The Aviator (2004)

The Aviator is a sweeping biographical drama that follows the rise—and unraveling—of Howard Hughes from the late 1920s through the mid‑1940s. It traces his transformation from heir and Hollywood prodigy (producing lavish films like Hell’s Angels) into an obsessive aviation pioneer who pours fortunes into designing experimental aircraft, building TWA as a rival to Pan Am, and ultimately testing enormous projects such as the Spruce Goose. Public triumphs, high‑profile romances with stars like Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner, and battles with rivals and politicians (notably Juan Trippe and Senator Ralph Owen Brewster) play out alongside Hughes’s private descent into crippling germophobia, compulsions, and mental illness. As a viewer you’ll experience a rich period portrait full of glamour and spectacle: meticulously recreated 1930s–40s Hollywood, breathtaking aerial and test‑flight sequences, and the high stakes of both studio and aviation worlds. The film alternates exhilarating sequences of ambition and invention with increasingly intimate, unsettling scenes of obsession and isolation—leaving you simultaneously awed by Hughes’s genius and moved by the tragedy of his decline.

Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale

Director: Martin Scorsese

Runtime: 170 min

Genres: Biography, Drama

6.4 /10 77 /100 7.5 /10 7.2 /10