Leonardo DiCaprio in Aviator

Richard Hernandez13 said:So you aren't into planes?!?! 😲
I bet you're just all about the guys. 😬

...it honestly feels like Martin Scorsese is playing that exact angle... basically saying 'if you don't vote for me, you're gay'...😁😁....

Justin Patel said:He didn't exactly bounce back. He retreated to his house in '66 and stayed there until he passed away in '76. He was so unrecognizable by then they actually had to use fingerprints to ID him.
...
The whole life of Howard Hughes was a total wreck. If they'd looked at his entire existence instead of just obsessing over planes and movies, they might have actually had something worth watching.

...sure, but the movie doesn't show any of that..
...
yeah, but again, none of that makes it into the film..
and you can't blame anyone but the director for that..
..
this movie isn't going to stick with me for anything...

It was alright, I suppose. Though, considering we are talking about Martin Scorsese (correct me if I've misspelled his name), it was a disappointment, to say the least. Mind you, I wouldn't call myself a die-hard fan, but he is one of those directors where, whenever I see one of his titles pop up, I usually think, "Yeah, this looks like one of those heavy adult dramas I typically try to avoid." But honestly, haven't we seen this kind of biopic formula a thousand times already?

The movie is about a famous person. It starts, for instance, with a childhood scene that is likely entirely fabricated, yet serves to show us they were destined for greatness from day one. Say, a young famous person sits in a washbasin and—if they happen to be a renowned diver—splashes around in there for five straight minutes while everyone else watches in awe. Or if it’s Napoleon, he sinks all the paper boats in a basin and tells his grandmother he’ll defeat the British Navy just like that, prompting her to look at him with pure wonder and admiration.

Fast forward about twenty years. The famous person is grown now and possesses a Vision. Naturally, nobody around them understands this Vision. This leads to dialogue along the lines of:
Famous person: "Don't you see? We have to start manufacturing ballpoint pens! A massive war is brewing in Europe, and we must be ready."
Average Joe: "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE! AND THERE WON'T BE A WAR!"
Meanwhile, we sit in front of the TV, smirking to ourselves because we know he was right, feeling quite superior about how foolish people were back then compared to us today.

We are shown that the famous person is driven by Passion. This Passion is such that he constantly snaps at people and picks fights. A convenient female lead is introduced into the plot. Through His relationships with Her, we see how he is actually a man haunted by a Vision and a fear. Simultaneously, we see that Passion has a Dark Side that also haunts the famous person with a Vision. And so, we can sit in the theater, sigh, and say, "Ah, I suppose these are just those complex people."

The film concludes with the death of the protagonist, and we exit the theater nodding our heads, thinking, "Yes, yes, such is the fate of Complex People with a fear and a Vision."

I don't care for these biopics because it feels like you could make one about anyone using this template. For example, that dialogue about the pens above is actually from a sketch on the comedy series "Smith & Jones," which parodied these kinds of movies over ten or fifteen years ago. The sketch was about a Canadian inventor of the ballpoint pen who was a famous person with a fear, a Vision, and a Dark Side.

I don't think Howard Hughes was as terrible as this makes it sound, but it was simply... tasteless. These types of biopics leave no impression on me, especially not when they are about Howard Hughes, a man who definitely had far too much money and time on his hands.

On the bright side: there are plenty of vintage planes in the film—which is standard. There is Kate Beckinsale playing... someone, which is also standard. There is Cate Blanchett (who is legendary) playing Katherine Hepburn (who is also legendary). That alone justifies the two hours I spent. As for the rest... .

Jose Miller17 said:...yeah, but you just don't see that on screen..
...
well, you don't see this part in the movie either..
and the director is the only one to blame for that..
..
I won't remember this movie for anything at all...

That's exactly what I was saying.

But hey, I'll certainly remember how fast those three hours flew by.

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It reminds me of that one movie about Howard Hughes where he’s wandering around Texas like a billionaire, spends some time with a regular American guy, and hands him a bunch of cash, only for the courts to completely ruin that guy's life.
That was actually an interesting film.

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I'm hoping Million Dollar Baby turns out to be much better.

Justin Patel said:I was just thinking about that movie where Howard Hughes is wandering around Texas like some sort of eccentric loner, spending time with a regular guy and trying to help him out financially, only for the legal system to absolutely tear that poor man apart.
It really was such a compelling film.

Melvin and Howard by Jonathan Demme

I owe a massive thanks to my local bootleg distributor; thank God I didn't waste $8.25+my rent money+all my savings+gas money just to sit through this train wreck 👎

Total snooze fest, folks. Unbelievable. A soggy Leonardo DiCaprio tries his best, but he just doesn't have the spark required for a role like this. It’s bloated, riddled with disastrous editing and directing choices, and ultimately hollow... just a complete wash 👎

It's a miracle it didn't sweep the Oscars ☕

Douglas Phillips4 said:with disastrous directing and editing mistakes

..
glad it wasn't just me who noticed...

And what exactly are these supposed directing mistakes, if I may ask?

Honestly, I watched the film with a fair amount of indifference (for the reasons mentioned above 😬), and what caught my eye was how someone wrote "Oscar" on the thread, but when something like that gets overlooked, I’m sure there’s plenty more where that came from. There’s actually a website dedicated to tracking stuff like this...

To be perfectly honest, I can't even remember the last time I noticed something like that 🤔

...read it. You might actually be onto something there, though it’s definitely easier to spot those little things when you're watching at home and can just rewind if you miss something, rather than sitting in a dark theater.
That specific scene caught my eye because it sets the stage for the whole rivalry between TWA and Pan Am later on, so I didn't dwell too much on the finer details. Maybe you were more focused on the younger girl 😁 😁

Then again, you can find little quirks like that in pretty much any movie. Personally, I think the directing is top-notch; I mean, Scorsese has always been a total perfectionist. Seriously, kudos to the scene where Hughes goes absolutely wild with the plane through Beverly Hills (you can tell Scorsese was really feeling himself during that one, haha).

And yeah, I think the movie holds up. It’s got its flaws, sure, but it’s certainly not something Marty should be embarrassed by. As for "softie" DiCaprio, he was actually great—honestly, I wasn't sure he had it in him to pull off that kind of performance, so it was a really pleasant surprise.

Douglas Phillips4 said:Look, I went into this movie pretty indifferent (for the obvious reasons mentioned above 😬)

...I think I had the exact same issue... I won't go off on a tangent about singers performing with their mouths closed... but I noticed this one cut right at the start where they slice a shot mid-sentence and mid-motion... I don't know, it just caught my eye, even though I wasn't looking for it...
Anyway, I've spent way more words on this mediocre flick than it actually deserves, so I'm out...

Jose Miller17 said:Anyway, I’ve spent way more time dissecting this mediocre film than it actually deserves, so I’m signing off...

👍 🙂

Honestly, I would’ve made the whole movie just about him building planes and filming movies. Also, I don't get how Alan Aldo walked away with the supporting actor Oscar nod instead of Baldwin, who is clearly way more present in the frame and vital to the actual story.

Too long, pretty boring, and the lead actor wasn't exactly the right call...

👎

I popped it into my DVD player, watched about 20 minutes, and shut it off.

A complete waste of time.

Utterly tedious.

Kudos to anyone who watches just 20 minutes of a movie and then jumps straight onto the forum to drop their review. 🙄 🙄

Honestly, I feel like a lot of people walked into this theater with a massive chip on their shoulder. Everyone knows Marty didn't snag an Oscar in his earlier attempts, so they immediately jump to the conclusion that *Aviator* was nothing more than a calculated move to finally grab one.
Well, folks, if you ask me, Scorsese has more than proven he isn't some sellout. If he were just chasing trophies, he wouldn't have filmed *Last Temptation of Christ* and gotten into such heavy friction with the Church—which is a pretty bold move if you actually hold Catholic values. And if he were purely obsessed with the Oscars, he wouldn't have cast DiCaprio as the lead, considering everyone knows how much the Academy voters tend to dislike him.
The bottom line is that we should judge this film based on what it actually is. I can wrap my head around some of the arguments against it, but it’s just plain stupid to trash the movie simply because of the hype surrounding it. Besides, the guy behind *Goodfellas*, *Alice*, *Taxi Driver*, *Raging Bull*, *Last Temptation of Christ*, and *Goodfellas* carries a level of credibility that you just don't walk away from. You can't just claim he sold out overnight.
In reality, Martin Scorsese's reputation in the film world is far "cleaner" and more earned than the loud, frequently compromised reputation of the Oscar itself. It would actually be a bigger honor for the Academy to be able to claim they gave an award to Scorsese, rather than the other way around!

Jose Miller17 said:..this whole thing is a total disaster...just yuck...it’s like those overpriced, bloated tomatoes you find in high-end grocery stores...zero flavor, zero aroma...just boring...messy...completely lacking any sense of flow or purpose...I mean, what is Howard even doing here? I sit through three hours of this just to realize he likes milk and wants to build planes...we drop into the middle of the movie and he's just filming...but why? how?..then suddenly we're talking about planes? like, why? how?...and then there's that part where he's just standing naked in a room because he had an accident...and they filmed it with bacteria or something so unrealistic that I don't think even Howard would believe his own footage...then he leaves the room and the movie just ends...but how does it end?...what actually ends?...where's the momentum?...what is even happening here...man, is Howard really so dull that he had nothing actual to tell us....who cares about these stories about airplanes anyway...and what does his mother have to do with anything...is he just like, a little kid who suddenly decided, "hey, I'm gonna make planes and be rich" while sitting in a bathtub, and that's all we're supposed to know?...I mean, what emotions does this movie stir up in anyone? every single character is bland and totally forgettable....seriously, Scorsese, if you win an Oscar for this, just do us all a favor and quit...it's such a shame there isn't an Oscar for robbing the audience or for pure boredom...I wasn't expecting much and yet I was still disappointed...congrats on managing to fail even my low expectations...bravo, Scorsese....if you hadn't filmed that massive flop about New York gangs, I might have actually thought you got lucky once.
thanks.

The assumption is that you already know some stuff about H.H., because if Martin tried to explain everything chronologically from the day he was born until the very end, it would take forever and instead of being called Aviator, it would be called The Long Dark Night.

The movie is fine. It's okay.

I don't get why everyone's constantly hyping up that rich kid Leonardo DiCaprio. I mean, he's alright... but nothing special, really.

Aviator was just okay—Cate was the standout, obviously 👍

Kevin Gonzalez79 said:I popped it in the DVD player, watched maybe 20 minutes, and shut it off.

Total waste of time.

Boring as hell.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but I can already tell most people on this forum are full of it.
You’re whining about "wasting" 20 minutes? You waste way more time hanging out on this forum every single day. 🙄

If you're gonna criticize something, at least bring an actual argument to the table. And if you really want to know what boredom feels like, go read the first 100 pages of "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. 😉

matematicar said:If you actually want to understand what boredom feels like, go read the first 100 or 150 pages of Albert Camus's "The Stranger." 😉

...it wouldn't hurt if you actually picked it up yourself and realized the whole thing is barely even a hundred pages long...