Slow Pace at Times; Still Remarkable

Rating: 9/10 (13 September 2010)

I think Scorsese wanted us to see the full Hughes package. He wanted us to get inside the head of one of the most remarkable tragic figures in history. Since most of Hughe's demons appeared later, the inventiveness and risk taking billionaire (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) dominates the screen. He is a pile driver and gets his way. It makes you wonder if this man had been poor early in life, what would have been the result? This film captures him in his ups and downs. Through all it, however, is the undercurrent that is put to us in the opening scene, that the world is dirty and we need to be protected from it. Howard begins his compulsive behavior at this early age, the seeds of destruction planted by an over protective mother. Along the way we meet Katherine Hepburn, Ava Gardner (his equal in arrogance), Faith Domergue ("This Island Earth"), and other Hollywood stars (Errol Flynn and Carol Lombard). The movie is a circus. It is fraught with big scenes and painful scenes. I have trouble with biopics because they often are based on one man's view of things (Oliver Stone, for example), but I had a sense that Scorsese had done his homework and was able to keep to the more public Hughes.