The Aviator

Director: Martin Scorsese
Year: 2004
Tagline: Some men dream the future. He built it. (more)
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, Ian Holm, Danny Huston, Gwen Stefani, Jude Law, Adam Scott, Matt Ross, Kelli Garner, Frances Conroy, Brent Spiner.

Copyright © 1990-2005 Internet Movie Database Inc.

When I sat to watch this film, in bed, at 1 am of a Friday night, I didn’t know anything about it, but the title: The Aviator, the star: Leonardo di Caprio, and that it was nominated to five Academy Awards. I immediately recognised Di Caprio's *passionate* style. But this time he was not acting the poet maudi of Total Eclipse, the good-hearted unprivileged Jack of Titanic or the burning character of Romeo. Like in Catch Me if You Can, in The Aviator he was playing the real story of an unusual and complex personality.

Howard Hughes is a millionaire business man, portrayed by Scorsese in a glamorous 30s America, reminiscent of La Belle époque lifestyle. Precisely, Howard is a film producer, one of the pioneers of the world aviation, and an aviator himself. He is a smart, clever and determined leader, but also a quirky man, timid, reserved and at unease in social and public situations. For his manias of perfectionism, he is in quest of developing the most perfect aircraft and setting up the first commercial airline, but—as his life will prove—his mind is not apt for corporate power. [I read that he managed to get richer and richer by driving his companies to bankruptcy.] Subtler, and more worrying are his obsession for cleaning, order and tidiness, and his phobias for dirtiness, which, when occur, have a paralysing effect on him. Di Caprio is impressive in delivering this sense of inner sorrow. He is also convincing in conveying an erotic aura of allure, which goes beyond his reputation of pretty actor and young sex symbol. The deepness of his wrinkled eyes and his voice whispering: “Let me touch you, let me learn how to please you, I want to learn everything about you" has a compelling effect – at least on me. This magnetism does not pass unnoticed to the femme fatales surrounding him, and the film offers us some intense love affairs with glamorous movie stars, such as Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner. I particularly liked Cate Blanchet’s mesmerizing interpretation of a fashionable, strong, masculine and laud Katherine Hepburn. She conveyed a profound, theatrical and, at the same time, a bit caricature-style image of this woman in her 30s and at the climax of her career.


After a plane crash which nearly killed him, and the cancellation of an important business contract with an airline company, his neurosis, which have deep roots in his infancy, finally degenerate to a nervous breakdown. He secludes himself in a room, a sort of germ-free zone, and sits naked on his white chair watching film after film for an indefinite amount of time (perhaps months). We are in the ‘40s, and the war has just begun. With the help of Eva (Gardner), he manages to come out of this tunnel and regain his genial lucidity to admirably defend himself from the government’s accusations of having stolen millions of dollars to build airplanes never delivered during the war. He manages also to avoid selling his company to the competition and redeems his reputation by successfully flying the biggest plane ever built, proving to the world that he was right--at least this time. It can sound like a contradiction the fact that he is scared of the least bean of dust, but fearless of piloting experimental aircraft even after a nearly-deadly accident. But, then, this is the proof of how paranoids and fears are irrational and always embrace their own contradictions. And only a genius with an extra factor like him could contribute to the sky revolution of the 20th century. Martin Scorsese did a magisterial use of technology and feelings offering a well balanced mix of a fascinating chapter of history and a troubled personal story.

After the film, my curiosity to know more about characters’ biography arose, and I made some researches. But I am glad that I saw the film without knowing anything about his real life, because I could concentrate on the story and enjoy it without searching the historical man in the fictional character.

P.S. It's a long film. I had to watch it in two sessions. Before falling asleep and the next morning.