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DVD : The Aviator (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Rating: - Fascinating biopic
The story of Howard Hughes is a lot more exciting than I expected it to be. The film begins with the making of the lavish spectacular 'Hell's Angels' in 1930, and continues through to Hughes's battle to preserve his TWA airline after WW2.

I took a great dislike to Leonardo di Caprio in 'Titanic' which I absolutely loathed. Likewise I disliked Cate Blanchett in 'Elizabeth. Here, however, both actors give terrific performances, Cate Blanchett is marvellous as Katherine Hepburn and diCaprio carries this very long film without once boring me. There are excellent supporting performances too, I particularly enjoyed Alan Alda as obnoxious Senator Brewster, and Jude Law is suitably gorgeous and raffish in a cameo performance as Errol Flynn.

It is diCaprio's film though, and a very good film it is.

Rating: - The Talented Mr. Hughes
Honestly when I first heard they were making this film and casting Di Caprio I was perplexed, I mean I have seen pictures of Howard Hughes and he looks nothing like Leonardo, but amazingly as I watched this film I thought he embodied Hughes and even sort of resembled him. Scorsese is of course a great director and he gets the most out of Leonardo, this is a demanding character and Di Caprio nails it. The period clothes are great, this was a great time for fashion. I don't know who the cinemaphotographer was, but he does a great job, the images are so crisp and well filmed. Hughes was a fascinating subject and being from Houston, I was familiar with his story, but this indepth take is so interesting, whether you are interested in Hughes or not. To this day his grave in Glenwood Cemetery, in the shadow of Houston's skyline, is the most visited burial place in the city. Ah, the enigma that is Howard Hughes; weird dude.

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Rating: - THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AMAZING HOWARD HUGHES
STATED BRIEFLY: BEST BIOPIC I HAVE EVER SEEN WITH THE EXCEPTION OF CITIZEN KANE!

Of course, "Citizen Kane" is about a fictional character, so it is not really the same. Nevertheless, somehow, this film depicts Howard Hughes as being a kind of self-made Citizen Kane.

"You get a sense of Howard Hughes being Icarus with the wax wings. Those wings were great for a while, but he flies too close to the sun." - Director, Martin Scorsese

BRILLANT EXECUTION OF A FILM THAT'S TOO LARGE FOR LIFE:

Scorsese's undertaking, a sympathetic portrait of the rise and fall of a great-though-enigmatic American, needed a special formula which Scorsese executed, making "The Aviator" all the more compelling in the process.

Unlike films like "Giant" with James Dean which featured a strong beginning which then needed a rushed second reel to meet time constraints, "The Aviator" fleshed out that first reel without constraint and effectively touched on all the salient issues that made Howard Hughes great while clearly and fairly illustrating the tragic darkness which progressively sowed the seeds for his eventual fall. Having seen his trials and tribulations which fairly depicted the reel meat of his life climaxing with his subcommittee testimony, we're ready for a fast-though-appropriate ending using the device provided by his illness -- "THE WAY OF THE FUTURE". It was a very clever device to thematically end the movie while, at the same time, including everything the film needs in what essentially could be considered the first reel. In this manner, Scorsese was able avoid compromise in the content, scope, and length of the film while keeping the studio and easily-bored moviegoers from coming out of their skin due to the film's length. The nearly-3-hour film went fast and played like a tragic Comet or like the "Icarus" of mythology, which is exactly the way it should have been as its style seemed to be a complement to Howard Hughes' life.

-----* AT THE END - IT WAS ALL OVER --

SCORSESE SPARED US THE PAIN OF WITNESSING HUGHES' WANING YEARS -

Without having to see the next 25+ years of the amazing aviator's life, we had enough good lifestyle material and retrograde hints to see where Hughes' life would eventually take him. Having already seen the major and most interesting highlights of Hughes' life, we had enough to fill in the conclusion without actually seeing it. In so doing, Scorsese avoided what would have been tedious, painful, overly long, and redundantly superfluous. It is truly another Oscar-worthy turn at directing for Scorsese.

ABOUT THE ACTING: NO SHORTAGE OF TALENT - BIG NAMES OR EFFORT

Here is an incomplete list of the superb cast of "The Aviator":

Leonardo DiCaprio - Howard Hughes
Cate Blanchett - Katharine Hepburn
Kate Beckinsale - Ava Gardner
John C. Reilly - Noah Dietrich
Alec Baldwin - Juan Trippe
Alan Alda - Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster
Ian Holm - Professor Fitz
Danny Huston - Jack Frye
Gwen Stefani - Jean Harlow
Jude Law - Errol Flynn
Adam Scott - Johnny Meyer
Matt Ross - Glenn Odekirk
Kelli Garner - Faith Domergue
Frances Conroy - Mrs. Hepburn
Brent Spiner - Robert Gross
Stanley de Santis - Louis B. Mayer
Edward Herrmann - Joseph Breen
Willem Dafoe - Roland Sweet
Kenneth Walsh - Dr. Hepburn
J.C. MacKenzie - Ludlow

There was a lot of sensational acting here, but Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes truly makes the movie and becomes "The Aviator"!

ABOUT SCORSESE'S APPROACH TO DIRECTING THIS MASSIVE PROJECT:

Scorsese effectively uses a neat device in fictionalizing where the beginning and usually the end of a dramatized occurrence or theme of a scene is framed by events we can see are clearly biographical facts. For example, we see Howard Hughes burning all his clothes in a very dramatic scene after Katherine Hepburn informs him that "she has found someone else". Scorsese makes it clear by the consistent manner of his presentation that this did happen. The break-up was 100% certain while the burning of the clothes in the manner depicted was probably extrapolated from the kind of facts that detectives use. The scene is closed with a 2 A.M. phone call from Hughes' to his trusted business manager Noah Dietrich (John C. Reilly). Hughes demands that Dietrich go to J.C. Penney's and get him some clothes. He describes the garments needed and then vacillates between J.C. Penney's and Woolworth's, finally deciding on Sears. This part of the scene probably happened exactly as shown and Scorsese makes that clear with hints like "Are you taping me?" permeating the phone conversation. That simple "Are you taping me?" puts a fine point on the growing paranoia that has always been present in Hughes' mind and represents just one of the many methods Scorsese utilizes to get the most mileage out of his script.

-----*- OVERALL

This is one of the best films I have ever seen. "The Aviator" is a superbly appropriate treatment of the life of a great man who most definitely can be defined by his rise and fall and the components that influenced both. This film most dramatically and effectively casts a bright light on the character of the man that was a giant of very different proportions from anyone who has come into the light before or after him. Scorsese clever portrayal of balance in Hughes character by illustrating the fluctuating emotional states that influenced many of the important events of Hughes' life, is what really puts this film ahead of other epic biopics.

THE DVD: 2 DVD SET is a best buy!

PERFECT AUDIO AND VIDEO - MANY FEATURES: some pertained to Hughes' mental illness etc.

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Rating: - Fan-tastic!
This film has it all: inventive cinematography, glamour, thrilling action scenes, and a heartbreaking story.

The focus is on two aspects that greatly affected the brilliant Howard Hughes' life: his love of airplanes, and his struggles with the (then-unknown and untreatable) chemical imbalance Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. No other movie I've seen shows the horror that OCD can be (usually they just try to make it 'cute'), and the OCD scenes are incredible. Ditto for those amazing airplane scenes.

Cate Blanchett did a wonderful job channelling Kate Hepburn. But it is DiCaprio who stuns in the role that won him the Golden Globe for Best Actor; he gives a beautiful, knockout performance.

Add to this a great period music score and the deft, imaginative direction of the brilliant Martin Scorsese, and you have a picture that deserved every award it won, and more!

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Rating: - Excellent performances all around!
I really liked Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator." It might have been long for some viewers but it did tell the story of Howard Hughes in fragments, just like his life really was. Leonardo DiCaprio did a great job playing Howard Hughes... I was dissapointed that he did not win the Best Actor Oscar for this role since it was an excellent performance... He had to play a character who was a perfectionist, a hypochondriac with obsessive compulsive disorder, a movie producer, a womanizer, an aviator and an overall arrogant/selfish billionaire. However, I must say that the GREATEST asset to this movie was Cate Blanchett's performance...She was OUTSTANDING as Katherine Hepburn, Howard's favorite love interest. WOW!!!! The way she played Katherine Hepburn was pitch perfect: she walked like her, talked like her, ate like her, behaved like her and everything was well done on her part. She truly deserved the Oscar she won last year for Best Supporting Actress. Kate Beckinsale was great as Ava Gardner in the small role that she had on the film. The biggest shock to me was Alan Alda's nomination for Best Supporiting Actor Oscar... Although I LOVE the movie and I think he is a respected veteran actor known for his role from MASH, his performance as the scheming senator was very brief, appearing only towards the end of the movie when him and Howard are at the Senate hearings... so I'm wondering how did that guarantee him an Oscar nomination? Oh well... he's Alan Alda. Other than that it was a movie that is definitely worth seeing. I'm shocked it did not win the Oscar for Best Motion Picture last year, but it luckily took home 5 awards, being the night's most awards per movie.

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