Movie Review: The Aviator

My first venture into the movie theaters this year was to see Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. Outside of Goodfellas and Raging Bull this may be Scorsese’s best work. Although I did find Gangs of New York more interesting than most. The film is lengthy. I usually don’t complain about such things, but I did see the opportunity to cutback some on the scenes emphasizing Hughes’ wackiness. Scorsese used a unique color technique going from two-tone Technicolor, to three-tone, to modern Technicolor gives the film a period touch but I found it distracting.

Leonardo DiCaprio's performance is worthy of an Oscar nod once you get by his youthful appearance. Cate Blanchett was great as Katharine Hepburn. My wife thought it took a while to be comfortable with her in that role. Alec Baldwin’s part didn’t really lend itself to his best work. Alan Alda’s senator role was good. (No Hawkeye goes to Washington.)

All in all it was an entertaining biography of a historical character about which I knew just some things.
It was a very good film. Being an educator this is how I grade: B plus