The Aviator
July 2005 Reviewed by: Vince Hanada Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The Aviator, Martin Scorsese’s epic film, explores the life of legendary industrialist Howard Hughes. Scorsese shows a remarkable yet flawed person, which makes for a thoroughly engrossing film.

The opening scene foreshadows Hughes's obsessive-compulsive disorder later in the film. It shows Hughes as a boy, being bathed by his mother while she instills in him the dangers of diseases such as cholera and typhus. The movie then begins in earnest in 1927, with Hughes making his fourth film, the epic Hell’s Angels, and in charge of his vast family fortune -- all at the age of 21. The Aviator focuses on Hughes's early years, showing his prowess at flying, his talent for aircraft design, his romances with several Hollywood leading ladies, and his battle with the US government and Pan Am Airlines to open up air-travel routes to Europe. With so much going on in this film, Scorsese still manages to weave Hughes’s complex life into a coherent, fascinating story.

Leonardo DiCaprio does a wonderful job portraying Hughes, giving a real sense of what this man might have been like, through his attention to detail when building his planes and the germ phobia, which leads to his mental breakdowns. Throughout Hughes’s life, his OCD drove him to greatness and became his biggest hindrance. The only problem I had with the casting of DiCaprio in the role of Hughes has to do with his youthful looks. Toward the end of the film, Hughes was in his early 40s, and I found DiCaprio unconvincing at playing such a middle-aged person.

Cate Blanchett does a wonderful job in her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn. Fully deserving of her 2004 Best Supporting Actress Oscar, she manages to capture Hepburn’s accent and mannerisms. Her romance with Hughes is touching, and seeing her trying to coax Hughes out of his quarantine room really shows how much she cared for him after their romance ended. Other memorable characters include Alan Alda as Senator Ralph Brewster and Alec Baldwin as Juan Trippe, the head of Pan Am Airlines.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track on this DVD did not disappoint. This sound mix had ample bass and great use of the surround speakers, especially in the airplane-crash sequence and when the Spruce Goose fired up. The more subtle effects gave me goose bumps. The echoes during the numerous scenes in airplane hangers gave a good sense of the hangers' vast space. Howard Shore’s score was also well recorded, and it enhanced the beauty of the flying sequences.

The video quality was also first-rate. Throughout the movie, Scorsese used postproduction digital effects to give the film a period look in keeping with the era. Early on, the picture has a pastel look -- white shirts, for example, had a turquoise tinge. The look reminded me of the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas, with all of its pink and turquoise hues. Later in the film, as film technology improved, the picture became richly saturated with bold, deep colors in keeping with the 1940s. These subtleties were well rendered on the DVD.

The second disc of The Aviator is packed with extras. One of the highlights for me was the 45-minute History Channel documentary on Howard Hughes, which gives a good sense of Hughes's place in history. Another highlight is a documentary on OCD. It shows how accurately DiCaprio captured this affliction in his performance.

The movie is 170 minutes long, which some might think would become tedious. I thought that Scorsese kept the pace going throughout the film. Like The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Aviator had so much going on that I wasn’t aware of the time that lapsed. It was incredible to see how much Hughes accomplished during his life, and how his accomplishments affect us to this day.

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