The Aviator

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2008)

This biographical drama from Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated director Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, The Departed) is not as good as the much more accomplished biopic Raging Bull (about Jake La Motta), but it is certainly worth a go. It shows the life of Hollywood mogul and aviator (plane pilot and designer) Howard Hughes (Golden Globe winning, and Oscar and BAFTA nominated Leonardo DiCaprio). It shows his making of his only two (directed) films Hell's Angels' and The Outlaw (although he's best known for helping Howard Hawks make the original 1932 Scarface), his affairs with such stars as Ava Gardner (miscast Kate Beckinsale), Jean Harlow (singer Gwen Stefani), and more prominently, the great Katharine Hepburn (Oscar and BAFTA winning, and Golden Globe nominated Cate Blanchett), and his millions spent, lost and succeeded on plane design and manufacture. But the scenes I found most intriguing and gripping were his attempts, successes and one big failure in plane test flights (notably the one that almost crippled him), and his slow decent into both bankruptcy and madness, his repeating of phrases is most frequent. Also starring John C. Reilly as Noah Dietrich, Alec Baldwin as Juan Trippe, Oscar and BAFTA nominated Alan Alda as Senator Ralph Owen Brewster, Sir Ian Holm as Professor Fitz, Danny Huston as Jack Frye, Jude Law as Errol Flynn, Edward Herrmann as Joseph Breen, Willem Dafoe as Roland Sweet, Kelli Garner as Faith Domergue, Adam Scott as Johnny Meyer, Frances Conroy as Mrs. Hepburn, Independence Day's Brent Spiner as Robert Gross, Matt Ross as Glenn Odekirk, Kenneth Welsh as Dr. Thomas Norval Hepburn and Kevin O'Rourke as Spencer Tracy. Most of the actors in this film do look and sound (a little mostly) like who they are meant to be, Blanchett and DiCaprio obviously being best, there are some memorable moments, e.g. the plane crash, and Scorsese makes quite an intense (in parts) film. It won the Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Editing, and it was nominated for Best Sound Mixing, Best Writing, Original Screenplay and Best Motion Picture of the Year, it won the BAFTAs for Best Film, Best Make Up/Hair and Best Production Design, and it was nominated the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for Howard Shore, Best Special Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound and the David Lean Award for Direction, and it won the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Original Score, and it was nominated for Best Screenplay. Very good!