The Aviator

The Aviator
Directed by	Martin Scorsese
Produced by	Michael Mann Sandy Climan Graham King Charles Evans, Jr.
Written by	John Logan
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio Cate Blanchett Kate Beckinsale John C. Reilly Alec Baldwin Alan Alda Gwen Stefani
Music by	Howard Shore
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Editing by	Thelma Schoonmaker
Distributed by	USA/UK/Germany theatrical UK/Germany DVD Miramax Films Buena Vista Distribution Latin America/Australia theatrical USA/Latin America/Australia DVD Warner Bros. Spain 20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	17 December 2004 (premiere) 19 December, 2004 (premiere) 25 December 2004 10 February 2005
Running time	169 min.
Language	English
Budget	$110 million[1]

The Aviator (2004) is a American biographical drama film, directed by Martin Scorsese and based on the life of Howard Hughes. It tells the story of the eccentric aviation pioneer, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, following Hughes' life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, a time when he was directing and producing Hollywood movies as well as test-piloting his own groundbreaking new aircraft. The film also illustrates Hughes' descent into severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and reclusiveness.

Plot

The Aviator has no opening credits other than the title. The film begins with nine-year-old Hughes, supposedly in 1914, being bathed by his mother, who warns him of disease: "You are not safe."

The film next shows him in 1927, as a 22-year old preparing to direct Hell's Angels. Hiring Noah Dietrich (John C. Reilly) to run Hughes Tool Co, while he oversees the flight sequences for the film, Hughes becomes obsessesed with shooting the film realistically, even re-shooting the dogfight himself. By 1929, with the film finally complete, when The Jazz Singer is released, Hughes re-shoots the film for sound, costing another year and $1.7 million. Nevertheless, Hell's Angels is a huge hit, and Hughes makes Scarface and The Outlaw. However, there is one goal he relentlessly pursues: aviation. During this time, he also pursues Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett). The two go to nightclubs, play golf and fly together, and as they grow closer, move in together as well. During this time Hepburn becomes a major support and confidant to Hughes, and helps alleviate the symptoms of his obsessive-compulsive disorder. As Hughes' fame grows, he is seen with more starlets.

Hughes takes an interest in commercial-passenger travel, and purchases majority interest in Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA), the predecessor to Trans World Airlines. In 1935, he test flies the H-1 Racer but crashes in a beet field; "Fastest man on the planet," he boasts to Hepburn. Three years later, he flies around the world in four days, shattering the previous record by three days. Meanwhile, Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), owner of Pan American Airlines, and Senator Owen Brewster (Alan Alda) 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 solely to Pan Am. Trippe advises Brewster to check to the "disquieting rumors about Mr. Hughes."

Hepburn and Hughes eventually break up when she announces that she has fallen in love with her movie costar (although he is briefly seen but never clearly stated, the viewers already know that the costar is her would be life-long partner Spencer Tracy).

He soon has a new interest: 15-year old Faith Domergue (Kelli Garner) and later, Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). He also fights the Motion Picture Association of America over the steamy scenes in The Outlaw. He learns of Pan Am's efforts to run TWA off the map yet secures contracts with the Army Air Force on two projects, a spy plane and a troop transport. By 1946, Hughes has only finished the XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft and is building the H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose") flying boat.

With the strain of meeting deadlines and budgets, Hughes starts to show signs of alarming behavior, repeating phrases over and over and exhibiting a phobia over dust and germs. That July, he takes the XF-11 for a test flight. One of the propellers malfunctions, causing a crash in a Beverly Hills neighborhood. Rushed to the hospital, he slowly recuperates but learns the Spruce Goose is no longer needed but orders production to continue. When he is discharged, the whole TWA fleet is built and ready to go, but he is in danger of being bankrupted by the airline and his flying boat.

Afraid of the media trying to find him, Hughes places microphones and taps Ava's phone lines to keep track of any suspicious activity. After being confronted by Gardner, he returns home to find the FBI searching his house for incriminating evidence that he embezzled government funds. The incident is both a powerful trauma for Hughes and gives his enemies knowledge about his condition. Hughes meets with Brewster, who offers to drop the charges if Hughes supports the CAB Bill and sells the TWA stock to Trippe. Hughes sinks into a deep depression afterwards, shutting himself in his screening room, growing ever more paranoid and detached from reality; terrified of germs, he urinates into dozens of empty milk bottles. Hepburn tries to visit him, but is unable to help. Trippe then pays Hughes a visit, but an enraged Hughes vows he will never sell TWA. Trippe warns Dietrich that the world will see what Hughes has become if he goes to the Hearings. After nearly three months, Hughes finally emerges and prepares to face the Senate, with encouragement from Ava Gardner, who helps him get cleaned up.

Hughes arrives at the hearings, and starts off with counter-claiming Brewster's charges: "Why not tell the truth, Senator? Why not tell the truth that this investigation was really born on the day that TWA first decided to fly to Europe?" Humiliated and enraged by this turn of events, Brewster formally states that Hughes charged the Defense Department $56 million for aircraft that never flew. Hughes defends himself and reveals that Trippe essentially bribed Brewster to hold the hearings.

The "Spruce Goose"

Hughes successfully test flies the flying boat himself. After the flight, he talks to Dietrich and his mechanic Odie (Matt Ross) about a new jetliner for TWA and makes a date with Gardner at a celebration party on the Long Beach shoreline. Hughes seems free of his inner demons until he sees three attendants in business suits and white gloves edging towards him, which triggers an obsessive-compulsive fit as he begins repeating "The way of the future." Dietrich and Odie take Hughes in a bathroom and hide him there, while Dietrich fetches a doctor and Odie stands outside guarding the door. Alone inside, Howard has a flashback to his boyhood, being washed by his mother and resolving he will fly the fastest aircraft ever built, make the biggest movies ever and become the richest man in the world. As the film ends he mutters "the way of the future... the way of the future" into a darkened mirror.

Cast

As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):^[2]

A full cast and production crew list is too lengthy to include, see: IMDb profile.^[2]]

Production

Style

For the first 50 minutes of the film, scenes appear in shades of only red and cyan blue; green objects are rendered as blue. This was done, according to Scorsese, to emulate the look of early two-color movies, in particular the Multicolor process, which Hughes himself owned. Many of the scenes depicting events occurring after 1935 are treated to emulate the saturated appearance of three-strip Technicolor. Other scenes were stock footage colorized and incorporated into the film. The color effects were created by Legend Films.

For a full breakdown and behind the scenes look into the visual effects for The Aviator please visit: The Aviator VFX

Movie models

In Aviator, Howard Hughes’ HK-1 Hercules (he hated the nickname “Spruce Goose” and only referred to the "Flying Boat" to confidantes) lifts off impressively off the waves in Long Beach Harbor. The short but much heralded flight on 2 November 1947 was recreated by using a remarkable flying scale model. When Martin Scorsese began planning his aviation epic, a decision was made to film flying sequences with scale models rather than CGI special effects. The critical reaction to the CGI models in Pearl Harbor (2001) had been a crucial factor in Scorsese's decision to use full-scale static models and scale models in this case. The building and filming of the flying models proved both cost-effective and timely. ^[3]

New Deal Studios was hired to bring the Spruce Goose and the XF-11 to life. Both miniatures were designed and fabricated by the team at New Deal Studios over a period of several months. The Spruce Goose had a wingspan of 20' and was built as a motion control miniature used for beauty shots of the plane taking off and in flight as well as in dry dock and under construction at the Hughes Hanger miniature built by New Deal Studios as well. The XF-11 was reverse engineered from photographs and some rare drawings and then modeled in Rhino 3d by the New Deal art department. These 3d models of the Spruce Goose as well as the XF-11 were then used for patterns and construction drawings for the model makers. In addition to the aircraft, the homes that the XF-11 crashes into were fabricated at 1:4 scale to match the 1:4 scale XF-11. The plane was rigged to be crashed and break up several times for different shots.

Additional castings of the Spruce Goose flying boat and XF-11 models were provided by New Deal Studios for the radio controlled versions assembled by the team of model builders from Aero Telemetry. Aero Telemetry’s primary business was in building UAVs and satellite telemetry systems for the government and defense contractors. The Aero Telemetry team was given only three months to complete three models. The 375 lb, 20 ft wingspan Spruce Goose (castings provided by New Deal Studios) was joined by 25 ft wingspan, 750 lb XF-11 (castings provided by New Deal Studios) and 18 ft wingspan, 450 lb H1 Racer built by the team at Aero Telemetry. The models were shot on location at Long Beach and other California sites from helicopter platforms.

.^[3]The motion control Spruce Goose and Hughes Hanger miniatures built by New Deal Studios are on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, with the original Hughes HK-1 "Spruce Goose".

Distribution

The film had several distributors worldwide. For example, it was distributed in the U.S. (theatrical), UK, and Germany by Miramax Films, and in Latin America, Australia, and on U.S. DVD by Warner Bros. Pictures.

20th Century Fox held Spanish rights.

Reception

The film received highly positive reviews with the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 180 out of the 203 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 89 percent and certification of fresh.^[4] At another review aggregator site Metacritic, the film scored a 77 average out of 100, based on 41 reviews.^[5] The film grossed $102M at the U.S. box office and $111M at the foreign box office. Film critic Roger Ebert, described the film and its subject Howard Hughes in these terms:^[6]

Box office

Home video releases

The film was released in DVD in a two-disc-set in widescreen and full screen versions. The first disc includes commentary with director Martin Scorsese. The second disc includes "The Making of The Aviator," "Deleted Scenes" as well as 11 other special features.

The film was later released on Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD on November 6, 2007.

Awards

Main article: List of awards won by The Aviator

The Aviator was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and won five, including Best Supporting Actress for Cate Blanchett. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film.

See also

• The Aviator soundtrack
• Mental illness in films

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

• Official site
• The Aviator at the Internet Movie Database
• The Aviator at Rotten Tomatoes
• High Life by Robert Richardson, ASC.
• Leonardo DiCaprio interview for The Aviator
• New Deal Studios
• The Aviator VFX

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