One of Scorsese's Greatest Achievements

Rating: 10/10 (4 March 2005)

Howard Hughes has entered popular legend as an eccentric, half-mad recluse who also happened to be one of the richest men in the world. Martin Scorsese's biography reminds us that there was much more to the man than that. It deals with the earlier part of Hughes's life from the late twenties to the late forties when he achieved fame in a number of fields, as a pioneer aviator, as an aircraft designer, as Chief Executive of TWA, as a film-maker and as the lover of a number of beautiful women, mostly Hollywood actresses. The film deals with all these aspects of his life. It starts with Hughes working on "Hell's Angels", his epic film about pilots in the First World War, and goes on to chronicle his achievement in breaking the world air speed record, the building of the world's largest aircraft (a military transport plane officially known as the Hercules but dubbed the "Spruce Goose", an aircraft crash which nearly cost him his life, his battle to establish TWA in the face of political corruption which favoured his rivals Pan-Am, and his love affairs with Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner.
Hughes is very much the hero of the film, not its villain. He is, admittedly, a flawed hero, but then none of us are flawless- certainly not the heroes among us. He can be stubborn- for example, he insists on completing the Spruce Goose even after the military have cancelled their order and it should have become clear to him that there is no commercial future for the plane- and also ruthless, as when he blackmails a muckraking journalist who is threatening to publish a story about Hepburn. Throughout the film we are conscious of his struggles with the mental health problems- especially his paranoid fear of germs- that were to worsen in the latter part of his life. Nevertheless, we are always aware of the powerfully creative side of his personality, his flair for business and his combative spirit. This comes out most strongly at the end of the film when TWA's business is threatened by a Senate bill that would have given Pan-Am a monopoly on international air travel and Hughes is summoned to be interrogated before a Congressional committee about his business record. Hughes's enemies expect that he will be humiliated, but he is able to answer all the charges against him to such good effect that the bill is defeated.
Leonardo di Caprio was excellent as Hughes. I must admit that I have not always been his greatest admirer; he struck me as an untalented pretty-boy when I first saw him in "Titanic", and there was little in "Romeo and Juliet", "The Beach" or "Gangs of New York" to persuade me to change my mind. He was, admittedly, better in "Catch Me If You Can", but this was a light-hearted film very different in style to "The Aviator". He seems, however, to be maturing into a very good actor and succeeded in bringing out the various sides of Hughes's complex personality. Of the other performances, the two that stood out were Cate Blanchett's impersonation of Hepburn and Alan Alda as Hughes's enemy, the corrupt senator Owen Brewster who is more interested in serving the interests of Pan-Am than those of his constituents.
Apart from the high standard of acting, the film is distinguished by an equally high standard of cinematography. The aviation sequences are outstanding, the scene of the crash which nearly killed Hughes being particularly heart-stopping. Another thing that stood out for me, but which I have not seen much commented on elsewhere, was the film's use of satirical humour. I particularly liked the scene where Hughes meets Hepburn's wealthy and artistic family, who treat him with patronising condescension while revealing their own snobbish ignorance of business and technology, and the one where he defends his film "The Outlaw" in front of the film censorship board who are obsessed with Jane Russell's "mammaries". The main qualifications for the position of film censor seem to have been equal measures of obtuseness and prurience.
This is a long movie, but the life-story of a man as complex as Hughes is one that needs to be told at length. It is a long time since I have seen a filmed biography painted on such an broad canvas and told with such an epic sweep. The two which it most calls to mind are Richard Attenborough's two fine biographies of Gandhi and Chaplin. Like many others, I am at a loss to understand why it lost the Best Picture Oscar to "Million Dollar Baby". Did the Academy members, working in a predominantly liberal industry, dislike its relatively conservative, pro-business stance? Was the satire aimed at Hepburn's family a bit too close to the bone for some? Was Clint Eastwood preferred because he is closer to the Hollywood mainstream than the independent auteur Scorsese? Certainly, the Academy often seem to allow their hearts to rule their heads when it comes to Oscar voting, and Scorsese's films may be too emotionally cool for their tastes. Although "The Aviator" is perhaps warmer than some of his other films in this respect, it lacks the sentimentality which "Million Dollar Baby" possesses in abundance. To my mind,however, "The Aviator" is a masterpiece that I would rank among Scorsese's greatest achievements. 10/10