The Aviator

Director Martin Scorsese designed each year in this movie to look just the way a color movie from that time period would look. Achieved mainly through digitally enhanced post-production, Scorsese re-created the look of Cinecolor and two-strip Technicolor. Watch in particular for the scene where Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) meets Errol Flynn (Jude Law) 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 two-strip Technicolor process. As Hughes ages throughout the movie, the color gets more sophisticated and full-bodied.

The scene in which Howard Hughes locks himself in the projection room and cuts off most contact from the outside world for an extended period of time is somewhat misleading. Though Hughes battled germ phobia all of his life (the fear of germs was instilled in him early on by his mother) Hughes did not become a recluse until much later in his life. The scene that is portrayed in the movie is very similar to a documented incident where Hughes did spend almost a year in a private movie theater however it wasn't until he was near 50 years old.

The Warner Brothers logo is the classic shield version, and is shown in 2-color Technicolor, rendered as a static painted card instead of the modern 3D animated sequence.

Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: Christmas with the Kranks/A Very Long Engagement/The Life and Death of Peter Sellers/Alexander/Bright Leaves (2004)