Wick's Review

Summary - Really Great 4.5

Howard Hughes is a name that evokes American mythos to those of us of a certain age. He made and flew the fastest planes, made and directed the biggest movies and was the world’s richest man. Most of us forget about the movies, enormous though they were. Martin Scorsese – cinema’s number one fan – never forgot.

The Aviator is Scorsese’s remembrance of the one, the only Howard Hughes. The man was a real life Tony Stark, Steven Spielberg and Bill Gates rolled into one. There’s a lot to cover, even just the moviestars alone.

Katharine Hepburn & Ava Gardner were big moviestars who were serious with Hughes. Leonardo DiCaprio squires Cate Blanchett & Kate Beckinsale in The Aviator, three stars who are actually less attractive than the real Hughes, Hepburn & Gardner. Hell, Ava G. was the world’s most beautiful animal¹ for Pete’s sake.

Blanchett won an Oscar for her Katharine Hepburn, though it’s DiCaprio’s Howard Hughes that is most riveting. Beyond acting, Leo was almost bigger than Hughes had been when Scorsese made this ‘04 movie.

Scorsese dominates the movie however, and not just in his recreation of the biggest aerial movie of all time. For instance, he and Oscar-nominated writer John Logan give The Aviator its own Rosebud: “Quarantine”.

In between the opening and closing “Quarantine”, Scorsese gives us nearly three hours of inimitable scenes from the fantastic life of a modern American Odysseus: mashing Jean Harlow’s hand as they arrive at the premier of Hell’s Angels; walking on broken glass with Katharine Hepburn; becoming addicted to soap.

The Hughes & Hepburn scenes are the most compelling, however, and not just because they match up Leo & Cate. Rather, they represent a collision of American archetypes: the industrious entrepreneur vs. the rich sophisticate. The family-dinner-from-hell shown nearby captures this to a T. Money was disdained by the fashionably socialist Hepburn clan. “That’s because you have it,” quipped Howard Hughes. He could have gone on to say that only the careless rich can afford socialism, but instead he exited stage right.

Scorsese directing DiCaprio as the most awesome boyfriend ever gives The Aviator immense charm, even without such meet-the-family contretemps. Immense charm, world historic events, bravura cinema: The Aviator can truly be said to be up to it’s subject. You could even say it’s the Howard Hughes of biopics.

¹ How Joseph L. Mankiewicz billed her in The Barefoot Contessa

Acting - Really Great 4.5

Leonardo DiCaprio was ideal to play Howard Hughes ($20,000,000 was his going rate by then.) and played him ideally. Leo had already made Gangs of New York with Marty when he became Howard Hughes for him. He’d play again for Scorsese in The Departed, Shutter Island & The Wolf of Wall Street. DiCaprio fearlessly essays Hughes’ breakdown as the OCD took hold of him. Leo received a well deserved Oscar nom for what was an ideal DiCaprio role, losing out on the Academy Award to Jamie Foxx’s Ray Charles.

Moviestars

• Cate Blanchett won an Oscar essaying Katharine Hepburn, not undeserved even if Cate ain’t no Kate.
• Kate Beckinsale undershoots Ava Gardner, who left Howard Hughes for Frank Sinatra. Now that’s hot.
• Gwen Stefani smiles, waves and looks glam as Jean Harlow, star of the huge Hughes’ hit Hell’s Angels.
• Jude Law plays Errol Flynn in one spectacular flameout at a swanky nightclub.
• Kevin O’Rourke as Spencer Tracy: Katherine Hepburn left Howard to be Spence’s mistress. Imagine that.

Others

• John C. Reilly as Noah Dietrich, who answered an ad and later found himself running Hughes Enterprises
• Alec Baldwin is a natural as Juan Trippe, the founder & CEO of Pan American World Airways, when it was the most prestigious airline in the world.
• Alan Alda is suitably unctuous as Senator Owen Brewster, the Senator from PanAm.
• Ian Holm as a meteorologist who gets some major demands placed on him by Howard Hughes
• Danny Huston as Jack Frye, Hughes’ right hand man for building the world’s fastest planes
• Frances Conroy as the supercilious Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn, mother of Katherine Hepburn
• Willem Dafoe as Roland Sweet
• Brent Spiner as Robert E. Gross
• Stanley DeSantis as Louis B. Mayer
• Edward Herrmann as Joseph Breen
• J. C. MacKenzie as Ludlow Ogden Smith
• Josie Maran as Thelma the Cigarette Girl

Film - Really Great 4.5

Martin Scorsese did himself proud with The Aviator, a superlative film about a titanic subject.

Let us now praise the aerial action, from the world’s largest private air force to zooming between the dog-fights to film them, to the spectacular crash of the Hughes Aircraft XF-11 spy plane into several Beverly Hills homes when he missed an emergency landing at the L.A. Country Club. Spectacular, all of it.

John Logan’s screenplay ends mercifully before Hughes’ final disintegration.

Edge - Risqué 2.2

Howard Hughes attracted way more than his fair share of Hollywood’s finest actresses. The man didn’t stay loyal to Katherine Hepburn for Pete’s sake. This all comes out in the movie, yet with zippers never undone.

Reality - Glib 1.2

Scorsese seems to have used minimal creative license in bringing Hughes’ exploits to the big screen. Cinematic shortcuts aside, The Aviator is a lens into an American Odysseus.

• Howard Hughes enters the Spruce Goose, says “I need a second”, during which Scorsese cuts to cards sorting, after which Hughes mentally diagnoses a structural problem to this unparalleled airplane he’s building, then comes up with a solution on the spot. Marty may be exercising artistic license, but there’s no denying Hughes was every bit the polymath that Mozart was in Amadeus.
• Leadbelly sang about him in the appropriately named Howard Hughes. That’s major Q.

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