Sad for Marty on Oscar night...

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2005)

Scorsese's best film. Ever. Tour de force and bravura film-making that stays true to the subject and milieu of late 1920s-1940s Hollywood. Keep watching the film and realize the faithfulness Scorsese pays to Hughes' vision, as if it were one of the mogul's pictures. It's not as though Scorsese is like Howard Hughes (like some critics have stated), but one can still be memorized by his genius-- and seems as though it caught Scorsese to make the picture. I wish things worked out better for Hughes, but he left us with paving the "way of the future." Hats off to DiCaprio (as I also thought was under-appreciated in This Boys Life; Canton-Jones, 1993), who assiduously perfects Hughes unusual behavior. I admire that Scorsese left us with as a positive, albeit complex portrayal of a 20th Century wonder. Way to go Marty. Total highway robbery at the Oscars; without saying, it deserved best directing and best picture.
I'm still trying to understand Hollywood politics; what do they have against Marty? Could be that he's so independent like Hepburn, yet she won 4 awards? Or maybe because he sympathized with Hughes? Or maybe because it was the evening commemorating Lumet, and that would be insulting to him? Wrong, that's all I could say. I just don't know! Very wrong the film was not acknowledged. But you know what, neither was Apocalypse Now! In 50 years, we'll still be talking about The Aviator. 10 Stars; not Million Dollar Baby.