The story of a man who was a success at being a failure

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2015)

The first time I saw this film I thought, "It's pretty good," but the second time I watched it I came away with a much different perspective.
Most of us knew about Howard Hughes' obsession with germs and about the Spruce Goose but not a lot about his early years or the extent of his involvement with airplanes.
"The Aviator", but virtue of its very title, lets us know that flying was Hughes' magnificent obsession and everything else came second.
Watching the film the second time I was stuck by the importance of color. At first I thought something was wrong with the color on my television because when Hughes and Hepburn are playing golf the grass and leaves are a bright turquoise instead of green and the color of the sky looked odd too, yet the flesh tones were correct. Then it hit me that the color must have been "correct" too, according to something Scorcese wanted to imply. What that might have been I don't know but it got my attention and the colors kept my attention for the rest of the film.
Vibrant decor and flashes of colors showed up throughout the film while the clothing and characters remained bland in comparison. People wearing brown jackets and slacks stood in rooms with bright green upholstered furniture or dark red walls, and the people seemed to fade into the background. Your attention was on their surroundings, not them, so that you concentrated on what they were saying instead of what they looked like.
But what do I mean by saying it's the story of a man who was a success at being a failure? Hughes, for all his billions in financial assets, never truly was a success at anything, according to this film.
Hughes' movies could never recoup their extravagant costs, he kept losing (or driving away) the women he loved, and even all his aviation dreams fizzled out when he lost contracts and ultimately a whole airline. He put too much of himself into everything he did, trying to achieve perfection, which only pushed him further and further away from it, and I came away from the film feeling sorry for Mr. Hughes. Whether that was Mr. Scorcese's intention, again, I don't know, but that was the message I got.
If you're looking for just another biopic where characters are explained to death and situations are always resolved, this isn't the film for you. But if you're willing to relax and let the images and characterizations take you over in a more subtle way, you're in for a treat.