The Aviator (2004)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Story: John Logan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda
Music: Howard Shore
Time: 163 minutes
Bottom-line: The Aviator takes off nicely, soars high and lands well, with a bit of turbulence along the way
   
  Martin Scorsese decides to take a break from thrillers and directs The Aviator, a biopic on American aviator, filmmaker and businessman Howard Hughes. The film captures his life from the 1920s, when he was one of the richest men in the world, till the 1940s when he becomes an obsessed madman. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes, The Aviator brings out the best acting skills in DiCaprio.

DiCaprio as Hughes

Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn

The story begins with a small clip when Hughes was about nine years old, and immediately cuts to 1927, when Hughes directs the World War I film ‘Hell’s Angels’. The film is a hit. Hughes starts a relationship with Katherine Hepburn (Blanchett), but it does not last long, as Hughes becomes obsessed with aviation and does not care about their relationship. After becoming the ‘fastest man on the planet,’ Hughes establishes Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA). The chairman of PANAM, Juan Trippe (Baldwin), does not want Hughes to ruin the success of PANAM. So, along with his friend Senator Brewster (Alda), Trippe plans to introduce a bill that would give PANAM a monopoly on international air travel.
 The rest of the film is how Senator Brewster and Trippe plan to bring down Hughes and ruin his reputation. The film also covers several important incidents of Howard Hughes’ life, till he becomes a madman with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Alan Alda as Senator Brewster

The role of Howard Hughes is a challenging one: his attitude and overall acting style has to change throughout the film. Initially, when he is rich, he is commanding person, always aiming for perfection. Later, he becomes a little calm, especially after the plane crash, where he becomes severely injured. By the end, he becomes a madman. DiCaprio proves that he can play a more serious role than simply being a romantic hero. DiCaprio also changes his accent, changes his hairstyle and even keeps a moustache in the later part of the film, so his look completely changes in this film. He has lot of fast dialogues in the film, and his acting towards the end, when he has OCD, is excellent. For instance, in one scene, he keeps saying “Show me the blueprints” continuously for about 20-30 times without taking a pause.

Other plus points include the settings. Most of the planes used in the film are scale models. Scorsese has done a great job in making the film a period drama. For the first 50 minutes of the film, scenes appear in shades of only red and cyan blue; green objects are shown blue. This was done to emulate the look of early bipack color films, in particular the multicolor process, which Hughes himself owned (according to Scorsese) (source Wikipedia). The costumes are also well designed. The editing and camera work are excellent. There are many scenes which immediately shift from one to another, like in the scene when Hughes’ plane crashes, and in the Senate Hearing. Both the plane crashes have been filmed in a great manner, with lot of visual effects. Blanchett and Alan Alda have acted very well. The dialogues are good, including a few catchy ones.

I didn't like the way the story has been told. The incidents have no flow. Sure, you can say that Scorsese wanted to show only the important incidents of Hughes’ life, but still, there should have been more flow to the story. The film is like watching a video clip by skipping many parts in between to finish it faster. The Social Network is also a biopic, but it has more flow: all incidents are connected. Another drawback is that I felt DiCaprio has overacted in some scenes. The role of Hughes is a challenging one, as I said, so maybe he has overworked the role in some places.

Another minus point is the scene which shows the meeting with the Censor Board. The content is very vulgar, and could have well been skipped, but yet, Scorsese adds it to the film. That incident doesn’t interfere much with Hughes’ life (as far as the film goes), and so, maybe it could have been deleted.

Yet, Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic is another good film, with lots of period detail, good special effects and terrific acting by the leads. DiCaprio does a stunning performance. If you are used to Scorsese’s thrillers or if you have seen DiCaprio only a sort of goody-goody hero, this will be a new experience, but an enjoyable one for sure. In my view, this is the best film of the five Scorsese-DiCaprio collaborations.

My Rating: 3.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%