The Aviator Movie Review:


Its interesting how one visionary can get inspired and eventually embrace the work of a fellow visionary. That can probably be said when you talk about director Martin Scorsese’s epic-biopic “The Aviator” which chronicles the life of aviation visionary Howard Hughes.

The film opens in the late 1920’s and at the start of the Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) first film, 1930’s “Hell’s Angels” which was a huge undertaking and became the most expensive movie in Hollywood history to that point. Hughes will eventually direct two films and produce over 20 in his years in Hollywood.

The film continues through the life of Hughes where he has affairs with Hollywood royalty like Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). The film eventually concludes sometime after the conclusion of the Second World War in the mid-1940s where Hughes must take on the power of Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (Alan Alda) and save his crumbling empire.

Throughout his illustrious career as one of Hollywood’s premiere directors, Martin Scorsese has done his share of biopics. From the power and strength of 1980’s “Raging Bull” to the controversy of 1988’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” the mysticism of 1997’s “Kundun”, Scorsese has tackled all sorts of different yet personal stories. “The Aviator” is bigger and grander than any of those films but still echoes the powerful solitary story of one man’s life.

At the center of Scorsese’s epic is the amazing performance of Leonardo DiCaprio and it’s probably his best since “The Basketball Diaries”.

In watching DiCaprio grow as an actor on screen I have always found it hard to separate Leo the actor from the role he was playing. Even in “Gangs of New York”, I never fully accepted DiCaprio in the title role. For the first half of “The Aviator” I was having the same problem with his performance then something changed and as Hughes began to unravel so did Leo. It was at that moment that I began to see the role as it was meant to be played and I also think DiCaprio grew as a thespian. It is an utterly brilliant and career changing performance.

Another brilliant but over-the-top performance is Cate Blanchett as Kate Hepburn. She is bold, boisterous and full of life and seems to understand some of the things that make Hughes tick. I loved how Blanchett would toss her head and laugh in Hepburn’s unforgettable accent. Blanchett is amazing in the role.

There are oodles and oodles of supporting players in this cast including some dynamite tidbits from Kate Beckinsale’s Ava Gardner and Ian Holm’s Professor Fritz. Alan Alda’s Sen. Webster is devious and crooked. It was nice seeing Alda come back into the spotlight.

But for the most part this was a Leo and Cate film.

I loved the rich and lush production design and the intricate attention to detail when dealing with so many famous Hollywood scenes including the “Hell’s Angels” premiere gala. The whole idea of how many crushed flashbulbs littered the red carpet in those days is mind-boggling. It is an amazing film just to look at visually even without the tour de force performances from the leads.

The Aviator’s only slight flaw maybe its length but there is enough beauty, majesty and action to hold our attention. It is a brilliant biopic and shows us that even with all the money, the vision and execution it still takes a great man to bring it all together. Kind of like Scorsese, himself.

So Says the Soothsayer.



Dean Kish

Wanting to distance himself from his family business, Howard Hughes (DiCaprio) decides to invest a large amount of his great fortune into a movie like no one had ever seen in 1920s. After nearly three years in production and a budget of over $4 million dollars “Hell’s Angels’ hits the big screen. An instant hit, the movie thrusts Hughes into the limelight and introduces him to the Hollywood glitterazzi. It also gives him the opportunity to pursue his real passion, aviation. Breaking speed and distance records, Hughes decides to take on PAN-AM’s domination of the international skies with his own airline TWA. This raises interest from the Congress, who starts to scrutinise his business practises. As pressure starts to build, Hughes’ own insecurities start to emerge and threaten to take over his life.

Whatever the subject matter, a Martin Scorsese movie is always one to sit up and take notice of but after a few misfires, can ‘The Aviator’ put him back on the right flight plan?

Charting the life of one of American’s most creative and troubled entrepreneurs, The Aviator shows you the triumphs and the madness of Howard Hughes. An instantly intriguing figure, Hughes’ rise to prominence is a fascinating watch. This is a departure from the norm for Scorsese, as his moves away from his born on the streets, everyman story, to chronicling the life of one of the richest men in America during the middle of the 20th century. He excels in this decadent time however and takes you into old Hollywood, when glitz and glamour oozed from everywhere and the streets where really paved with gold.

We start in 1927, as Hughes begins work on his motion picture epic ‘Hell’s Angels’. Here we are introduced to his obsessive tendencies and his craving for authenticity as he pushes his staff to their limits over three years, even re-shooting the picture for sound after watching the Jazz Singer. We see a driven visionary who was about to take the world by storm, but then the cracks start to show. From the premiere of his movie onwards we witness Hughes’ paranoid obsessive-compulsive behaviour start to take over him. Like a simmering plot on the verge of boiling over, Hughes continues to push himself and his finances to the limit. We see his gift and love for aviation. A true pioneer in both design and flying, he single-handedly advanced aeronautics in the early 1930s, breaking speed and distance records. He also designed and flew some of the most advanced planes of the era. Becoming just as famous as the film stars he socialised with and romanced, Hughes was the true definition of a millionaire playboy but all the time his psychological problems were simmering away.

Bringing this extravagant and troubled character to life on the silver screen was never going to be an easy task for any actor but Leonardo DiCaprio succeeds magnificently. Unfairly labelled as a ‘pretty boy’ by some, DiCaprio is one of the most interesting and talented actors of his generation. Always choosing challenging projects and never pandering to the Hollywood system, DiCaprio has always been an actor to watch and he is becoming a master at his craft. As Howard Hughes he really gets to show his range. This is a complex, troubled character that is filled to the brim with confidence one minute and in the grip of full blown paranoia in another. DiCaprio portrays this magnificently, capturing every nuance of Hughes’ fascinating psyche.

DiCaprio is supported by some magnificent performances. The always-excellent Cate Blanchett gives a remarkable performance as Hollywood screen icon Katharine Hepburn. She captures the essence of the screen goddess precisely, down to her voice, mannerisms and confidence. Kate Beckinsale is also very good as Ava Gardner, easing into the starlet’s grace and vigour superbly. John C. Reilly is as good as ever as Hughes’ financial manager and confidant Noah Dietrich. Alec Baldwin and Alan Alda shine as PAN-AM owner Juan Trippe and Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster and there are noticeable appearances by Ian Holm, Jude Law and Gwen Stefani.

As you’d expect, director Martin Scorsese and his crew deliver a visual feast for the eye. The colour pallet for movie is astounding, capturing the advances in film production through the 20s to the 40s. We move from pastel shades to glorious Technicolor, as the director throws one exquisite sequence after another at you. The flying sequences are exhilarating, from Hughes’s recording of the dogfights for ‘Hell’s Angels’ to his disastrous test flight of spy plane prototype. This has to be one of Scorsese’s best looking movies he has ever produced, and that is saying something.

The Aviator is a fascinating insight in to the troubled world of an extraordinary man. The only problem the movie has is that it only covers around twenty years of his life and for those who don’t know his story will be wondering what happened to him after the end credits role. This aside, this is an outstanding biopic that sees a true return to form for one of America’s great filmmakers.

Jamie Kelwick

 

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