The Aviator, by John Logan - 9 out of 10

The Aviator, by John Logan
9 out of 10


The Aviator is a mesmerizing, intriguing biopic that covers part of the life of the controversial, fascinating, extravagant, peculiar and then mad tycoon, inventor, entrepreneur, film director and most important for him, Aviator, Howard Hughes.
Leonardo DiCaprio is vibrant, ecstatic at times, excellent in the role for which he won the Golden Globe and many other trophies, being also nominated for an Oscar.

The motion picture has had a record number of nominations for the Academy Awards, of which it has won five, and other prestigious prizes.
Cate Blanchett is phenomenal as Katherine Hepburn, who has been the lover of the eccentric, difficult, jealous, impulsive and often abusive genius.

In one especially heated scene, he shouts at Hepburn:

'Remember you are just a movie star!'

He was infuriated at that stage by the relationship between her and the married, Catholic Spencer Tracy, a love that would enter cinematic history, for their performances against each other would become masterpieces.
When a journalist, portrayed by Willem Dafoe, would present the photos documenting the infidelity, the wealthy Hughes would offer to have them at no matter what cost, in a very generous, apparently, effort to avoid their printing in the newspapers.

The reporter asks for 50,000 TWA shares and is offered 10,000.
This is the commercial airline controlled by Howard Hughes, who will have to fight a fierce battle with Pan Am, whose owner and boss was Juan Trippe aka the formidable Alec Baldwin- fantastic as vicious Trump over the past few years.

Juan Trippe tries hard to devour TWA, has a monopoly over flights to Europe and he is helped illegally by Senator Ralph Owen Brewster aka Alan Alda.
What the hero loves most is flying.

He is the ultimate Aviator.
Piloting a new model, he has a terrible accident, in which the list of injuries is so long and horrific as to make one think it is the end.

Ribs are not just broken, but smashed, one lung is terribly affected and his heart is pushed in the right side, while he had suffered burns over 74 % of his body and his face has been mutilated.
Worse, he seems to have to choose between bankrupting the airline of his airplane building venture.

He has been working for a long time on the project of Hercules, a huge aircraft that would transport soldiers and tanks.
We know it today, but at the time, it looked like a white elephant, an impossible dream.

Committed, daring, resilient, provocative, confident, courageous, effusive, genius and peculiar as he was, Howard Hughes had declared that if he would not be able to fly his Hercules, he would move from the United States, defeated.
No spoiler alert is needed, I guess, since we know this is an American Army airplane that is in use to this day.

So, this was a successful endeavor.

However, in his private life, the inventor, creator, manager, engineer, visionary - one cannot help but think of Leonardo Da Vinci, who was also a master in so many domains - Hughes seems to have been a failure.
Jealous, obnoxious, bad tempered, arrogant, domineering, suspicious and intrusive, he installed microphones in the house of Ava Gardner.
After the end of the relationship with Katherine Hepburn, the Aviator became obsessed with Ava Gardner aka Kate Beckinsale.

At 170 minutes, The Aviator is a rather long, wonderful, indeed, one of the best in recent times, motion picture, directed by the iconic, glorious Martin Scorsese.