The Aviator

The Aviator is a 2004 biographical drama film, directed by Martin Scorsese. It was distributed in the U.S. by Miramax and outside the U.S. by Warner Bros., and like many of Scorsese's films, was nominated for numerous Academy Awards, and went on to win 5 Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actress for Cate Blanchett.

The movie is a biopic of the aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. It follows his life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, a time when Hughes was directing and producing Hollywood movies as well as test piloting his own groundbreaking new aircraft.

Orphaned at 17, Hughes was the son of a Texan inventor, who left him most of his tool company upon his death. At the time, he was a college student at Rice University. From there, he moved to Los Angeles to become a movie producer, helping fledgling actors launch their careers, such as Jean Harlow, whom he cast in Hell's Angels. He also produced Scarface. Later in his career, he branched out into other industries, such as electronics, and most significantly aviation. His company,, Hughes Aircraft was responsible for the H-4 Hercules," nicknamed "Spruce Goose" by detractors. Hughes's mental deterioration with his obsessive-compulsive behavior is a major plot thread through the film.

The movie also details Hughes's romances with Ava Gardner and Katharine Hepburn, and his battles with Pan Am's Juan Trippe, who has allegedly bribed Maine senator Owen Brewster into granting Pan Am a coercive monopoly on international registered air travel. Hughes admits to having Congressmen in his pocket, too, which he did in real life.

Fact vs. Fiction

The film takes many historical liberties. Ella Rice is not seen or mentioned although Hughes was married to her when he made Hell's Angels. His lover at the time, Billie Dove, is not mentioned either. Dietrich tells Hughes that the board in Houston is alarmed by his spending on Hell's Angels; in reality, he was an emancipated minor, and answered to no one. Ava Gardner and Linda Darnell are referenced before either had entered films. One scene has Gardner telling Hughes she is dating Frank Sinatra before they actually met. The scenes of Hughes and Hepburn at her parents' home is fiction (as per her autobigraphy), as is his "audition" of Faith Domergue. Hepburn left Hughes before she met Spencer Tracy, not after. Hughes had brown hair and eyes, but DiCaprio does not wear brown contact lenses. The film also overlooks Hughes's well-documented racism and anti-Semitism and rumored bisexuality. In his review, Rex Reed observed that the Hughes in the movie bore little resemblance to the real-life Hughes.

Style

In the first half hour of the movie, only the colors red and blue appear; green objects are rendered as blue. This was done, according to a Scorcese, to emulate the look of early two-color movies, in particular Multicolor, which Hughes himself owned. Other scenes were stock footage colorized and incorporated into the film. The colorization effects were created by Legend Films.

Trivia

• Leonardo DiCaprio spent a day with 'Jane Russell' to hear her memories and impressions of Howard Hughes. She was very impressed with DiCaprio's visit and told him that Hughes was a quiet yet extremely stubborn man who always got his way in the end.
  
  
• Michael Mann was originally going to direct the film, but having directed back-to-back biopics The Insider (1999) and Ali (2001), he decided to produce instead, and offered the script to Martin Scorsese.
  
  
• This is the first feature film that Leonardo DiCaprio's production company "Appian Way" is involved with.
  
  

• Barry Pepper was due to play Howard Hughes's chief engineer, Glenn Odekirk, but due to prior commitment and scheduling conflicts with the film Ripley Under Ground (2005), he had to drop out.
  
  
• Jim Carrey was originally considered for the lead role as Howard Hughes.
  
  
• Production was delayed in October 2003, when wildfires in southern California burned several sets.
  
  
• Gwyneth Paltrow was originally signed on to play Ava Gardner but dropped out.
  
  
• Freckles were painstakingly painted onto Cate Blanchett's face, arms, and chest to make her resemble Katharine Hepburn.
  
  
• Cate Blanchett felt that accurately reproducing Katharine Hepburn's distinctive upper class New Englander accent was crucial to her portrayal of this Hollywood icon. She did daily voice exercises with the film's voice coach Tim Monich (with whom Blanchett had worked previously on The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)), and also studied Hepburn's early films and documentaries about her to learn her mannerisms.
  
  
• At one point in the film, Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) address each other as "City Mouse" and "Country Mouse" - a detail lifted from telegrams exchanged between the two that were auctioned off after Hepburn's death in 2003, in which they address each other by those names.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Martin Scorsese] in a tuxedo and slicked hair, pulling a woman from behind Howard Hughes as he walks the red carpet with Katharine Hepburn.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Martin Scorsese] Voice of the projectionist Howard Hughes talks to in the screening room.
  
  
• Martin Scorsese designed each year in the film to look just the way a color film from that time period would look. Achieved mainly through digitally enhanced post-production, Scorsese recreated the look of Cinecolor and two-strip Technicolor. Watch in particular for the scene where Howard Hughes meets Errol Flynn in the club. Hughes is served precisely placed peas on a plate, and they appear blue or turquoise - just as they'd have looked in the primitive two-strip Technicolor process. As Hughes ages throughout the film, the color gets more sophisticated and full-bodied. Cate Blanchett had three different red-hair wigs for this film.
  
  
• Martin Scorsese requested that Cate Blanchett watch all of the first 15 films of Katharine Hepburn to learn her mannerism and her poise.
  
  
• Nicole Kidman was also considered for the role of Katharine Hepburn. When the scheduled start date was delayed by several months, Cate Blanchett became available after finishing filming The Missing (2003/I). Martin Scorsese claims that Blanchett had always been his first choice.
  
  
• In preparation for her role as Katharine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett learned to play tennis and golf and took cold showers, something Hepburn is known for.
  
  
• The budget for the costumes was $2 million.
  
  
• Kate Beckinsale gained 20 pounds for her role.
  
  
• Jane Lynch's scenes as Amelia Earhart were cut from the movie.
  
  
• Several scenes feature actual footage from the movies Howard Hughes produced, such as Hell's Angels (1930) and The Outlaw (1943).
  
  
• Many had tried to produce a Howard Hughes biopic before this. Among the failed attempts are:
  • 1. A companion piece to Reds (1981) planned by actor-director Warren Beatty.
  • 2. John Malkovich and partner Russell Smith attempt in 1993.
  • 3. The adaptation planned by Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes who wanted Johnny Depp in the lead.
  • 4. A Brian De Palma-directed biopic with Touchstone which fell through because of the $80 million price tag.
  • 5. In January 2002, Jim Carrey tried to start the project with Castle Rock Productions but it didn't get off ground soon enough to beat this movie into production.
  
  
  
• When Katharine Hepburn greets her family, she mentions an Uncle Willie. This is a reference to Uncle Willie in Hepburn's The Philadelphia Story (1940).
  
  
• Received the most Academy Award nominations for the year 2004, with 11 total.
  
  
• The film's prints are coming from a digital intermediate. This digital master has been digitally grain reduced from start to finish. As a result many moving textures (especially human skin) look smeared and very unnatural, like bad quality video watched on a slow LCD monitor.
  
  
• The hangar in which the real-life Howard Hughes partially built his famous "Spruce Goose" airplane was also used for the construction of many of the full-scale models used in Titanic (1997), in which Leonardo DiCaprio also starred.
  
  
• The film's wide release date in the United States, 24 December 2004, would have been Howard Hughes' 99th birthday.
  
  
• Four of the miniature airplanes used in creating the effects for the film are now on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, home of the real Hughes HK-1 "Spruce Goose". Models on display include two of the biplanes from the "Hell's Angels" sequence, most of the XF-11 model, and the motion-control "Spruce Goose." The "Spruce Goose" model is remarkably detailed, and even includes scale puppets of Howard Hughes and Dr. Fritz.
  
  
• Director Martin Scorsese originally wanted to shoot the film in Academy ratio, 1.33:1, the same ratio as films of the period and indeed all films up until about 1954. Unfortunately, he found that modern theaters are generally not properly equipped to show anything but Flat 1.85:1 or Scope 2.35:1 films. He therefore focused instead on making each portion of the film look like it was made using the color film stock available at the time.
  
  
• If you freeze-frame the film at 2:22:45, you can see an impressive computer generated skeleton of Howard Hughes as a camera flashes while he is taking the oath.
  
  
• First film by director 'Martin Scorcese' to gross over $100 million in the U.S.
  
  
• Also in preparation for his role, Leonardo DiCaprio spent some time with an actual OCD patient named Edward. He advised him on a number of different aspects of the condition, in particular the tendency to repeat sentences over and over as in the scene where Hughes repeatedly asks to see the blueprints for the Hercules.
  
  
• The original screenplay was inspired by the book "Howard Hughes: The Untold Story" by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske.
  
  
• Bob Hoskins was originally considered for the role of Senator Owen Brewster.
  
  
• The film marks the debut of singer Gwen Stefani. Martin Scorsese was looking for someone to fill the role of Jean Harlow when he noticed Stefani appearing on a Vogue cover poster in New York.