The Aviator
The Aviator is a 2004 American epic biographical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner. The supporting cast features Ian Holm, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Gwen Stefani, Matt Ross, Willem Dafoe, Alan Alda, and Edward Herrmann. The film grossed $214 million on a budget of $110 million and received many accolades. In 1913, Howard Hughes’ mother warns him about the recent cholera outbreak in Houston.
Fourteen years later, in 1927, he begins to direct his film Hell’s Angels, and hires Noah Dietrich to manage his day-to-day operations. After the release of The Jazz Singer, Hughes becomes obsessed with shooting his film realistically, and decides to convert the movie to sound. He becomes romantically involved with actress Katharine Hepburn, who helps to ease the symptoms of his worsening obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In 1935, Hughes test flies the H-1 Racer, pushing it to a new speed record, despite having to crash-land into a beet field when the aircraft runs out of fuel. In 1947, with the H-4 Hercules flying boat still in construction, Hughes finishes the XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft and takes it for a test flight.
One of the engines fail midflight, and the aircraft crashes in Beverly Hills, with Hughes getting severely injured. As his OCD worsens, Hughes becomes increasingly paranoid, planting microphones and tapping Gardner’s phone lines to keep track of her. The FBI searches his home for incriminating evidence of war profiteering, searching his possessions and, to his horror, tracking dirt through his house.
Random Citizen 