The Aviator (2004)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writer (WGA):

John Logan (written by)

Release Date:

25 December 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

For some men, the sky was the limit. For him, it was just the beginning.

Plot:

A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career, from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s.

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | WWII | 1920s | Aviation | Test Flight

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 45 wins & 64 nominations

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio	...	Howard Hughes
Cate Blanchett	...	Katharine Hepburn
Kate Beckinsale	...	Ava Gardner
John C. Reilly	...	Noah Dietrich
Alec Baldwin	...	Juan Trippe
Alan Alda	...	Senator Ralph Owen Brewster
Ian Holm	...	Professor Fitz
Danny Huston	...	Jack Frye
Gwen Stefani	...	Jean Harlow
Jude Law	...	Errol Flynn
Adam Scott	...	Johnny Meyer
Matt Ross	...	Glenn Odekirk
Kelli Garner	...	Faith Domergue
Frances Conroy	...	Mrs. Hepburn
Brent Spiner	...	Robert Gross

Also Known As:

Aviator (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and a crash sequence.

Runtime:

170 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Taiwan:PG-12 | Portugal:M/12 | Malaysia:U | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | France:U | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Chile:TE | Czech Republic:15 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Iceland:12 | Ireland:12 (video rating) | Ireland:15 (original rating) | Netherlands:12 | Norway:11 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:12 (video rating) (2005) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41156) | Indonesia:Dewasa | Sweden:11 | South Korea:15 | Denmark:11

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Forward Pass

Trivia:

Four of the miniature airplanes used in creating the effects for the film are now on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, home of the real Howard Hughes HK-1 "Spruce Goose". Models on display include two of the biplanes from the "Hell's Angels" sequence, most of the XF-11 model, and the motion-control "Spruce Goose". The "Spruce Goose" model is remarkably detailed, and even includes scale puppets of Howard Hughes and Dr. Fritz.

Goofs:

Continuity: As Hughes is on the phone ordering Reel 10 to be re-run, his right index finger is pointed. When he orders chocolate chip cookies in the next shot, the finger now touches his thumb in an "OK"-like gesture.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Allene Hughes: Q-u-a-r-a-n-t-i-n-e.
Young Howard Hughes: Quarantine. Q-u-a-r-a-n-t-i-n-e. Quarantine.

Movie Connections:

References The King of Kings (1927)

Soundtrack:

After You've Gone

Three Characters

We all live in our own movies, and particularly like movies of people who do so more literally. Here are three in one film:

Martin Scorsese: My regular readers know that I have been very critical of his films. Sure, they are crafted well enough, but the world he created was not one worth visiting. His films until recently were of the Italian storytelling school which focuses on characters. Those characters do not inhabit their worlds as much as create them. Scorsese's camera, therefore, was affixed to people, almost by a visible thread.

But those of us who watch film seriously know that there is nothing but empty darkness just outside the camera's eye. There's no world, so there can be no God, or fate, or luck or whatever material you imagine fills the river of life. He knows it is a cheat as well and has said so. Just like many other fabulously successful filmmakers who know their work is hollow, in his later years he's tried to mature... to master a greater notion of creation.

"Gangs" was a success in this regard though an unfinished film because the Weinsteins pulled the plug. It marked a completely different approach to space and context, and I applauded it. Now he actually finishes a movie in the new style. Though this is a story of a man, it is no longer anchored to the man. The camera is now Orson Welles' camera with shots of the space with people in it. So obvious is some of this that when Hughes first retreats, he stays out a room that inexplicably (and unhistorically) has strings tied from hither and yon from objects. Take another look at that room and see all of Scorsese's old camera angles. I think we can welcome Scorsese now as the best new filmmaker of the year. This is as much his story as Hughes'.

Cate Blanchett: Cate is one of three actresses alive who can fold her acting, meaning that she can simultaneously deliver two characters in the same motions. She's at the top of her game here (while Julianne is devolving with an apparently thick husband). Hepburn was an amazing actress, deeply untalented in the conventional measures but capable of engineering her surroundings to suit. Her engineering of the "Philadelphia Story" persona is Hollywood legend. She engineered a character that worked, then stepped into it. The old Scorsese would have hired someone like Streep to play Hepburn and lumbered around after her.

The new Scorsese allows Cate to flower and willingly supports the folding: an actress (Cate) playing a character (Kate) who is playing a character. You can see all the conduits of control, all the taught strings at two levels. God, what a great time to be alive!

Howard Hughes: The movie gave the impression that Howard simply inherited his money. No so. He was a brilliant engineer who famously codesigned systems and the engineering organizations to support them. While most of us were barfing at frat parties, he designed a drill bit (often credited to his father) that is still the standard in the industry, together with a set of screw connections that has since become the international standard. That's where the money came from. And though he went loopy toward the end, he ensured that 100% of his wealth (yes, all assets were sold) went to endow the world's largest private research institute.

This was a passionate engineer in a world of monopolistic thugs (Gates take notice), truly what we like to think the "free market" is all about. The movie also ignores a key movie connection: He always intended the "Spruce Goose" to be made of wood, and because all US manufacturing assets were committed, he designed a production system that allowed small businesses, even backyard groups, to make pieces that would be floated down rivers and successively be glued into larger parts. This (what he called the "packet production system") was the first serious research into what we today call "virtual enterprises."

When the war ended, he sent his virtual enterprise experts into his film business where they used the system (freely giving away details) to destroy the vertically integrated studio system. Nearly all movies today use his virtual enterprise approach and the Weinsteins (producers of this very film) are the current masters of the system.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.