MOVIE · 2004

The Aviator

Drama170 min

Howard Hughes rises through 1927-1947 America as a Hollywood producer, aviation mogul, and public figure whose ambitions keep expanding as obsessive-compulsive disorder begins to close in. Leonardo DiCaprio is Hughes, pouring money into films, record-setting flights, and giant aircraft projects while his private life and business empire grow harder to control. Cate Blanchett's Katharine Hepburn and Kate Beckinsale's Ava Gardner bring two of the era's biggest stars into his orbit. Martin Scorsese follows Hughes from studio lots to test flights, balancing old Hollywood sheen with the isolation and instability that shadow him offscreen.