Fresh off his Olympian effort of The Gangs of New York, Martin Scorsese decides to not skip a beat and jump head first into yet another American epic. This time his focus is a biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s.
For those unfamiliar, Howard Hughes was one nutty fella. The millionaire son of a Texas inventor. Howard Hughes (DiCaprio) quickly moved to Los Angeles to become a Hollywood film producer, where he helped launch the career of Jean Harlow and other starlets, and producing such classics as Hell's Angels, The Front Page, Flying Leathernecks, and Scarface (the 1932 original).
Moving on to aviation, Howard decides to change the aviation world by creating several groundbreaking planes. Like so many other good white male Texan-Americans, he also made many millions in America's oldest profession, war profiteering.
Yet even as Hughes conquers Hollywood, aviation, and the cream of the glamorous leading ladies crop, his germophobia and obsessive-compulsive behavior that became his downfall linger in the background.
The filmmaker's challenge comes from subjectively portraying mental illness without turning campy. But through amazing direction and acting we see how a simple doorknob can seem like a bottomless pit of germs, or how sharing milk can become a glorious romantic gesture.
Having been just awarded the Golden Globe for best drama and 11 Oscar nominations, The Aviator is a worthy portrayal of one of America's most visionary eccentrics.
