Another Scorsese masterpiece!

Rating: 8/10 (11 July 2005)

Martin Scorsese has been nominated five times for Best Director at the Academy Awards and not once received an Oscar. Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and most recently The Aviator. All of his films have been successes but he has never received credit where credit was due.
In The Aviator, Scorsese depicts the millionaire Howard Hughes; a man who is intelligent, rich as hell, and obsessive compulsive. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the director/aviation expert who wants nothing more than to make more money doing what he loves, not what his father got rich off of. Howard wants to make movies...good movies and to design and fly his own airplanes. In his first film Hell's Angels, he had his own air force built to shoot the realistic dog fights and amazing camera shots. This blockbuster hit took a lot out of him, mentally and financially, but he got it all back.
With the introduction of Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), he finds a person who is rich, famous, and just the person for someone like him. Cate does a phenomenal impersonation of Hepburn and rightly deserved the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Everything seems to be going great for Hughes. He is becoming more of a celebrity and is having some difficulty handling it.
After the success of Hell's Angels, Hughes buys up the majority shares of TWA Airlines. He wants some of his ideas to be made into reality. After breaking the world record of flying speed in an airplane, Howard is ambitious. His ideas for new aircraft and commercial aircraft that are immense are looked at by other rival airlines, such as Pan Am. Everything Howard does is scrutinized by everyone and he starts to crack.
After wrecking his new plane and nearly killing himself, Howard must go on the long road to recovery. Howard was always cautious of germs due to his mother's teachings. His little black bar of soap he uses to wash his hands "clean" is of the same nature of Dr. Mannette's work bench in A Tale of Two Cities. Whenever he uses it, he slowly slips back into a bad mental state. Dealing with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) is not an easy thing for him.
This movie is a brilliant biopic of a man once thought to be genius and insane at the same time. Howard Hughes is showcased as both in this movie. Scorsese shows how a man tormented in his mind deals with his problems while being in the public eye all the time. DiCaprio is absolutely mind blowing as the millionaire Hughes. His portrayal of the man won him an Oscar nomination. The movie took home five Oscars that night, only one in the major categories (Cate Blanchett).
The look of the movie gives it a vintage look from the roaring 20's right up to the 40's. Scorsese directs a gem with The Aviator. It is visually stunning! Scorsese sure can tell a story. This movie is flying high above the rest.