British Actress Blog

The Aviator (2004)

Score: 8/10

Director: Martin Scorsese

Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwen Stefani, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Brent Spiner.

The Aviator

Kate Beckinsale

Synopsis: A biopic depicting the early years of the legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) from his career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s.

Review: Howard Hughes is in the oil bit business and wants out. He wants to make movies and not just sit around bored with all the money in the world. He spends obscene amounts of his movie pursuing this artistic dream of his, all the while fighting against the opposition that tries to stop him.

Ava Gardner

Kate Beckinsale

I love Cate Blanchett’s work in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films. Its always great to see her on the big screen. She is my favorite Australian actress. You can see in her eyes that she is completely in character. Kate Beckinsale is as charming as ever. She faked a perfect American accent. Her character of Ava Gardner takes no crap from anyone and does not bend to will of Howard Hughes. The Hollaback girl her self Gwen Stefani is actually a good actress. Singers acting in films don’t always work. She does well, you can tell she was having a lot of fun dressing up in the classic wardrobe of the time period. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Howard Hughes has to be one of the most tenacious men in the whole world. Of course we all know that Stan Lee designed his version of Tony Stark to be a version of Howard Hughes. In today’s Marvel Universe it would seem that Tony’s father, Howard Stark is the today’s version of Howard Hughes. Leonardo DiCaprio puts everything that he is made of into his movies. He doesn’t just act in a movie, he completely lets the character take him over. You can see him sweat, veins popping in his forehead, his skin becomes flush, and that stare he gives the camera that looks into your soul. He has to be one of, if not the most audacious actor in Hollywood today.

Katharine Hepburn

Cate Blanchett

The film focuses on the ambition of a man that doesn’t allow any obstacles stand in his way. I have only herd of the ‘uniqueness’ of Howard Hughes. Lets keep in mind that this is a movie and that we don’t actually know Howard Hughes himself to verify if his actions are accurate in this film. Lets also keep in mind that a significant portion of this persons life is shown in only two hours. Creative licenses is also an issue on the accuracy of this movie. So I will be focusing on the ‘character’ of Howard Hughes and not the real life man who lived. He has a lot of problems but he focuses on furthering the human species. Howard also never asks anyone to do something that he is not willing to do himself. He test flies the new airplanes instead of one of his test pilots. So he leads by example. He also seems to have some serious mental issues. He is anything but boring.

Howard Hughes

Leonardo DiCaprio

The cinematography is perfect. Martin Scorsese captures the emotions the characters are feeling in the scenes. Scorsese makes excellent use of the cameras wide shots, pans, zoom ins, and zoom outs. The classical musical score behind the perfectly shot air plane scenes is nothing short of true motion picture art. The backgrounds, set dressing, and wardrobe are well done in this film. The lighting is just ok. Unless you watch a remastered version of the film, the lighting is just slightly off. I felt a bit of disappointed in how the movie did not show Howard Hughes complete life but just focused on a portion of his life. I love the classic look of this film, its so high quality. The movie did its job, it told a story. I was entertain all throughout the film. The film is above average.

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