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DVD Movie Rating for: The Aviator

Rating for The Aviator : 5 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: The Aviator

DVD Production Details of: The Aviator

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Cast of the movie: The Aviator

• Leonardo DiCaprio .... Howard Hughes
• Cate Blanchett .... Katharine Hepburn
• Kate Beckinsale .... Ava Gardner
• Adam Scott .... Johnny Meyer
• Kelli Garner .... Faith Domergue
• Alec Baldwin .... Juan Trippe
• Gwen Stefani .... Jean Harlow
• Ian Holm .... Prof. Fitz
• Alan Alda .... Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster
• Gavin Black .... Hughes' film crewman
• Emma Campbell .... Helen Frye
• Joe Cobden .... Guest at dinner party
• Frances Conroy .... Kit Hepburn
• Willem Dafoe .... Tabloid editor
• Jacob Davich .... Young Howard Hughes
• Elizabeth DeCicco .... Starlet
• Stéphane Demers .... Maître d'
• Stanley DeSantis .... Louis B. Mayer
• Al Dubois .... Pan Am executive
• Meghan Elizabeth .... Starlet
• Trevor Hayes .... Chef
• Harrison Held .... Louis B. Mayer crony
• Sam Hennings .... Frank
• Edward Herrmann .... Joseph Breen
• Arthur Holden .... Radio Announcer
• Chase Hoyt .... Fan
• Manoel Hudec .... News analyst
• Danny Huston .... Jack Frye
• Yves Jacques
• Ronnie Kerr .... Hughes' aide
• Jason Klamm .... Man in tux at 'Hell's Angels' premiere
• Vincent Laresca .... Jorge
• Jude Law .... Errol Flynn
• Brian T. Lynch .... Ground crewman
• Jane Lynch .... Amelia Earhart
• J.C. MacKenzie .... Ludlow
• Josie Maran .... Thelma
• Aleksandrs Petukhovs .... CIA agent
• James Rae .... FBI agent
• Matthew Reidy .... Photographer
• John C. Reilly .... Noah Dietrich
• Richard Rossi .... Queen Mary guest
• Matt Ross .... Glenn Odekirk
• Scott Sahadi .... Photographer
• Nellie Sciutto .... Nadine Henley
• Justin Shilton .... Test pilot
• Amy Sloan .... Allene Hughes
• Linda Smith .... Guest
• Brent Spiner .... Robert Gross
• Harry Standjofski .... Louis B. Mayer crony
• Dennis St John .... Custodian
• Chris Ufland .... Engineer
• Loudon Wainwright III
• Martha Wainwright .... Vocalist at Cocoanut Grove
• Rufus Wainwright .... Singer at Cocoanut Grove
• Jeremy Zafran .... TWA Executive
• Benjamin Centoducati .... Film worker
• Danielle Franke .... Esquire Starlet
• Michael-John Wolfe .... Cary Grant

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Photo Gallery The Aviator with Kate Beckinsale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett

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Reviews of the movie: The Aviator

Tthe life of Howard Hughes, the subject of Martin Scorsese's highly ambitious The Aviator.

Industrialist billionaire, aviation pioneer and daredevil, film producer, Hollywood playboy, and yes, that reclusive mysophobe who wore the Kleenex boxes on his feet. Hughes was all of these things, and as with four of the aforementioned personalities, he left his own unique and indelible mark on 20th century arts and culture. Like the famed Greek conqueror, his ambition took his life to incredible heights, only to falter because genius and madness have a tendency to bleed together.

With so much historical ground to cover, it's understandable why The Aviator runs close to three hours, yet there's rarely a dull moment because Hughes lived such an active and varied life. As with Ray, this film doesn't attempt to tell the whole story from womb to tomb, opting to focus on the most important years of Hughes' legacy from the late 1920s into the '40s.

After a short prologue that establishes Hughes' fear of germs from an early age, the film launches from 1927 Hollywood. Twenty-two-year-old Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) has secured the family fortune from his late parents and is now attempting to launch a career in motion pictures. His sprawling aviation epic Hell's Angels is a brilliant beginning to The Aviator because it quickly introduces nearly every facet of the man. As a filmmaker, Hughes was like some unholy combination of Cecil B. DeMille and Ed Wood-a visionary with a passion for grand-scale production, yet irrational with his art and reckless with his seemingly limitless finances. This is a man who dreamed big and then spent his resources to make those dreams a reality, regardless of the cost or wisdom to realize that dream.

Without spoiling too many details of this hilarious opening segment, Hell's Angels was the most expensive movie of its time, and though it did prove popular with audiences and critics, it failed to turn a profit because of Hughes' relentless (and ridiculous) ideas. Yet it certainly wasn't a complete failure, as his moviemaking process led to the formation of Hughes Aircraft, to which he later added Trans-World Airlines and further established his aviation empire with a government contract to build for World War II. That's Hughes for you-snatching success from the jaws of failure because of his diversified business dealings.

Hughes' movies also earned him clout among the Hollywood elite, leading to a sweetly developed relationship with screen legend Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett). Initially, Hughes isn't sure what to make of the actress's brash and outspoken personality. But after a sweet date flying over Hollywood in a private plane, the two seem right for each other-two type-A personalities so enamored with their celebrity, they're afraid to let the world see the flawed "freaks" underneath their personas.

Not that all "freaks" are created equal-Hughes redefined terms like "manic" and "eccentric." Despite all of his ideas, the man never seemed to take proper time to think them through or give them the necessary attention, always moving on to the next big thing. As portrayed in the film, this is a man who unveiled his concept for the world's largest aircraft (The Hercules, dubbed by many as the "Spruce Goose") while editing his latest cinematic endeavor-and also while finalizing the blueprints for the half-cup bra to better enhance his favorite Hollywood starlets. Hughes' reputation as a womanizer is handled with restraint, though things get a little creepy when he begins to date a teenage girl half his age. Nor does it help when symptoms of Hughes' mental disorder begin to manifest more publicly and consistently with time.

All this dirt serves as potent ammunition for competing Pan Am mogul Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin) and his backer, Maine Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (Alan Alda), who wish to bring Hughes down to further their own quest for power and success. For all of Hughes' faults, the film still portrays him as an idealistic and capitalistic underdog-unorthodox and obsessed with success, but not at the cost of corruption.

The Aviator features an amazingly large all-star cast, including Kate Beckinsale (Van Helsing) in a small role as Ava Gardner and cameos by Jude Law (Closer) as Errol Flynn, pop star Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright as a club singer, and his folk legend father Loudon Wainwright III as another. Matt Ross and the always-reliable John C. Reilly (Chicago) are both good in supporting roles as Hughes' chief aviation engineer and financial consultant, respectively. Both Baldwin and Alda have fun immersing themselves in slimy, Machiavellian roles.

Of course, filmgoers are most curious how the relatively young Leonardo DiCaprio fares in a movie that requires him in nearly every scene and demands considerable range. Some have said that he is too young and short for the part, but they forget that the actor is now 30 (The Aviator focuses on Hughes from 22 to 42) and 6'1" (only a little shorter than the real Hughes). What people are really objecting to is that Leonardo DiCaprio is a little too slight and fair for the role. There's some truth to that, as the actor isn't entirely convincing as a man in his 40s, though he becomes a little more believable after growing some facial hair.

Beyond the physical, Leonardo DiCaprio delivers the performance of his career-certainly worthy of an Oscar nomination and a strong follow-up to his good work in Gangs of New York and Catch Me if You Can. He's got the charm, arrogance, and mania down for the part, and he successfully carries the picture. Yet just as strong, and perhaps even more memorable, is Blanchett, who delightfully captures Hepburn's bossy mannerisms while convincingly lending the role some much-needed heart.

As for Martin Scorsese, he may be one of the most highly regarded film directors today, but he's yet to win an Oscar or offer a bonafide hit film. Unsavory subjects, heady style, gratuitous R-rated language, and graphic violence have tainted much of his past work and turned off many a filmgoer. The Aviator is probably Martin Scorsese's most accessible movie yet, a true Hollywood biography of impressive scale, combining old-time filmmaking with the director's usually brisk and clipped style. He flexes his cinematic muscle here, offering variation in scope by combining modern CGI for the aerial scenes with beautiful set design that faithfully recreates the Golden Age of Hollywood. Expect the Academy to give Martin Scorsese some overdue honor this year.

Additionally, the screenplay by John Logan (The Last Samurai, Gladiator) is very well written, helping keep a sprawling historical epic engaging with heart and humor. There are several scenes of memorable dialogue, often infused with laughs. If one Hepburn seems like too much to handle, imagine when Hughes has dinner with six more members of Katharine's candid and aristocratic family. There's also fun in watching Hughes clash with the MPAA over his bawdy western epic The Outlaw, considered risqué for its time. On top of all this, Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings) delivers another strong score to lend the film extra weight.

Time will tell how much of a classic The Aviator really is, but evaluating it as the sum of its parts, this is indeed likely the frontrunner for the Best Picture Oscar in 2005. It's almost predictable in the way it delivers the cinematic goods, yet there's no denying that it is a compelling and entertaining look at a larger-than-life individual. The movie thankfully sticks to presenting the general facts of Hughes' life, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions about a wildly successful man who ultimately proved to be his own worst enemy: "There's too much Howard Hughes in Howard Hughes." Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, this was a man who attempted to balance too much-indulging his disorders, desires, and vision all at once-in his relentless pursuit of "the way of the future."

First and foremost, Scorsese and screenwriter John Logan (whose resumé barely suggests that he's capable of such fine work, considering that it includes the recent Time Machine remake and the animated Sinbad ) reclaim Hughes as a human being. This depiction is no caricature, though Hughes is portrayed as fatally flawed and teetering on the brink of mental illness by the time of his ignominious demise in 1976. Indeed, within a few years of his death, Hughes the long-haired hermit popped up as the subject of Jonathan Demme's satire, Melvin and Howard . Jason Robards was fine as the dotty elder Hughes, but you'd be hard-pressed to understand what made the man such a dynamic, significant figure from that portrayal.

This long -- nearly three hours, but never feeling even slightly padded -- biopic gives us Hughes as an obsessive genius. Fuelled by a vast fortune from the manufacture of drill bits for Texas oil wells, the young Hughes squanders his inherited wealth on pet projects. The Aviator kicks off in the late '20s, when Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio, so much better here than he was in Scorsese's unfocussed Gangs of New York ) is filming Hell's Angels , intended to be the greatest film about the airborne fighting of the First World War. Toward that end, Hughes assembles one of the largest air fleets then in existence, and keeps his pilots and cameramen on constant call until his staff meteorologist (a flustered Ian Holm) can guarantee "clouds like gigantic breasts loaded with milk." We understand at the outset that a rich man's perfectionism may result in an unexpectedly lengthy production schedule when the title card beneath the scene reads: "HELL'S ANGELS: YEAR ONE." The film won't see release until 1930, and then only after it's been reshot to satisfy its maker's insistence that a sound version should replace the instantly obsolete silent original.

You can feel Scorsese's admiration for Hughes the unfettered filmmaker in these scenes. After all, Scorsese is a director whose ambitions have often been thwarted or downsized for lack of sufficient capital. But it's more than mere envy of Hughes' deep pockets. Scorsese connects with his subject on the crucial matter of doing whatever it takes to get it right. His own talents are in full bloom as he juggles the complicated elements of Hughes' life and still finds room for splendid portrayals of Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett, who spent weeks immersing herself in all things Hepburn), Hughes' nemesis Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), his faithful retainer Noah Dietrich (John C. Reilly) and his occasional paramour Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).

In his quest for fidelity, Scorsese gets many small details exactly right. He shoots much of his footage set in the '30s in long-outmoded two-strip Technicolor, the better to provide a sense that we're peering into the past. It's subtle, and it succeeds. When Kate takes Howard for a visit to the family estate in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the look of the Long Island Sound shoreline is perfect.

Better still, The Aviator illuminates Hughes' groundbreaking achievements as a designer and a fearless test pilot of his own product. In a plane he helps engineer, he breaks the world speed record. He builds prototype spy planes and a notoriously overdue jumbo cargo plane (nicknamed, to Hughes' dismay, the Spruce Goose) for the U.S. Military. His risk-taking as head of TWA fosters the competitiveness of international air travel. When his integrity is under fire, he stands up to a Senate witch hunt and walks away unscathed.

This brilliant man can walk off a movie set and immediately shift gears to answer technical questions about the latest aircraft he's assembling -- but there's a dangerous downside to such micromanagement. As he haltingly admits to his then-fiancee Hepburn, "Sometimes I think about things that just aren't real." In a public restroom, he has to wait until someone else opens the door before he can exit; freshly washed, he can't bear the thought of re-contaminating his skin by touching a doorknob teeming with germs. DiCaprio makes the incipient madness a permanent undercurrent in the character. Sometimes, it rises to a crescendo, obliterating everything in view. Most times, it's just throbbing in the background. As Hughes ages (and suffers a deepening hearing loss, along with chronic pain from a fiery plane crash), the madness is made palpable. Naked, dirty, pissing into empty milk bottles, Hughes paces his self-made cage. It's a pitiful retreat from reality that raises the question: If he had lacked the wherewithal to cocoon himself so completely, could he have been forced to submit to treatment?

Blanchett is spot-on, in her sassy stride and her patrician old New England manner. DiCaprio finally reminds us why he seemed like such a hotshot: He's got the chops; he just needs to find the right role. The Aviator is a triumph all around, but give the loudest applause to Scorsese. Casino (1995) was his last greatish film, but even then it was clearly a step down from previous gangland epics like GoodFellas and Mean Streets . Kundun was very good, but an aberration in the oeuvre. Bringing Out the Dead may well be the weakest movie bearing Scorsese's name. And the aforementioned Gangs of New York has plenty of strong sequences but no center. It was way too soon to give up on Scorsese -- even his lesser films aren't downright lousy. But The Aviator breathes new vitality into a slightly stale career. This is one of Martin Scorsese's very best, and a contender for the best of 2004