Even more significant is the fact that Hughes’ eccentricities are portrayed as a vague form of mental illness triggered by his mother’s behavior.  Instead, the real Hughes contracted syphilis, no doubt from his philandering, which attacked his brain in the form of neuro-syphillis, causing him to go insane.  Where the drugs ended and the disease began, however, is anyone’s guess.  His autopsy revealed dozens of needle tips that had broken off and lodged in his arms and legs.

That Scorsese opts to focus on Hughes’ life for just 20 years, between 1927 and 1947, is certainly understandable.  It’s a lot to focus on, and at close to three hours, this is already a long film.   But I can’t help but wonder if, like those who abandoned Hughes, Scorsese simply couldn’t abide the real story behind the man’s life (for that, check out Richard Hack’s “Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters: The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire.”)  Scorsese’s version, despite its more shocking moments, is still highly sanitized – and truth cannot be told in part.  The reality is that the world’s richest man spent the last two decades of his life bedridden and alone, in a hotel room, covered in his own excrement.  Having survived on a diet of candy and cake, he had no teeth left and his fingernails were so long they curved under his fingers.  He took his last breath on a plane, heading back to the U.S. from Mexico.  Afterwards, the few people who had been loyal to Hughes went to war for his estate, creating several fake wills to bolster their greed.

The film ends abruptly, on an upbeat but strangely dissatisfying note.  Although it alludes to Hughes’ increasing mental illness, it carries no epilogue, no postscript – even though he would live another 29 years.  The aviator?  Yes, Hughes was indeed a great one.  But he was so much more – and so much less.  Thus, despite the film’s qualities, it fails to convey how truly repugnant Hughes truly was.  As the Beatles said, money can’t buy you love.  What is painfully obvious from Hughes’ life is that it can’t buy meaning, either.   

The film and its cast and crew will garner numerous awards.  Some will definitely be merited.  Others will simply be consolation prizes, awarded because of the dearth of quality movies released in 2004.  It’s been a very bad year, indeed.  Still, “The Aviator” is worth seeing.  Particularly if you like Impressionism. 
 
AUDIENCE:  Adults only.

OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT:

• Drugs/Alcohol Content:   Heavy.   Drinking and smoking throughout film; many nightclub and cabaret scenes.
• Language/Profanity:    Heavy.   At least 60 obscenities and 60 profanities (including at least 40 uses of “GD”).
• Sexual Content/Nudity:    Heavy.   Mother washes nude adolescent boy in provocative way; numerous sexual references and overt innuendos; courtroom discussion about cleavage and a dozen enlarged photos of same; several shots of rear male nudity of main character, who walks around nude and urinates into bottles; main character has sexual relationship offscreen with 15 year-old as well as numerous other women, cohabitating with one.
• Violence:  Heavy.   Archival film footage of wartime violence, particularly pilots under attack (bloody faces) and deadly crashes; several instances where main character is in danger during a flight – once crash-landing, another time hitting several homes containing people before landing on ground, where plane crashes and erupts into flames.