Genre: Drama/Biography
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Beckinsale,
Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, John C. Reilly, Gwen Stefani, Adam
Scott, Kelli Garner, Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, Ian Holm, Danny
Huston
RunTime: 2 hrs 49 mins
Released By: SHAW
Rating: PG
Released
Date: 13 January 2005
Synopsis:
Leonardo DiCaprio plays billionaire Howard Hughes, who went
from wealthy Texas heir — he inherited his father's
tool company — to billionaire tycoon. The film follows
Hughes' career as a powerful Hollywood producer (he eventually
owned RKO Pictures), oil baron, and casino owner, but focuses
particularly on his love of aviation, which led him to design
his infamous enormous flying boat, the Spruce Goose.
Movie Review:
After "Gangs of New York", Leonardo DiCaprio once
again teams up with Director Martin Scorsese for the biopic,
"The Aviator". Billionaire Howard Hughes might not
be a familiar figure to most of us but he's indeed an iconic
figure in the aviator industry and Hollywood in the past.
The
larger than life Howard Hughes is not just remembered as an
innovative filmmaker, his life is constantly surrounded by
starlets and airplanes as well. That is before his complusive
disorder and germs phobia conquered the genuis in him which
resulted in his own reclusion in a Beverly Hills hotel room
in his last two decades of his life. Screenwriter John Logan
("The Last Samurai", "Gladiator") and
executive producer DiCaprio wisely focused the whole story
on Hughes's mind-blowing and impressive achievements and the
result is harrowing.
The
movie began with the 19 year old Hughes making his first foray
into Hollywood with his own financed World War I epic, "Hell's
Angels". Costing US$4 million (which is a huge sum at
that time) and 3 years to complete, the movie was deemed doom
to many but the young Hughes managed to pull it off with great
box-office records. Beside making more controversial movies
(the violent "Scarface" and the sexy "The Outlaw"),
Hughes never gave up his dream of flying at great speed and
believing flying should be made affordable, available to everyone
in the future. He comissioned his own engineers, bought the
airliner TWA and nearly killed himself in one of the test
flight (in one of the most exhilarating air sequences in the
movie). Despite all these, he was very much a loner, without
proper family support and loyal lover at his side, it's a
sad fact to see the man slowly succumb to the world of isolation.
An
eye for detail especially the glamourous Hollywood of the
past, Director Martin Scorsese shot the movie in great, intricate
visual detail. If you look carefully, you would see the movie
is shot in the look of Cinecolor and two-strip Technicolor
in the beginning which reflects that time period. Note the
peas on the plate served in the Cocoanut Grove club.
Kudos
to the special effects team for recreating detailed minimature
models of past airplanes such as the H-1 Racer, XF-11 spy
plane and "The Hercules" and blending them with
today's digital technology to create Hughes' glorious inventions.
Leonardo
DiCaprio is amazing as Howard Hughes. He is both articulate,
smart, handsome and entices empathy from the audience as his
character struggles between his intellect and inner demons.
If there's one thing about DiCaprio's performance, it's his
boyish good looks which hampered his portrayal of Hughes in
his later years. Cate Blanchett is wonderfully outstanding
as Katharine Hepburn (who romances Hughes for 3 years) unfortunately,
Kate Beckinsale's Ava Gardner didn't left much of an impression,
nevertheless looks gorgeous. With an excellent supporting
cast which includes Alec Baldwin as the head of Pam-Am, the
rival of Hughes's TWA, John C. Reilly as his trusty right-hand
man and if this is insufficient, it boasts Jude Law and Willem
Dafoe in cameo roles.
Cramming close to 3 hours, "The Aviator" is surprisingly
the most entertaining biopics ever filmed and coming from
the hands of Martin Scorsese, i'm not surprised if this movie
won the best picture award. Though much of Hughes's origins,
his cause of his illness and his subsequently downfall were
hugely left unexplained. One will never forget his contributions
to the aviator industry. Howard Hughes was a genuis, a perfectionist
in everything he do. A man who created the future. His passion
and spirit for chasing the things he loved should be learnt
by many of us. I for one cherished and admired that.
Movie Rating: A-
Review
by Linus.T. |
