Martin Scorsese/USA/2004; R4 (2-disc WE)
Warner Bros, NZ$39.95 | Reviewed by John Spry

The Aviator is the result of a great director making a film about what he knows and loves: movie making in Hollywood and a maverick that intends to change the way people think. If you've seen any of the documentaries that Scorsese has been involved with about cinema, one thing shines through – that he loves movies and all that this affair entails. Scorsese has grown up going to the movies from his days in New York, through to the present where he keeps up with the latest "new" prospective talent emerging from time to time in the United States and abroad.

Like most of Scorsese's films over the past ten years, he has included in this project familiar talent from his previous endeavours, older more established talent, as well as new talents that are not afraid to entrust their own images with this master auteur. Some of these include Thelma Schoonmaker, a veteran Scorsese collaborator and editor who was awarded the Oscar for Best Editing for The Aviator; Robert Richardson, cinematographer and Oscar winner for his work on this film; Michael Mann, producer and original director of the film; John C. Reilly, actor, who also worked with the director on the troubled Gangs of New York (2002); and Leonardo DiCaprio, star of Gangs of New York, as well as Scorsese's new project, the upcoming The Departed (2005), a remake of the Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs (2003). In recent memory it is DiCaprio who has become a foil for Scorsese, enabling the director to have a bankable commodity to rely on when making new films. In fact, The Aviator and Gangs of New York have not only been the most expensive Scorsese-produced films over the past five decades, but also have generated the most revenue worldwide, thereby allowing the director to work in the ever-increasing, revenue-oriented Hollywood marketplace.

The Aviator is based on portions and aspects of the life of director, producer, inventor and industrialist billionaire Howard Hughes: a figure unparelled in talent as well as mystery in the past hundred years. Much has been speculated about Hughes' life, in particular after he dropped from public sight in the 1960s and took up residence in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Scorsese's film begins as Hughes is attempting to direct his debut picture Hell's Angels (1929), but is having difficulties on the set, and these problems as it transpires will only be the beginning of the turmoil he'll face whilst producing this feature. The production time on this film is protracted to the point where it takes years and costs Hughes personally, as the money comes from his own finances and is being made outside what is now known as the classic Hollywood system and the major studios. Hell's Angels is eventually released and Hughes becomes a sensation as people learn the astronomical cost of making the film, as well as the fact that it is a great artistic success. Hughes meets and has a prolonged and public affair initially with Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), and later Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale), both of which end terribly. Hughes then enters the airline business in direct competition with Pan Am and is drawn into public Grand Jury Hearings on wartime aircraft contracts that are believed to have been awarded negligently by the military, and have proved to be a boon on the wartime taxpayer. As these hearings reach a conclusion the work on the largest airplane ever built, the 'Spruce Goose', is completed. To prove that his ideas are sound, Hughes vows to take it for a test flight, and does with some success. The final scenes in the film see Hughes at a press conference outside the airplane, where his OCD starts to consume him completely. Throughout all of these episodes of Hughes' life, we witness the beginning and increasing symptomatic OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) that will haunt him until his death in Las Vegas in 1972.

The life portrayed in The Aviator would seem to be a metaphor for other obsessive and controlling filmmakers that have worked, and still work in films. One that immediately comes to mind is Stanley Kubrick, or currently James Cameron. Cameron is arguably the closer to Hughes' own life as he too was at the helm of the costliest film of all time, Titanic (1998) as well as being responsible for many inventions on the sets of his own films, and the ability to have others pay for his singular vision. As an example are Cameron's two most recent IMAX films The Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Of course, only parallels can be drawn with these two filmmakers and there are enough differences to separate both innovators.

Scorsese is fascinated by the classic Hollywood system as well as the production values that existed at the time. On many occasions he has talked about the way films are made today, with the philosophy that a filmmaker seems to have to work within an environment where you make a film for "them" (that is the corporation), and this frees you up to pursue your own personal project. It remains to be seen where The Aviator fits in Martin Scorsese's eventual oeuvre, but it has enough of his classic traits that for now, it can be considered a worthy accomplishment for the greatest living auteur still operating on a grand scale.

The Aviator as a text operates as an above-average biopic that lends itself to be viewed as a visual history of one man and his fight to see his personal vision live and breathe in the real world. It becomes clear watching the film that Hughes was too ambitious and larger than life to be contained by anyone. Like those mavericks and intellectuals before him, his legacy does and will live on, or at the very least in film history and popular culture.


The DVD is presented in widescreen (enhanced for 16:9 televisions) and is spread over two discs with many of the extra material devoted to the different aspects of Howard Hughes' life, as well as the filmmakers and stars of the film. The first disc contains the feature film as well as a commentary by Martin Scorsese and others, which has become standard on all of most recent films released on DVD. Any DVD that features a commentary by Scorsese is a treasure, as he so obviously enjoys talking about his features and seems genuinely interested in imparting as much relevant information as possible to the audience.

Any new Martin Scorsese film should at least be worth a watch; however this film is a superior piece of work especially when compared to recent works such as Gangs of New York. I would recommend this DVD as a purchase and in conjunction with the special features and the low retail price, is an essential part of the modern DVD collection.