Hollywood tradition preserved!

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2005)

The best film of 2004 is a throw back to old Hollywood and has the visuals to back it up. Martin Scorsese directs his most ambitious film to date that will rank as one of his best in the history of his career. Scorsese doesn't use his quintessential style that audiences are used to from his early days in the film industry. Instead, Scorsese's approach to the material here, while unsentimental as his films usually are, is totally majestic in style and matches the maverick personality of it's protagonist Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio). DiCaprio is brilliant as the aviation pioneer, industrialist and film maker who always did things while thinking big in typical American fashion and while he was deeply flawed as a person, he prevented a monopoly in the airline industry that perhaps prevented other monopolies from taking place and saved the true American spirit of competition from being destroyed. Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn and Alan Alda as a corrupt senator add to the support of this film that, along with DiCaprio's performance, make it the grand epic that it will be remembered for. A true classic!