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Rating: 4.25 out of 5
I didn’t know much about Howard Hughes before watching this movie. Yet, I did some research on the man thanks to the one and only Wikipedia. Hughes was a man that did it all. It must be nice to be wealthy because he seemed to get whatever he wanted. I read that Hughes was worth around $11 billion. That was BIG TIME money back in his day. Hughes did it all. He was a business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, film director, and philanthropist. He was known as one of the most financially successful individuals in the world.
Dude was a prominent film producer who made films such as The Racket (1928), Hell’s Angels (1930), and Scarface, a freakin classic that was the starting point for Scarface with Al Pacino. Homeboy even took over the RKO Pictures film studio. When he seemed to conquer that, Hughes turned his interest to aviation and aerospace travel. He spent his time setting speed records and even acquired an airline. With all this, Hughes later became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle. Homeboy had EXTREME OCD which made it look like he had lost his mind. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the film depicts the life of Howard Hughes (DiCaprio) from 1927 to 1947.
With a biopic film, the main goal is to make it entertaining and have it be something people would want to watch. Well, Scorsese made sure to show this man’s life in a big way. Hughes was on his Tony Stark grind as a billionaire entrepreneur, aeronautics visionary, bold Hollywood producer, and fearless pilot. Scorsese made sure to show everything that Hughes wanted to do. With Scorsese’s direction, he ensured this film was up to Hughes’ standard of perfection. Scorsese did a great job presenting Hughes’ world in three areas: aviation, relationships, and mental health. When he combined these three together, fireworks happened.
The film depicts Hughes as a man who wanted to do anything and everything in the area of aviation. It showed in a beautiful way how Hughes pushed the limit with the speed record. It almost seemed like he was obsessed with making aviation the best ever. He breaks the world record by flying around the world in four days. When that isn’t enough, he purchases the majority interest in Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA). This causes drama PanAm tries to introduce a bill to have only one airline fly international. Hughes even obtains contracts for two projects with the Army Air Forces, one being a spy aircraft and the other a troop transport unit for use in World War II.
The second area the film focuses on is the many Hollywood relationships that Hughes had. Hughes seemed to pull any beautiful actress he could get. He had romantic relationships with Hollywood’s iconic such as Katharine Hepburn (Blanchett), Ava Gardner (Beckinsale), Faith Domergue (Garner), and Jean Harlow (Stefani). The one that was the strangest and should’ve sent his ass to jail was the relationship with Faith Domergue, who was only 15 years old. Straight up NASTY! The major one was with Katharine Hepburn. Hepburn was great for Hughes, but homeboy screwed that one up majorly. Since I am talking about Hollywood, Hughes went to great lengths to get his pictures made. Homeboy went in front of a board with poster-sized photos of different actresses’ breasts just to make a point. Slow clap.
The final part of this film, or shall I say, is about Howard’s OCD and reclusive life. I have minor OCD, but Hughes took it to a new level. Watching him eat food and his peas being in perfect order before he could eat. He washed his hands relentlessly. When Hepburn left, dude went down such a spiral that it almost didn’t look like he was going to make it out. Homeboy was peeing in bottles and leaving them all over the place while eating massive amounts of cookies. It was intense to watch.
In this film, there are a ton of stars in it. You will sit back and just try to name all of them. The two I want to talk about are DiCaprio and Blanchett. DiCaprio was excellent as he always is in films. He usually goes to the extreme in his roles, and he displayed Hughes in an incredible way. Dude stood outside in his underwear and burned all his clothes. Yet, DiCaprio seemed to have fun with this role. You could see that he was really trying to win that elusive Academy Award.
The one who stole the movie for me was Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn. I swear it was like watching Hepburn all over again. You can tell that Blanchett put some major time into studying Hepburn’s mannerisms and speech patterns. She was great in this role and definitely showed what a great actress she is.
Let’s talk about the cinematography of this film. There were some beautiful shots shown during this film. When Hughes went for the speed record, just looking at that silver plane fly back and forth in the sky. One scene that really stood out and was freakin creepy was when Hughes did this interview-type thing with Faith Domergue. He had this giant as light behind him, and it looked strange. Another scene was when Hepburn and Hughes went flying. The night’s sky just looked peaceful.
The Aviator is a good film about one of the wealthiest men in the world. DiCaprio and Blanchett are great in this film. Blanchett stands out the most with her portrayal of the legendary Katharine Hepburn. Watch a man who wanted to rule the skies but had personal problems.
