The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

Tonight I saw The Aviator. Leo Dicaprio is a great actor. The movie was pretty enjoyable. Howard Hughes was one of those guys who should probably be more famous than he is today. I get the feeling he was pretty well known back in the 30s and 40s and was kindof that generation's Donald Trump.

The general point of the movie was that Howard Hughes was an innovative thinker who was willing to put his money on the line for what he believed in, but also he was crazy. Literally crazy. The movie doesn't really tell his entire story. From what I know of Howard Hughes, in addition to being influential in Hollywood and even more influential in the airline industry, he was also one of the driving forces in legitimizing Las Vegas and removing the mafia influence. That wasn't even discussed in the film. Also at the end of his life he apparently went from somewhat functionally crazy to absolutely insane. He was shipped to some island where people were supposed to take care of him and didn't so he deteriorated really quickly.

I guess the point of the movie wasn't to show that this guy went insane, but rather that he was an innovative thinker who tended to succeed despite the crazy thing. It ends in sortof an odd place, though. I feel like they didn't tell the whole story.

This didn't feel like a Martin Scorcese picture, though I immediately think of Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver and not really of much else when I think of Scorcese. All of those movies are quintessentially about New York. Also Gangs of New York was different but felt like Scorcese, and was also about New York. Though I didn't like Gangs of New York at all.

I liked this movie. Definitely you should go see it. Cate Blanchett was absolutely great as Katharine Hepburn (Katharine with an A, interesting). I'll pick her for Best Supporting Actress this year barring someone who's slipping my mind. I can't imagine someone else gave a performance like that one, though. Kate Winslet was really good in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, now that I think of it, but Blanchett gets my vote out of those two. Also Winslet wasn't a supporting actress in that one. Maybe they can both win, like the Special Olympics.

Anyway, good movie, see it, great performances, good cameos and supporting roles, not the best movie ever, but definitely good.