Chocks Away

[gervase_fen]

THE AVIATOR is nearly three hours long, but doesn't drag (much), and which handily divides into three sections. The first section, about the making of "Hell's Angels", is a vibrant, technicolor tribute to Hollywood in the early 30s, with some lovely jokes. (Errol Flynn about to start a fight says "I'm not an English bastard, I'm a TASMANIAN bastard!" Except of course he's really Jude Law...)

The second section is even better, as Cate Blanchett makes her appearance as Kate Hepburn : frankly, by the end of the film, I wished they had made a whole bio-pic about her. She's terrific. Look out for the scene where Howard Hughes accuses her acting all the time - Cate Blanchett's reaction is beautifully judged.

The third section pits our hero against Juan Tripp (Alec Baldwin), head of Pan Am, and his pet senator from Maine, played by Alan Alda - there's some scenes at a House Committee Enquiry that aren't a million miles away from The West Wing (appropriately enough).

Along the way there are two exhilarating plane crashes, and some full-on OCD scenes from Leonardo. Those milk bottles in his screening room aren't filled with apple juice....

The problem with the film is the subject - why should we care about a millionaire playboy who thought nothing of putting fifteen year old girls "under contract" so he could enjoy a harem of them? Nevertheless, this is a pretty entertaining movie, and by far the funniest Martin Scorsese film that I've seen.

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I'd thought of going, but was already promised to a meeting on the evening, and was otherwise tied to my desk writing my chapter for the Manchester book. Your report is better than the unenthusiastic advance reviews I've come across.