The Aviator

2004
12A
2h 50m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

390K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

2,307

Play trailer1:55

7 Videos

99+ Photos

Docudrama Epic Period Drama Biography Drama

A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s.A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s.A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

390K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

2,307

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 5 Oscars
- 89 wins & 131 nominations total

Videos7

Trailer 2:47

The Aviator

Clip 4:29

The Rise of Leonardo DiCaprio

Clip 3:37

Cate Blanchett Almost Played Clarice Starling?

Clip 2:06

A Guide to the Films of Martin Scorsese

Interview 2:10

'Bohemian Rhapsody' Cast Celebrate the Life of a Rock Star

Photos209

+ 201

What Scorsese Film Ranks Highest on IMDb?

Cinema legend Martin Scorsese has directed some of the most acclaimed films of all time. See how IMDb users rank all of his feature films as director.

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
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.

Goofs
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.

Quotes
[last lines]
Howard Hughes: [repeating over and over again] The way of the future...

Crazy credits
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.

Connections
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)

Soundtracks
Music from Hell's Angels
Written by Adolph Tandler
Courtesy of Universal Studios

User reviews918

Review

Featured review

7/10

Golly

From piloting the fastest plane to cruising a carriage, this movie has some serious pacing issue. First half goes by so fast and it was genuinely the most fun I've had in awhile. Then it all got mixed up like crazy, sometimes it's fast and sometime the scene played out way longer than it should. By the time it reaches the third act the pacing slowed down exponentially, it's like riding a carriage. One other thing that bothers me is the editing and CGI, especially in the flight scenes. Everything feel disconnected in the editing, one time it's showing something and in the next scene it shows a shot of the same thing in a completely different manner and the CGI is poorly animated and unconvincing. Besides all that it was great, Cate Blanchett delivers a great performance. She's enthralling and she's one of the source for the movie's great energy. DiCaprio's performance is downright amazing. He succeeds in portraying a man that is rich, reckless, full of ambition and eccentric. Even when Hughes starts to battle his own demons DiCaprio still nailed it. While at times the CGI and sloppy editing distracted me from the movie it was still a great deal of fun.