The Aviator

The Aviator is a biographical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film itself follows the life of the aviation extraordinaire Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, showing all of his faults and successes in spectacular fashion down to the very last detail. The film shows the origin of Howard Hughes’ OCD, brought upon thanks to his mother’s constant washing and talks of germs. Flash-forward to 1927, Howard is now in the process of making the movie Hell’s Angels. The first few minutes of the film also shows Howard’s constant worry for germs and the need to make everything, including the film, perfect. Later, he begins seeing Katherine Hepburn, played by Cate Blanchett, who begins helping to quell down his OCD symptoms. But things begin to turn bad for Howard once Juan Trippe, played by Alec Baldwin, makes it his mission to have his airline be the only one to travel to Europe. This, coupled with Howard’s worsening OCD after Hepburn leaves him and the physically scarring crash of the XF-11 plane, makes Howard slowly become more and more of a recluse and paranoid of even his girlfriends. To the point where he locks himself in a theatre room as a way to prevent himself from outside contamination while Juan Trippe’s men attempt to further discredit him. Howard is eventually able to pull himself together and defend himself before taking one final flight on the H-4 Hercules. The film closes, showing us that Howard’s OCD is only getting worse and worse before cutting to black.

I myself am amazed at how they portrayed Howard in this film. They showed just how much of a contradiction his OCD made him, fearful of germs yet also willing to let his physical health decline while locking himself in the theatre room. It showed his joy in flying airplanes, and the amount of dedication he had in keeping his airline Trans World Airlines. The movie showed us that while he was living ‘The American Dream’, it did not actually help him as a person. In fact, it made Hughes’ OCD so much worse that it lead to him isolating himself from society for quite some time. He was very smooth talking to women and was a playboy, but he never really connected with any except for a handful that were controlling. In fact, the only one that Howard actually loved in the film was Hepburn due to how free-willed yet firm she was.

The scenes of Howard in the theatre were especially powerful. Before, he simply washed his hands and controlled where his food was placed to deal with his OCD. Now, he simply stays in one area watching movies over and over again while having a diet of sandwiches, chocolate, and milk. The scene is just so saddening, since we saw Howard as a larger than life figure. With the scene though, he just looks like a mental patient. 

As said before, the film closes in 1940 due to Howard winning his Senate hearing and flying the ‘Spruce Goose’. It closes here because these were two of Howard’s greatest accomplishments, and yet also began his even worsening OCD despite willing himself to get out of the theatre. We never know what happens next, but we do see Howard’s bloodshot eyes and him remembering his childhood promise to make the biggest movies and fly the fastest airplanes. Through these, we see that Howard will never get better, and the very reason why he set such high standards for himself was because of his childhood dreams. This is a movie that shows a man’s rise and fall in life. I truly recommend it for any movie fan that wishes to see DiCaprio at his fin