Review of The Aviator (2004) by Rex L — 25 Mar 2011

An earlier result of the Scorsese/ Di Caprio creative partnership than "Shutter Island", "The Aviator" is every bit as involving as an experience. Two points seemed to stand out when I saw it again recently, which hadn't really done so previously; One is that Scorsese likes to cast his leading actors as characters with overt or covert psychological problems, and the other is that Howard Hughes could be seen as much as the victim of his own obsessive attention to detail (which merely annoys and exasperates those around him, initially) than as a benificiary of it - but it was nevertheless an integral part of his innovative genius which earned him untold millions.

The go-getting frontier spirit he embodied in his early years as a controversial film producer and air speed record holder made him an icon and a household name in America - so it was only natural that someone would come along sooner or later to try to rob this upstart king of his clothes. In this case, it's the president of Pan-Am who tries to shut down Hughes's T.W.A by claiming corrupt dealings have taken place through the U.S. military and that the taxpayer has been defrauded. Di Caprio's Hughes fights the case and wins, but all of the signs of reclusiveness, mania and fanaticism about hygiene are already present in his behaviour: This would lead him to become a urine- storing, paper tissue obsessed basketcase in his later years, far more bizarre in his habits than Michael Jackon ever seemed to be: I'd swap you a "Spruce Goose" for a visit to "Neverland" anyday!

Cate Blanchett stands out from his harem of starlets as Katherine Hepburn, of "The African Queen" fame. She, more than anyone else, sees the incredible ups as well as the hellish downs of sharing her life with Hughes - she realises he has hearing problems during one of their early encounters on a golf course, and delivers a typically forthright swipe at him when she pronounces "I sweat, and you're DEAF!".

It's one of those stories which is barely credible, yet it's all based on fact. As Hughes himself says (repeatedly) in the last scene: "It's the way of the future!".