The Aviator

The Aviator is a biopic about the aviation magnate and Hollywood director Howard Hughes. With Leonardo Di Caprio in the title role, Martin Scorsese directing it, and a supporting cast including Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Kate Beckinsale and John C. Reilly, I was really looking forward to watching it.

Howard Hughes starts out as a director, and produces a few very successful films. Early on we see that he is completely devoted to this, and has a really need to get every aspect of his production as perfect as possible. This manifests later as profound obsessive compulsive disorder, but the early signs are there once you watch it back. After a very successful directing career he marries a woman (Cate Blanchett), but his successful lifestyle soon begins to causes their marriage problems. Hughes starts to focus on aviation and buys a large share of an airline company. Breaking a number of airspeed records, and experiencing a number of horrific crashes, Howard Hughes soon becomes a massive influence on aviation but then the cracks start to appear. His life becomes thrust into the public eye more and he becomes paranoid and compulsive. He is then investigated by the Senate and manages to defend himself successfully. However at the end of the film his compulsions become worse and the film end with him repeated ‘the way of the future’ over and over.

Scorsese is an absolute genius in my opinion, and has directed some of my favourite ever films. While The Aviator does not quite make the list, it is a very good film, and is fantastically made. For example, all the aeroplane scenes were shot using scale models because of the criticism that Pearl Harbor received for using CGI. This makes the film more of a spectacle, and makes it seem a lot more realistic. Scorsese’s impressive attention to detail shines through as well. For example, he made Cate Blanchett watch all the film that her character Katharine Hepburn had starred in up to the point of filming so that she could perfect her mannerisms. Not being particularly knowledgeable about Hepburn’s films, I can’t say whether or not Blanchett does a good job, but the level of devotion to perfection that Scorsese has (and indeed that Hughes had), is a hallmark of the best directors.

Di Caprio is wonderful to watch as the main character Howard Hughes. I really like him as an actor, and as a person, and think that The Aviator marks another example of his impressive skills. His perfection of the obsessive compulsive mannerisms of Hughes is brilliant, and while I don’t know how true to Hughes they are, he is very convincing when he displays them. Di Caprio conveys the fill range of emotions that Hughes experiences in the film with immense precision. When he is directing the films there is a sense of tension when something hasn’t gone perfectly, and when Hell’s Angels premiere’s the anxiety Di Caprio shows in anticipation of the audience’s reaction permeated through the screen (although that might just be me getting weird). He seems completely comfortable in the cockpit of an aeroplane, and Di Caprio’s ability to turn this joy and elation into sheer panic so convincingly completes the tension of the crash scenes. Since 2002, Di Caprio has appeared in all but one of Scorsese’s films and, given time, this could become as iconic a pairing as De Niro and Scorsese. Di Caprio’s acting stock is definitely on the increase, and The Aviator is just one example of why.

Although, it is not a film that is completely made by Di Caprio, and the supporting cast add an awful lot to the impact of the film. Cate Blanchett is fantastic as Hughes’ first wife, and manages her accent perfectly throughout the film. Her relationship with Hughes is intriguing. Although they may grow apart, when she comes to visit him in his isolation there is a sense that the chemistry is still there. Alec Baldwin plays Hughes’ main rival Juan Trippe, the chairman of Pan Am airways. His determination to impede the progress of the protagonist makes him a dislikable character in the film, and this is only compounded by the influence he has over the politicians. No-one seems to want to help Hughes succeed except those who he employs. Even then Hughes is suspicious of nearly everyone around him. Alec Baldwin comes to represent the people plotting against Hughes and the eventual defeat of the Senate investigation is one of the best moments of the film. A quick mention must also go to John C. Reilly. When I reviewed Carnage I think I mentioned how strange it was not to see him in a comedy role, and once again in The Aviator it felt a bit odd. However, he does very well and seems to be forging himself a more serious acting career. All the evidence so far suggests that this can only be a good thing.

The Aviator is not a high powered, joy-filled, rollercoaster of a film. It does have its ups and its downs in terms of keeping the audience’s interest. However, as with any biopic, it is an opportunity to find out a little bit more about something new, and if you get into it, it is thoroughly enjoyable. It is very long (just short of three hours), but if you have the patience to sit down and engage with it, I think it will be well worth your time.

Other films starring Leonardo Di Caprio

Django Unchained - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/django-unchained.html

The Great Gatsby - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-great-gatsby.html

Other films directed by Martin Scorsese

Casino - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/casino_28.html

Raging Bull - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/raging-bull.html

Another Scorsese-Di Caprio film

The Departed - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-departed.html

Pearl Harbor

An awful lot of people really don’t like Pearl Harbor. I didn't really understand why until I saw the film. It’s awful. I went in expecting a historical drama with a couple of American heroes who tragically die and which left me drained but with an appreciation for those involved. Instead I found myself watching a romantic film where two best friends are divided over one young nurse. It just so happens that they are in Pearl Harbor. The film is about three hours long, but very little of that is actually depicting the Japanese attack.

There are so many criticisms of this film that I don’t think it would be possible to cover them here. Instead of producing a historical film with a romance in the middle of it, Michael Bay manages to create a romantic film with a couple of planes in it. It is so typically Michael Bay that it becomes cheesy and then what should be a serious film becomes a bit of a joke. And the historical inaccuracies in the film are unbelievable. They are too numerous to even go into here, but believe me, who ever researched that project should have been fired immediately. At times you forget that you are watching a film about the reason why America got involved in World War Two and seem to find yourself watching a film about a group of soldiers who are all in love with a group of nurses. At one point there was a line “I think World War Two just started”, and this is shockingly poor.

And it’s not even like the acting is good but the film is let down by the direction. Ben Afleck takes the lead role in this film as Rafe McCawley but is so unbelievable that the story around him, his girlfriend and his best friend becomes beyond incredulous. I don’t want to get into an in-depth character analysis but the idea of bringing in a back-story to the childhoods of the two soldiers is a poor attempt to engage the audience in the characters. I quite like Ben Afleck generally, but in Pearl Harbor it is almost like he has turned up to an exam having revised the night before. I mean no Michael Bay actor is going to win an Academy Award, but Ben Afleck does not engage with the audience at all. No part of me was rooting for him or the other soldiers at any point, and instead I found myself watching with mild disinterest as their lives unfolded and some planes attacked them.

Kate Beckinsale is well cast in Pearl Harbor and fits the part she is trying to play almost perfectly. It is a shame then that the character she does play is as transparent as both of the men she falls in love with. Obviously when one man goes missing in action it is natural to try and move on, but by anyone’s standards, the best friend might be a line too far. It is also a shame that the character she plays requires next to no acting effort to complete. I was very disappointed with her role in this film, and once again, I thought the film detracted too much from the conflict and became more about the group of nurses and their relationships. I don’t even want to talk about Josh Hartnett as the other soldier in this love triangle, because he too is so unbelievable that it is painful. Come the end of the film (which couldn't come fast enough) I don’t care what happens to the characters and instead find myself tolerating the frankly boring scenes just before the credits.

The only good thing about this film is Cuba Gooding Jr. who plays one of the staff on one of the ships and becomes so angered by the Japanese attack that he climbs atop a turret and shoots down a plane. Much in the same way that the best bits of The Rock have Sean Connery in them, the more redeeming scenes of Pearl Harbor (and there are very few) have Cuba Gooding in them.

Michael Bay is obviously aiming for a cinematic epic to rival some of the greatest war films out there, with his own special touch added in. However, he misses the mark so spectacularly that the film pales into insignificance. ‘Pearl Harbor’ is a misleading title as well, because there is a good hour either side of the attack which is unrelated to what you expect from the title of the film. Personally, I think Michael Bay gets the overall tone of the film completely wrong. One major criticism of Titanic is that it puts a romance into a serious historical event, but with Pearl Harbor the romance becomes the centrepiece, whereas in Titanic, much more of a focus is on the sinking ship.

There are more critical reviews of Pearl Harbor out there, and there is no doubt that it deserves most of the criticism. If someone offers to watch Pearl Harbor with you, say no. Avoid it at all costs. It is Michael Bay’s worst film. If you are expecting a historical depiction of Pearl Harbor you will be disappointed, and if you are expecting a romance story you will be disappointed too. Pearl Harbor is drawn out, long and in my opinion sets the benchmark for what a bad film should be judged by.