone who would compare this film to "The passion" is a moron. "The passion" embodied mythology. This film was about real people and real struggles. It's perhaps scorcese's best, and surely his most ambitious film. The camera work is impeccable, the acting is top notch, and the attention to detail surpasses any period film in recent history. I recommend this film to anyone who appreciates cinema as art, for it is a masterpiece. And anybody else, well go watch "Fat Albert" and be done with it. I'm 26 years old and I sat in the theatre awestruck even after the third time I saw this film. I Scorcese doesn't win it all this year, someone should be shot. |
| Comment by:- JT Mollner | | 28 December 2004 | ip: logged |
| I just spent $8.50 and 3 hours stuck in a theatre with 3 people blocking the way out on the alley. Let me share a few thoughts to spare you the pain: 1. You don't use B movie actresses to play Katherine Hepburn or Ava Gardner. 2. Leo's ass may interest more than a few people, but it's not worth $8.50 3. Citizen Kane was innovative. I see lawsuits pending for copyrights because the aviator can be accused of plagiarism. Oh, and by the way, if Leo repeats his sentences 20 times again, I am going to start developing OCD as well. |
| Comment by:- Vincent C. | | 28 December 2004 | ip: logged |
| This movie may not be for everyone, because it takes more than the mind-span of a child to understnad it. It's the tale of someone's life, unfortunately it can't have things blowing up every other scene, which is what some people need to be entertained. I thought the movie was great, Leo was awesome. I thought the story was very interesting, all 3 hours of it. I would recommend it to everyone!!!! |
| Comment by:- amber | | 30 December 2004 | ip: logged |
| Very entertaining -- a bit long, but worth it. Gorgeous sets and styling; awesome flight effects (as well as crash effects!). I thought Leo's portrayal of mental instability on the verge was quite on-target: he showed the confusion, desperation and straining of someone aware of their deterioration. Would like to have seen more of the business end of Hughes' situation and how he managed to continually fund his projects. |
| Comment by:- Jan | | 01 January 2005 | ip: logged |
| WHO THE HELL CARES THE AVIATOR HAS LEO DICAPRIO AND YOUD HAVE TO BE PRETTY STUPID TO WATCH HIS ASS IN A 3 HOUR MOVIE. IM RICK JAMES BITCHES...BE MARRIED... |
| Comment by:- gabeLA | | 03 January 2005 | ip: logged |
| The Aviator is an uplifting, yet simultaneously dark, film about the eccentric and inspirational life of billionaire Howard Hughes. One of the more notable personalities of the 20th Century, Hughes' life is well-chronicled in The Aviator... |
| Comment by:- gilletbd1977 | www.thedvdreport.com/dvd_revie... | 26 June 2005 | ip: logged |
