The Aviator

Started by MacGuffin, January 20, 2003, 01:29:35 PM

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El Duderino

great great movie. i honestly believe that the best actor nod is between Leo and Jamie Foxx. Scorcese may finally get it too.
Did I just get cock-blocked by Bob Saget?

SHAFTR

I loved this, seriously considering putting it in my top 5 Scorsese films.
"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"

soixante

Just saw it -- Scorsese's best since Casino.  It was the ideal combination of standard Hollywood biopic structure with Scorsese's unique stylistic flourishes.  

Leo returns to the rawness of his pre-Titanic films like Basketball Diaries and Total Eclipse.  Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, John C. Reilly and Cate Blanchett were all top-notch.
Music is your best entertainment value.

soixante

More thoughts on The Aviator --

Oddly enough, the Scorsese film this most reminds me of is Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.  On both films, Scorsese was a hired gun.  Neither film started as a personal project for Scorsese.  Both films are traditional genre pieces, and yet he managed to bring his personal stamp to both.  Both films feature a bravura lead performance featuring lots of emotional ups and downs (as opposed to Leo's taciturnity in Gangs of NY).

Comparing Gangs to Aviator, I think Gangs was an interesting attempt by Scorsese to try something utterly different, and now seems like a dry run for the historical epic he has created with The Aviator.  The problem with Gangs is the lead character is rather a cipher, a guy seeking revenge, and not much more, whereas Howard Hughes is an endlessly fascinating, larger than life personage.  The sprawl of Gangs has been replaced by a more focused, disciplined approach in the new film.  In sum, The Aviator succeeds as a character study, a historical epic, a mainstream Hollywood film, Mirimax Oscar bait and a Scorsese film.

One other note -- Aviator finally allows Scorsese to make a movie about the Old Hollywood that he knows and loves, so his passion for the subject matter propels the entire project.

Drawback -- the special effects sometimes look fake, but that didn't bother me too much, as the film is so stylized that it sort of works.
Music is your best entertainment value.

Kal

Loved it. Di Caprio was fenomenal. The music was great. The 3 hours went by and I didnt even realize...

I was hoping for Johnny Depp's Oscar this year, but I must say I would love Leo to get it... he was brillant.

It should be Scorsese's year as well... but I havent seen the new Clint Eastwood movie yet... we'll see

A Matter Of Chance

This film is amazing.

Gold Trumpet

I loved this film, but I was trying to think what really was Scorsese's accomplishment. He managed to use his filmmaking majesty to pull out tricks he hadn't used since Raging Bull and then choreograph a story that was as big and as fun as Casino. Thing is, Casino was a version of Goodfellas but the difference being that Scorsese was extending his talent to prove he could make a Hollywood epic as good as anyone. He did that, but I felt less of Scorsese in that film. Not his filmmaking talents, but the personality of self he managed to bleed through every topic he touched. With the Aviator, he feels nonexistent. The film really is dedicated to its subject and as talk before hand of another Howard Hughes film being made with Nolan and Carrey, I'll say Scorsese made the defining Howard Hughes film. He managed to correlate his innovations in aviation with his deteriotian of self. I guess Nolan was just going to focus on the deteriotiation and obviously that wouldn't have defined Hughes at all. He was too interesting and prominent for that. Nolan would have just been competing against every other film dedicated to obcessive complusiveness in man and asking for an impossible task. Scorsese was a director for hire, yes, but had a great achievement in really speaking about Howard Huges.

Alethia

if anything, this film shows that marty could make a good movie even in a state of comatose.  on the whole, this is not a great picture.  but there are so many damn scorsese masterstrokes in it (SPOILERS the last appearance of katherine hepburn, hughes teenage lovers' psychotic episode, the final shot) that it comes close to greatness more than once.  in the end, however, there are too many elements of the script that are a bit too hollywood and that is, i think, what keeps it from greatness.  this goes down (for me at least) with films like after hours, color of money, cape fear, gangs - they all show scorsese effortlessly in command of his technique, with his eyes and brain going 100%...but his heart only 50 or so.

i don't like to do this but if i had to grade it i'd probably give it a B+ or
****  out of *****.

so, scorsese has proven that he can do hollywood just as good and probably better than most directors - i think it's time for him to get back to the mean streets.  that's what i wanna see, at least.

soixante

I think Scorsese has done enough gangster movies -- he needs to branch out, and he has tried to do something different in Age of Innocence, Cape Fear, even Michael Jackson's Bad -- this time, he has finally hit a nice groove.

The Aviator is a conventional Hollywood film, and Scorsese has forced himself to work within the confines therein.  Unlimited freedom can squash creativity more often than onerous restrictions, and the parameters of the biopic have forced Scorsese to make his most disciplined film in years.
Music is your best entertainment value.

A Matter Of Chance

I was willing to look past the film's more Hollywood qualities because I liked it so much. I don't know - it really hit home.

Alethia

Quote from: soixanteI think Scorsese has done enough gangster movies

when i say mean streets, though, i don't mean gangster flicks, i mean lower-budget personal labors of love...and may i say that in my opinion age of innocence was his absolute best "departure"....no, no, actually, strike that, last temptation was with age of innocence trailing closely behind.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: eward
Quote from: soixanteI think Scorsese has done enough gangster movies

when i say mean streets, though, i don't mean gangster flicks, i mean lower-budget personal labors of love...and may i say that in my opinion age of innocence was his absolute best "departure"....no, no, actually, strike that, last temptation was with age of innocence trailing closely behind.

Scorsese doesn't have to go gangster to get personal. Last Temptation of Christ, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull all felt very personal to Scorsese and if you look at the surface details of those subjects, one would second guess that. Scorsese transformed each subject to involve a running theme he's had and filmed each with such naked aggression that it could only be felt as an extension of his own pain. The Aviator is the classiest film he's done yet save for instance The Age of Innocence. I would love for Scorsese to go low budget again and I guess he's doing that for Infernal Affairs, but it being a cop film set in Boston, will Scorsese be able to make it a film important for himself?

Pozer

I don't know but first and foremost, he's gotta change that title.

soixante

I think Infernal Affairs will be called The Departed.
Music is your best entertainment value.

Alethia

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet
Quote from: eward
Quote from: soixanteI think Scorsese has done enough gangster movies

when i say mean streets, though, i don't mean gangster flicks, i mean lower-budget personal labors of love...and may i say that in my opinion age of innocence was his absolute best "departure"....no, no, actually, strike that, last temptation was with age of innocence trailing closely behind.

Scorsese doesn't have to go gangster to get personal.

right, that's what i was saying.  but by saying departure, i mean just basically his period pieces and non-new york films.  so i guess departure was the wrong word.