"I got six turnin' n four burnin !"

Rating: 3/10 (21 October 2005)

Said the pilot of a B-36 Peacemaker atomic bomber. From that reference you can guess I am as keen on Aviation as Mr Hughes was, but without the talent and the quirks?
I think enough film experts here have been eloquent enough about the film's shortcomings but I will however add my own.
"I got six turnin' n four burnin !" Six props & four jets.
How much we saw of the Hughes inner soul turnin' & burnin' I am not sure? Di Caprio the boy is a good enough actor but not for this part. However much he tries he will still come across as a boy.
The Hughes story would be a long one in any film. I thought that Kate Blanchet was excellent as Katharine Hepburn. I doubt whether many will agree but I felt there was a 'soap opera' element to this film. More so than the soap Hughes used on his hands. He was a character of complexes and yet there must have been depth. Talent to for designing aircraft and a visionary in some areas. As pointed out by other posters it never really became apparent why ? His mother touching him in the bath as a child I think is really a superficial and even trendy piece of filming ? Hughes obviously loved aviation and he did some extraordinary things in his early days. The 'Spruce Goose' his Hercules flying boat would have been underpowered and the flying boat era had come to an end and Hughes realised this whether or not this came out in the film is a debatable point? Again as other people have pointed out why so little about the man's decline and isolation. It did take up a large portion of his time on this earth.
I am biased but I would have liked the film to be taken more from an aviation point of view and less about the relationships - but relationships sell films. Talking of which I have read in an aviation book that Hughes had a long term homosexual relationship with Carey Grant ! Who, what when .......er I'll read that bit again! Yes, I was surprised but the book(I have forgotten the reference)did not substantiate the claim. The author just wrote it if it was a known fact ?
Over-hyped with the wrong actor(don't ask me who I'd choose)Howard Hughes is as difficult subject to make a film about as he was difficult in real life.