Rating: PG13
Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 12/17/2004(USA
Release Date: 11/06/2007
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol/Por
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: DD5.1/DD2
Run Time: 170 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Adult Language, Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
Martin Scorsese directed this fast-moving, epic-scale
biopic documenting the life and loves one of the most colorful Americans of the 20th century,
Howard Hughes.
The Aviator follows
Hughes (played by
Leonardo DiCaprio) as the twentysomething millionaire, having already made a fortune improving the design of oil-drilling bits, comes to Hollywood with an interest in getting into the picture business. It doesn't take long for
Hughes, with his passion for airplanes, to jump from producer to director of his first major film project, a World War I air
epic called
Hell's Angels, which took three years to complete thanks to the shift from silent to sound filming and
Hughes' relentless perfectionism. However, the film was a massive hit, and the eccentric inventor became a mogul in Hollywood, making
Jean Harlow (
Gwen Stefani) a star and enjoying a romance with
Katharine Hepburn (
Cate Blanchett). But Hollywood's old-boy network never fully accepted
Hughes, and in time his passion for flying began to reclaim his attentions as he began designing new planes, setting air speed records, flying around the world, and risking his life testing aircraft.
Hughes also found time to romance
Ava Gardner (
Kate Beckinsale) and founded his own airline, Trans-World Airlines, though as his ideas became bolder, his approach became more eccentric, and he gained many powerful enemies, including the head of Pan-American Airlines,
Juan Trippe (
Alec Baldwin), and
Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (
Alan Alda), who attempted to prove that
Hughes' radical design ideas were actually part of an effort to bilk taxpayers for millions of dollars through government contracts.
The Aviator's star-studded cast also includes
John C. Reilly,
Jude Law,
Willem Dafoe,
Ian Holm, and
Frances Conroy.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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