The Aviator [Blu-ray]

Director: Martin Scorsese Martin Scorsese

Overview

Reteaming the director and star of Gangs of New York, Martin Scorcese's The Aviator stars Leonardo DiCaprio as legendary millionaire Howard Hughes. Focusing on the early part of Hughes' adult life, the film chronicles how he built his fortune, beginning as the proprietor of his late father's tool company, then as a Hollywood producer and the owner of RKO studios, and later as an aviation mogul. Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, and Kate Beckinsale also star.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/06/2007
UPC:	0085391186281
Original Release:	2004
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:50:00

Special Features

Commentary by Martin Scorsese; Additional scene; Making the Aviator; The Role of Howard Hughes in Aviation History; Modern Marvels: Howard Hughes, a History Channel documentary; The Affliction of Howard Hughes: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; The Visual Effects of The Aviator; Constructing The Aviator; Costuming and scoring The Aviator; The Aviator and the Age of Glamour; An Evening with Leonardo DiCaprio and Alan Alda; Still Gallery; Theatrical Trailer (in High Definition)

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Leonardo DiCaprio	Howard Hughes
Cate Blanchett	Katharine Hepburn
Kate Beckinsale	Ava Gardner
John C. Reilly	Noah Dietrich
Alec Baldwin	Juan Trippe
Alan Alda	Senator Ralph Owen Brewster
Ian Holm	Professor Fitz
Danny Huston	Jack Frye
Gwen Stefani	Jean Harlow,Actor
Jude Law	Errol Flynn
Adam Scott	Johnny Meyer,Little Girl
Matt Ross	Glenn Odekirk
Kelli Garner	Faith Domergue
Frances Conroy	Mrs. Hepburn
Brent Spiner	Robert Gross
Stanley DeSantis	Louis B. Mayer
Edward Herrmann	Joseph Breen
Willem Dafoe	Roland Sweet
Kenneth Welsh	Dr. Hepburn
J.C. MacKenzie	Ludlow
Jacob Davich	Howard Hughes
Amy Sloan	Howard Hughes' Mother
Sam Hennings	HELL'S ANGELS Stunt Coordinator
Joseph Chrest	HELL'S ANGELS Director of Photography
Rufus Wainwright	Cocoanut Grove Vocalist #1,Cocoanut Grove Vocalist #3
Harry Standjofski	Crony of Louis B. Mayer
Vince Giordano	Cocoanut Grove Band Member
Josie Maran	Cigarette Girl
Justin Shilton	HELL'S ANGELS Pilot
Arthur Holden	Radio Announcer
Raymond Ducasse	Roscoe Turner
Joseph Reidy	Aide to Howard
Stéphane Demers	Maitre d'
Yves Jacques	Waiter
Loudon Wainwright III	Cocoanut Grove Vocalist #2
Jason Cavalier	Cocoanut Grove Patron
Chris Ufland	Engineer
Al Dubois	Pan Am Executive #1
Alan Toy	Man on Crutches
Kenneth Walsh	Dr. Hepburn
Sebastian Tillinger	Timer
Francesca Scorsese	Little Girl
James Bradford	Uncle Willy
Joe Cobden	Another Guest #1
Linda E. Smith	Another Guest #2
Alan Fawcett	Chairman MPA
Jordan St. James	Hughes' Aide at Censor Hearing
David Purdham	Emcee
Kevin O'Rourke	Spencer Tracy
Lisa Bronwyn Moore	Noah's Wife
Emma Campbell	Jack Frye's Wife, Helen,Marine
Vincent Laresca	Jorge
Matt Holland	Hughes' Staff Person
Dennis St John	Custodian
Al Vandercruys	Doctor
James Rae	FBI Agent
Kathleen McAuliffe	Brewster's Maid
Nellie Sciutto	Secretary
Terry Haig	Another Senator
James McNamara	James McNamara
John Koensgen	Pan Am Executive #2
Vladimir Kuznetsov	Caretaker
Mark Akeson	Caretaker
Jason Pollard	Caretaker
Heather Petrone	Vivien Leigh
Danielle Franke	Esquire Starlet
Meghan Elizabeth	Starlet
Elizabeth DeCicco	Starlet
Elisa Dyann	Coat Check Girl
Isabelle Champeau	Editor
Al Coronel	Bi-Plane Mechanic
Gerardo Lo Dico	Military Officer
Anne V. Coates	Howard Hughes' Film Editor
Howard Shore	Composer

Technical Credits

John Logan

Martin Scorsese	Director,Executive Producer
John Logan	Screenwriter
Michael Mann	Producer
Matthias Deyle	Producer
Sandy Climan	Producer
Charles Evans Jr.	Producer
Graham King	Producer
Harvey Weinstein	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Rick Yorn	Executive Producer
Rick Schwartz	Executive Producer
Leonardo DiCaprio	Executive Producer
Volker Schauz	Executive Producer
Colin Cotter	Executive Producer
Aslan Nadery	Executive Producer
Chris Brigham	Executive Producer
Wyatt Sprague	Sound Effects
Lucie Robitaille	Casting
Ellen Lewis	Casting
Petur Hliddal	Sound/Sound Designer
Charles Evans	Producer

Editorial Reviews

With one of the 20th century’s most colorful characters as his subject, director Martin Scorsese has turned out an unusually compelling biography that, like many of its kind, generates tremendous interest while ignoring or distorting portions of the historical record. Scorsese’s portrait of maverick tycoon/filmmaker/aviator Howard Hughes (played convincingly by a seemingly miscast Leonardo DiCaprio) is accurate in a “big picture” sense, even to its unstated but strongly implied attribution of Hughes’s legendary eccentricities to an undiagnosed case of what we know today as obsessive-compulsive disorder. And it certainly presents thrilling re-creations of his aerial adventures, which included setting a new airspeed record in 1935, crashing an experimental spy plane in 1946, and getting his mammoth flying boat -- derisively nicknamed “the Spruce Goose” -- airborne in 1947. But the film plays fast and loose with many other aspects of Hughes’s amazing life; for example, it completely ignores his ill-fated first marriage, which was well underway during the three-year production of Hell’s Angels dramatized in Aviator’s first act. It also disregards his torrid affair with then-famous actress Billie Dove and overlooks his lengthy, close friendship with actor Cary Grant. Still, Scorsese does a magnificent job of depicting the wild-and-woolly Hollywood of the late silent and early sound years, vividly recreating the bacchanalian atmosphere of such famous nightspots as the Coconut Grove. Hughes’s lengthy and improbable romance with Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett in an Oscar-winning performance) gets expansive treatment, as does his on-again, off-again fling with glamorous Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). Critics and viewers caught up in the Hollywood sections of the film were less impressed with its last hour, in which a clearly disturbed Hughes, his mental illness exacerbated by head injuries sustained in the 1946 crash, fights for both his sanity and his business. But the tycoon’s memorable showdown with Senator Owen Brewster (Alan Alda), the culmination of Senate hearings called to investigate mismanagement of government funds by Hughes Aircraft during World War II, is a bravura climax that showcases The Aviator’s exceptional writing, directing, acting, and editing. Nearly three hours in length, the film has a few tedious stretches, but Scorsese achieves the heights he's aiming for -- a truly soaring cinematic experience.