THE AVIATOR
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin...
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: John Logan
Review Date: 02/18/05
Written By: suj
Rating: 8/10
THE PLOT:
The story of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), the eccentric billionaire industrialist and Hollywood film mogul, famous for romancing some of the world's most beautiful women. The drama recounts the years of his life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, an epoch when Hughes was directing and producing Hollywood movies and test flying innovative aircrafts he designed and created.
THE REVIEW:
Personally, I could care less how accurate a depiction of a person’s life a biographical film is, as long as it tells a definitive story. I don't think there has even been a biopic, from Jesus to Alexander the Great to Jim Morrison to John F. Kennedy to even John Holmes, that didn’t skew the truth in some way or another to make for a better narrative.
Scorsese' “The Aviator” feels like a Howard Hughes’ Greatest Hits compilation, touching upon the greatest achievements and incidents which helped shape and mold the young man who would eventually become one of the world’s wealthiest people during his formative years (1927-1947), but Scorsese never really shifts into the 'why' aspect of the situations. It is known that Howard Hughes became rather eccentric in his later years, and the film does spend sufficient time showing how obsessive Hughes could be about certain projects, but does little in examining the reason, outside of a short prelude where we see a young Hughes being bathed by his mother in the study, because there was an outbreak in a nearby town. We also get to see Hughes’ meticulous attention to every detail while making “Hell’s Angels,” but no time is spent on why every detail was important enough for Hughes to spend three years and more than four million dollars on. We get to watch Hughes accomplish a great many things, including structuring the airline that would become TWA, and build the plane that would over-top every other plane ever made, but we never see what drove him to take on the powerful owner of Pan Am Airlines or continue to build and fund the construction of two wartime planes long after the war they were being built for was over. But that’s just one little problem I had with this great film, and if they would have showed every single reasoning to the chaos the film would be run longer than its already long 3+ hours.
The main challenge of a movie like “The Aviator” is how to make a not very likeable character such as Howard Hughes, likeable. Insert Leonardo DiCaprio, the loveably Jack Dawson who the girls of world adored sometime ago. But here DiCaprio sheds away from his past image and truly makes you feel what the film often is unable to show, Hughes’s passion for what he wants. DiCaprio forces us to not only feel, but experience the pain of Mr. Hughes as he slowly swirls into a masquerade of demons and madness. It is the best performance of DiCaprio’s career and one of the bravest performances of the decade. Cate Blanchett does an admirable job as one-time girlfriend Katherine Hepburn, though I’ve only seen one Hepburn movie (Bringing up Baby) Blanchett nails the former Hollywood starlet down pat and the performance becomes a comfortable homage. Also worth the note is the gaggle of actors, ranging from Alan Alda, Jude Law, Alec Baldwin (with his sweet-ass office atop New York's Chrysler Building), Willem Dafoe, Kate Beckinsale and John C. Reilly among others whom all show up in what are essentially glorified extended cameos, give the best performances they can with such little time to establish a fully realized character.
One of the films finest moments was the 1946’s test flight Hughes’ XF-11 spy plane, which ended in a fiery crash into a trio of houses in Beverly Hills, and is the single most exciting and sequences of the year.
While the film does drag in a number of scenes, and its runtime is far too long I didn't mind one bit of it as I was enthralled with every frame of this scrupulous individual. The film, to me, came off Citizen Kane-esque, I don't know exactly how that comparison comes to play right now, but when watching “The Aviator", Orson Welles masterpiece clinged in the depths of my sub-conscience.
In the end, “The Aviator” is an outstanding feat in cinema and another glorified achievement for the one and only Martin Scorsese.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: John Logan
Review Date: 02/18/05
Written By: suj
Rating: 8/10
THE PLOT:
The story of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), the eccentric billionaire industrialist and Hollywood film mogul, famous for romancing some of the world's most beautiful women. The drama recounts the years of his life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, an epoch when Hughes was directing and producing Hollywood movies and test flying innovative aircrafts he designed and created.
THE REVIEW:
Personally, I could care less how accurate a depiction of a person’s life a biographical film is, as long as it tells a definitive story. I don't think there has even been a biopic, from Jesus to Alexander the Great to Jim Morrison to John F. Kennedy to even John Holmes, that didn’t skew the truth in some way or another to make for a better narrative.
Scorsese' “The Aviator” feels like a Howard Hughes’ Greatest Hits compilation, touching upon the greatest achievements and incidents which helped shape and mold the young man who would eventually become one of the world’s wealthiest people during his formative years (1927-1947), but Scorsese never really shifts into the 'why' aspect of the situations. It is known that Howard Hughes became rather eccentric in his later years, and the film does spend sufficient time showing how obsessive Hughes could be about certain projects, but does little in examining the reason, outside of a short prelude where we see a young Hughes being bathed by his mother in the study, because there was an outbreak in a nearby town. We also get to see Hughes’ meticulous attention to every detail while making “Hell’s Angels,” but no time is spent on why every detail was important enough for Hughes to spend three years and more than four million dollars on. We get to watch Hughes accomplish a great many things, including structuring the airline that would become TWA, and build the plane that would over-top every other plane ever made, but we never see what drove him to take on the powerful owner of Pan Am Airlines or continue to build and fund the construction of two wartime planes long after the war they were being built for was over. But that’s just one little problem I had with this great film, and if they would have showed every single reasoning to the chaos the film would be run longer than its already long 3+ hours.
The main challenge of a movie like “The Aviator” is how to make a not very likeable character such as Howard Hughes, likeable. Insert Leonardo DiCaprio, the loveably Jack Dawson who the girls of world adored sometime ago. But here DiCaprio sheds away from his past image and truly makes you feel what the film often is unable to show, Hughes’s passion for what he wants. DiCaprio forces us to not only feel, but experience the pain of Mr. Hughes as he slowly swirls into a masquerade of demons and madness. It is the best performance of DiCaprio’s career and one of the bravest performances of the decade. Cate Blanchett does an admirable job as one-time girlfriend Katherine Hepburn, though I’ve only seen one Hepburn movie (Bringing up Baby) Blanchett nails the former Hollywood starlet down pat and the performance becomes a comfortable homage. Also worth the note is the gaggle of actors, ranging from Alan Alda, Jude Law, Alec Baldwin (with his sweet-ass office atop New York's Chrysler Building), Willem Dafoe, Kate Beckinsale and John C. Reilly among others whom all show up in what are essentially glorified extended cameos, give the best performances they can with such little time to establish a fully realized character.
One of the films finest moments was the 1946’s test flight Hughes’ XF-11 spy plane, which ended in a fiery crash into a trio of houses in Beverly Hills, and is the single most exciting and sequences of the year.
While the film does drag in a number of scenes, and its runtime is far too long I didn't mind one bit of it as I was enthralled with every frame of this scrupulous individual. The film, to me, came off Citizen Kane-esque, I don't know exactly how that comparison comes to play right now, but when watching “The Aviator", Orson Welles masterpiece clinged in the depths of my sub-conscience.
In the end, “The Aviator” is an outstanding feat in cinema and another glorified achievement for the one and only Martin Scorsese.
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