Actors - The Aviator

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	Actors - The Aviator

The Aviator is a 2004 biographical drama film, directed by Martin Scorsese. It was distributed in the U.S. by Miramax and outside the U.S. by Warner Bros., and like many of Scorsese's films, was nominated for numerous Academy Awards, and went on to win 5 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actress for Cate Blanchett. Roger Ebert, a respected American film reviewer, described the film and its subject Howard Hughes in these terms:

:"What a sad man. What brief glory. What an enthralling film, 166 minutes, and it races past. There's a match here between Scorsese and his subject, perhaps because the director's own life journey allows him to see Howard Hughes with insight, sympathy — and, up to a point, with admiration. This is one of the year's best films."

Synopsis

Summary

The movie is a biopic of the aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. It follows his life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, a time when Hughes was directing and producing Hollywood movies as well as test piloting his own groundbreaking new aircraft.

Orphaned at 17, Hughes was the son of a Texan inventor, who left him most of his tool company upon his death. At the time, he was a college student at Rice University. From there, he moved to Los Angeles to become a movie producer, helping fledgling actors launch their careers, such as Jean Harlow, whom he cast in Hell's Angels. He also produced Scarface
. Later in his career, he branched out into other industries, such as electronics, and most significantly aviation. His company,, Hughes Aircraft was responsible for the H-4 Hercules," nicknamed "Spruce Goose" by detractors. Hughes's mental deterioration with his obsessive-compulsive behavior is a major plot thread through the film.

The movie also details Hughes's romances with Ava Gardner and Katharine Hepburn, and his battles with Pan Am's Juan Trippe, who has allegedly bribed Maine senator Owen Brewster into granting Pan Am a coercive monopoly on international registered air travel. Hughes admits to having Congressmen in his pocket, too, which he did in real life.

Detailed synopsis

The film begins with nine year old Hughes being bathed by his mother, who warns him of disease: "You are not safe." This shows the root of his obsession with germs. We next see him as a 22-year old preparing to direct Hell's Angels
. He hires Noah Dietrich to run Hughes Tool Co, while he oversees the flight sequences for the film. He is two cameras short and unsuccessfully tries to get loaners from Louis B. Mayer, who laughs at him and tells him to go back to Texas. Realizing that the audience will not be able to have a sense of space from the shot dogfight footage, Hughes becomes obsessed with finding "clouds that look like giant breasts full of milk" to re-shoot against. He hires UCLA meteorologist Professor Fitz to determine the perfect formation, and ends up waiting eight months. When the Professor tells him there are clouds in Oakland, California, Hughes moves production there, and re-shoots the dogfight himself.

By 1929, the film is finally complete, but, while watching The Jazz Singer
, Hughes realizes that "talkies" will become the rage, meaning Hell's Angels will have to be re-shot for sound, costing another year and $1.7 million. The film is a huge hit, and Hughes is the one laughing now. He makes Scarface
and the The Outlaw
. However, there is one goal he relentlessly pursues: aviation. During this time, he also pursues Katharine Hepburn. The two go to nightclubs, play golf, and fly.

As Hughes's fame grows, he is seen with more starlets. He takes an interest in commercial-passenger travel, and purchases majority interest in Transcontinental and Western Air (T&WA). In 1935, he test-flies the H-1 Racer, breaks the speed record of Charles Lindbergh, and crashes in a beet field. "Fastest man on the planet," he boasts to Hepburn. Three years later, he flies around the world in three days, shattering the previous record by four days. Meanwhile, Juan Trippe, owner of Pan American Airlines, and Owen Brewster worry over the possibility that Hughes might beat them in the quest for commercial expansion. Brewster has just introduced the Commercial Airline Bill, which will give world expansion to Pan Am. Trippe advises Brewster to check to the "disquieting rumors about Mr. Hughes."

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Aviator ]

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Actors - The Aviator

Synopsis

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