# The Aviator
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 18, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468 "2004-12-18T02:30:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/1 "2004-12-18T02:30:33Z")
So I just got back from seeing it, I liked it a lot. The acting was great. Leonardo DiCaprio was rock solid as the Self Confident, Obsessive Compulsive (Right?) Hughes. John C. Reilly, Cate Blanchett, and Alec Baldwin did fine jobs as well.
The were times when there are shifts from light to dark (in terms of it’s story) and that takes some adjustment but considering the main character, it works.
Lastly, the Cinematography was beautiful. Robert Richardson knows his stuff.
Has anyone else seen it? And if so, what did you think?
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/2 "2004-12-18T02:48:41Z")
I’m jealous. We’re probably not going to get it nearby for another week or so, but I’ve been eagerly awaiting it for months.
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### Author:  [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/3 "2004-12-18T02:54:50Z")
It’s worth the wait. I’m trying to decide whether he was as good in this movie as he was in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, but it’s close. He isn’t the only reason to see it. The Soundtrack does a good job of setting mood - but isn’t distracting and it really is beautifully shot (deserves repeating).
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/4 "2004-12-18T05:19:56Z")
> [@drm](#):
>
> It’s worth the wait. I’m trying to decide whether he was as good in this movie as he was in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, but it’s close. He isn’t the only reason to see it. The Soundtrack does a good job of setting mood - but isn’t distracting and it really is beautifully shot (deserves repeating).
Actually, I’m not a DiCaprio fan at all (although I admit he was great in Gilbert Grape, even compared against the most versatile actor of our time, Johnny Depp). I’m much more interested in Howard Hughes as a larger-than-life person, Martin Scorsese (one of my favorite directors), and gorgeous Gwen Stefani making what I think is her acting debut as Jean Harlow. I guess you could say I’m looking forward to The Aviator DESPITE Leo.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/5 "2004-12-18T06:40:13Z")
Was ‘Pancho’ Barnes in it? Pancho flew as a stunt pilot on Howard Hughes’s _Hell’s Angels_. It’s said that she flew on-screen, but it may be more likely that her part in the film was to fly past sound recordists to provide the sound when the silent picture became a talkie. She was also involved in the formation of the Associated Motion Picture Pilots and was made an honourary member.
Just wondering if she was invluded in _The Aviator_.
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### Author:  [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2004, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/6 "2004-12-18T11:33:58Z")
My co-worker saw it last week and hated it…
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### Author:  [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2004, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/7 "2004-12-18T11:42:54Z")
[quote=Big Bad Voodoo Lou}I’m much more interested in Howard Hughes as a larger-than-life person, Martin Scorsese (one of my favorite directors), and gorgeous Gwen Stefani making what I think is her acting debut as Jean Harlow. I guess you could say I’m looking forward to The Aviator DESPITE Leo.[/quote]
:p, fair enough. It gets the larger than life thing down and Gwen doesn’t have the most screen time in history but she does have a little. IMO, she does just fine.
As for Pancho Barnes, I didn’t notice her but to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t really looking for her during the Hells Angels scenes. The scenes entire focus was on Mr. Hughes and his desire to get things done according to his vision.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/8 "2004-12-18T17:37:04Z")
[IMDB has no listing for Pancho Barnes in the credits](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338751/fullcredits).
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2004, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/9 "2004-12-19T09:38:15Z")
Very good movie. I highly recommend it. DiCaprio is excellent.
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### Author:  [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/10 "2004-12-24T16:34:20Z")
I saw it last night. I thought it was very good. I was expecting it to feel like a long movie, but it paced evenly and I didn’t notice the time passing at all. There were a couple of times when Leo would do something that took me out of movie-watching and into noticing a poor job of acting, but for the most part, I thought he did quite well. The movie is about his character and he is in damn near every shot. Keeping that in mind, I would say he did a good, though not oscarworthy, job. The script was great, supporting cast excellent (Alec Baldwin has become a fine actor at last), and all the surroundings - visuals, sound, music - are beautiful and sophisticated. I think Hughes has the most fascinating life story of any 20th century American, and I think this film did its portion of his story justice.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/11 "2004-12-26T22:55:19Z")
I just got back from seeing this. I liked it a lot. Scorcese’s best since _Goodfellas_ and DiCaprio’s best work in ages. I was also quite impressed by Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn. That’s a personality like Groucho Marx or James Cagney. It’s almost impossible to play without tilting over into parody, but Blanchett pulled it off remarkably. I would expect an Oscar for her.
I didn’t really know all that much about Howard Hughs before I went to this. I just had the standard image the crazy, germophobic billionaire holed up in a room. I knew he had made a lot of money in airplanes and had made movies but I didn’t really know any details. I found his story fascinating, his huge ideas, his drive, his financial and physical courage. Scorcese really made a great study in how a talented, daring, charismatic person was inexorably destroyed by mental illness. It also showed how Hughs was occasionally able to marshal himself, conquer his illness and achieve his goals.
The sad thing is that these days he probably could have been helped by medication. OCD is a treatable condition. Poor guy. I really felt for him in the scenes where he was imprisoned in his room, crippled by terror, endlessly repeating phrases and hating himself for it. This was probably one of the best illustrations I’ve seen of OCD in a movie. It showed the fear and anguish that it causes rather than playing it for laughs like Nicholson in _As Good as it Gets_.
One of the year’s best flicks.
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### Author:  [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/12 "2004-12-27T00:27:15Z")
I thought it was brilliant. Certainly you could nitpick DiCaprio here and there, because the guy was in nearly every single shot of the film. It was a huge responsibility and I thought he communicated the character very well. Scorcese piled up so many great images, it’s hard to choose a favorite. I’m not exaggerating when I say that there was an audible gasp in the theater during the spy plane crash. I’ll refrain from talking about specifics, but it was chilling (as well as fiery).
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### Author:  [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/13 "2004-12-27T16:51:51Z")
Excellent flick. I don’t care for DiCaprio, but every now and then he’ll pick a great role.
I think Scorcese gets his Oscar here.
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### Author:  [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/14 "2004-12-27T23:10:47Z")
Good movie and enjoyable. Didn’t drag like I thought it would. Bravo to Cate Blanchette.
Had to laugh a bit when yet another movie in 2004 where Jude Law makes an appearance 😃
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### Author:  [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/15 "2004-12-27T23:40:07Z")
> [@eenerms](#):
>
> Good movie and enjoyable. Didn’t drag like I thought it would. Bravo to Cate Blanchette.
>
> Had to laugh a bit when yet another movie in 2004 where Jude Law makes an appearance 😃
Yep. I saw three movies this weekend: Sideways, The Aviator, and Lemony Snicket. Sideways was surprisingly Jude Law-free. Perhaps I didn’t notice him. He might have had an uncredited bit part and I just missed him. Is that possible? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/16 "2004-12-28T00:46:24Z")
So, tell me, how do they portray Jean Harlow?
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/17 "2004-12-28T00:47:54Z")
It was fascinating, in a way that left me feeling creeped out by the end. I thought DiCaprio turned in a good performance for the most part (certainly strong enough to hold the movie togehter) and Cate Blanchett was phenomenal.
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### Author:  [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/18 "2004-12-28T01:38:00Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> So, tell me, how do they portray Jean Harlow?
Very briefly. Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner receive the majority of time on screen. Harlow (Gwen Stefani) appears early on during a sequence about producing and releasing _Hell’s Angels_, which ends about 20 minutes into the movie.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/19 "2004-12-28T02:49:05Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> So, tell me, how do they portray Jean Harlow?
She really only appears in one sequence as Hughes date at the _Hells Angels_ premiere. She has very few lines and we learn nothing significant about her. Hepburn and Gardner are much more fleshed out as characters. Blanchett is particularly strong as Hepburn. She pretty much blows everyone else off the screen in her scenes.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-aviator/280468/20 "2004-12-28T06:10:41Z")
I thought it was very good, but the last third dragged and lost its way a bit too much for me to call it great. DiCaprio did quite a good job with the role, he kept me believing that it was Hughes up there on the screen, not Leo, which is all you can ask of an actor. I thought Kate as Kate was inspired, not sure about Kate as Ava, but then I don’t have as strong an image of Ava Gardner in my mind to compare it to.
Overall a thumbs up. I liked that the special effects complemented the flick, rather than overwhelmed it., the story was well paced (except for parts of the last third) and the performances were universally good. Balwin was very good in a supporting role, I even like Brent Spiners near cameo.
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