Review of The Aviator, directed by Martin Scorsese

I will admit, when I first saw The Aviator was an option to watch on Netflix, I had no interest at all watching the movie. It didn’t seem like something that was right up my alley, as I know I have a curated sense of self when it comes to things I like and watch on a daily basis.

But what convinced was the fact it was a Martin Scorsese movie and Killers of the Flower Moon was about to drop in a few months, so I decided to watch the movie anyways despite having the sense I might not like it.

And, although someone usually goes in with these kinds of prejudices and doesn’t end up liking, I didn’t mind this movie at all!

I’ll get into this more in the review portion of the post, but despite me not vibing with the vast majority of movies and their synopses when it comes to Martin Scorsese, he knows how to make a good movie on a technical level.

I’m already starting to ramble, so let’s get into the review!

Hollywood producer Howard Hughes struggles with OCD and an increasing obsession with planes.

Something worth noting about this movie before we get into the weeds: Howard Hughes and the characters in this film did exist. They were all working and living during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and while this film dramatizes the events that happened in their lives, these were all real people living, breathing, and working around each other.

That said, the movie starts off with his childhood and his mother teaching him how to spell quarantine, then jumps to his life as a film director.

He’s working on Hell’s Angels at first, but upon the release of the first talkie, The Jazz Singer, Hughes becomes obsessed with sound. He wants to shoot HA realistically and add sound, converts it, and is still disappointed after it becomes a success.

After the premiere he orders a recut, much to everyone’s chagrin, and begins dating actress Katharine Hepburn.

It’s becoming more blatant his OCD and germaphobia is becoming worse (perhaps spurned by that childhood trauma from before), but in the years to come he has a new obsession with flying after flying the H-1 racer and pushing it to go a record speed.

More time passes and he breaks a world record by flying around the world in four days, and his obsession grows deeper. Pan Am chair tries to m monopolize international air travel while Hepburn dumps Hughes, citing that he is too eccentric and works too much.

Hughes then finds a love interest with fifteen-year-old actress Faith Domergue, that doesn’t work out, then he dates Ava Gardner.

This doesn’t distract him from his love for Hepburn though, as he can be seen still pining after her. World War II starts and he begins working on projects with the Air Forces in the army, which takes up the bulk of his time. 1947 arrives and he goes for a test run of an aircraft he’s worked on, and when it crashes, he somehow survives.

The army cancels their orders though, and he decides to fund it himself, but has to come to some major decisions. The OCD starts worsening, and paranoia kicks in for Hughes.

Gardner gets pissed with him after he taps her phone lines, and she ends up kicking him out of the house. The FBI also starts knocking because they think he was involved with war profiteering.

His OCD symptoms hit a peak bad point, and he isolates for three months in a place that’s germ-free. He’s summoned to the Senate, as no one expects him to come, but he does anyways. and he accuses the Senator of being bribed.

He restates his commitment to finishing the aircraft, and he does get it to fly. The film ends with him having a panic attack and hallucinating.

Overall Thoughts

I love Old Hollywood, so this movie turned out to be right up my alley—I had no idea beforehand that it was about this specific time period, and I was generally unaware of Hughes.

I tend to focus more on the Old Hollywood actresses, so I’m surprised that I missed the fact he was involved with both Hepburn and Gardner.

Anyways, I enjoyed this movie because of how it pays attention to the period and the details going into it. It’s very realistic in that way, and the performances are great as well.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.