Not your usual all-American hero

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2005)

Not your usual American hero, and not your normal Hollywood one either. The cinematography itself is probably the biggest star of the movie, second place going to Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, and third to Leonardo DiCaprio for Hughes the Aviator himself. Touching, funny, and often spectacular. The film catches the 1930 is by pastiche as much as realism. Most memorable line for me is Hepburn's 'people like us are different' summing up the double-edged sword that is celebrity based on eccentric genius. Scorsese's description of Hughes' battle to save his reputation in the face of big business backed politicians makes him a sympathetic hero, and perhaps most wonderful of all is how the director would have us judge Howard Hughes by his great achievements, rather than his notorious image. He may not be a conventional hero in the Hollywood style, but this story of genius oppressed by disability and judged by a media more interested in a story than the facts can only do credit to the memory of the much maligned millionaire.