AN EPIC TO SWEEP YOU AWAY : "THE AVIATOR"

Okey dokey, we hadn’t had a good old “true story” for a while now (documentaries don’t count). And I hadn’t watched a Martin Scorsese film in a while. The main reason for the latter is that I have gone through pretty much everything he has filmed to the present day and watched it (at least once) with great gligany. I was overjoyed to see The Aviator priced at a mere 2 pounds sterling in a large supermarket chain in the U.K – so as you can see I haven’t abandoned my frugal habits! The time was ripe to watch it the other night and boy oh boy… Leonardo di Caprio and Martin Scorsese are well on the way to becoming one of those “classic duos” I reckon… I have great respect for Leonardo di Caprio. He started off with half the planet quite sure he was nothing more than a pretty face. Now, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone to refute the fact he is a damn fine actor. But I digress. Let us get stuck into the story of the aviator – Howard Hughes.
Howard Hughes (Leonardo di Caprio) was a young man in the ‘30s. He was a wealthy heir, inheriting large companies and a lot of money in Huston Texas at a very young age. A lot of people assumed he would continue the family business – drill bits – but Howard had other plans. There were two things in life he wanted to do: Build airplanes and make films. So, much to the surprise of his elders and betters, that is precisely what he channeled all the family fortune into. It seemed like a gamble, it seemed foolish, and a in fact Mr. Hughes skated on the borders of complete bankruptcy for most of his career. However, it turned out, that Howard Hughes had a flair for both. And this flair was so great, that the size of his success and his ventures began to attract the wrath of the stronger men in both industries. But these were not the only enemies Mr. Hughes had to deal with. He had many personal demons, very severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that worsened although his life almost crippling him towards the end of it, to battle as well… To the point that it becomes pretty clear that if one set of enemies don’t get him, the others definitely will… Or will they?
The thing I love about Martin Scorsese’s films is their grandeur. I figured this out last night as I watched The Aviator. And it has to be said, Howard Hughes was ALL about grandeur. I mean, really and honestly. His first epic picture Hell’s Angels was shot with a total of 26 cameras, nothing short of lunacy in his time, but he insisted, went as far as mortgaging companies to get the job done and even made a profit out of what Hollywood deemed to be an impossible film. He was by all accounts an impossible man to work for, but his personal life was constantly populated (over-populated by some accounts!) by some of the greatest and most striking names of the time, including Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchette) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). His eccentricities were incredibly extreme – I’ll let you discover them as you watch the film itself – but the strength with which he battled them and then came up on top, “winning” over all his demons, be it in the business world or in his head, was equally incredible. So yes, it is a big film full of big emotions and Scorsese gives the film its due in a way few directors could. There is something innately satisfying about sitting down in front of a really big, epic movie and being swept away by it. Something cathartic you might say. This film is everything it promises to be, plus a fascinating true story to boot. Not to miss.