The Lost Highway: The Aviator

Posted by Mary Markham on 09.27.2006

"Sometimes I truly fear that I... am losing my mind. And if I did it... it would be like flying blind."

The sins of the father as the saying goes, more like the sins of the parents mold the future of the behavior of their offspring. Human behavior is cyclical. It is a repetitive pattern of trial and error. Something engrained into the structure of generations can often times never be changed. Whether it is genetic or psychological, the child emulates the history of their namesake.



I've done a bit of research on the legendary Howard Hughes and don't find much about his life before us as the public knew him. In his film "The Aviator" Scorsese alludes to an overprotective, controlling and instigative mother however we won't ever be sure where his heartbreaking eccentricities came from. His battles with severe OCD, anxiety and mental illness are documented fact. That he slipped in and out of psychotic states and eventually became reclusive and his oddities more perverse are also fact. He struggled with addictions to codeine and valium yet never seemed to imbibe. All of these crosses to bear shrouded behind the mind of a genius. A man who changed the airline industry as we know it and whose passion for planes superseded any mental deficiency he seemed to suffer from. I find it interesting that most people of such visionary grandeur seem cursed with some psychological debilitation.



There has been speculation that Scorsese may have lost his chutzpah for filmmaking, perhaps softening with old age. I may have been included in that theory as well until I saw "The Aviator."



Granted it's not a gritty, dirty dangerous mob flick nor does it have any of the menacing qualities of his earlier works but gosh darn if it isn't a great film!! He may have dropped the ball with "Gangs of New York" but his memory polished up and cleaned off instilled with the breath of life ponied up and gave us a new type of Scorsese with Leonardo DiCaprio as his muse, just as De Niro was in days of yore.



Three hour films when made by Marty just don't seem long enough. I could watch "The Aviator" over and over again and never grow tired of it. Leonardo DiCaprio's gift at conjuring up historical or pop culture figures and bringing them to life is breathtaking. People who question his acting abilities obviously don't appreciate good acting. Quite simply I was watching a glamorized version of Howard Hughes who was captivating and charming, vulnerable and stubborn and also crippled by his obsessive behavior.



Now of course Scorsese takes some liberties in telling the film based on the timeline of events. He also leaves out much of the aviation part of Hughes illustrious career. What he does instead is subtly set up his protagonist by showing the beginning signs of a serious anxiety disorder which would later imprison Hughes in his own private hell eventually leading to a complete breakdown. Little queues such as the specific way in which he needed things to be done: bottled milk with the cap still on, a heightened awareness of germs, his claustrophobic nature and significant hearing loss, tugging on his pant leg consistently, clearing his throat repeatedly and of course carrying around his own bar of soap which he used regularly. Today we understand anxiety disorders. We have created a plethora of medications to stifle or at least relieve them. Back then it was misunderstood, a stigma of mental illness if you please, something you didn't talk about. Another factual tidbit is that Hughes may have contracted syphilis and this eventually led to further cracks in an already fragile mind. I believe that only those closest to Howard truly knew the severity of his condition.




In many films there is always some "heartbreak" for me. I am a sensitive soul. This film held many heartbreaking moments in its hands. Fictionalized though it may have been I felt deeply for this character. DiCaprio's Hughes is someone you root for. He is successful and wildly innovative, spontaneous, highly evolved and yet with all of his accreditations laid before him, he was just a man. A man that accomplished more than most of us even dream about and did so with psychological and physical disabilities. The director's "view" of his relationship with Katherine Hepburn (played uncannily by Cate Blanchett) was tender and ferocious. She seemed to understand Howard and was comfortable with his eccentricities because she had just as many herself. As she gently says to him at a particularly poignant moment, "We're not like everyone else. Too many acute angles, too many eccentricities. We have to be very careful not to let people in or they'll make us into freaks."



So with all that said, the movie still lingers with me. Since watching it I have become completely consumed with Hughes and who he was. I've been reading anything I can find on him. Reality is sometimes just as intriguing as fiction. All in all "The Aviator" is a wonderful film in my book. Scorsese resurrected his incredible gift of storytelling with this one.