Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Aviator" (2004) was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won five. The movie is a biopic about Howard Hughes.
"The Aviator" begins in 1927 and covers Hughes's glory years up through 1947. During these years, Hughes made movies like "Hell's Angels" and "The Outlaw."
"The Aviator" also chronicles some of Hughes's romantic relationships, including one with Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett in an Oscar-winning performance) and another with Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).
But Hughes's primary interest was aviation, and he set several records as a pilot. He designed, built, and flew military planes, and he was badly injured while piloting an experimental spy plane that crashed in Beverly Hills. Also, he made TWA into a major airline, and "The Aviator" depicts his battles with Pan Am's Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin) and U.S. Senator Brewster (Alan Alda in an Oscar-nominated performance).
Hughes suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and "The Aviator" shows him exhibiting some symptoms of that neuropsychiatric condition. However, his OCD got much worse after the time frame covered by the movie.
On DVD, "The Aviator" comes as a two-disc set. Disc 1 contains the two-hour-fifty-minute feature film and an audio commentary by Scorsese, Oscar-winning film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, and producer Michael Mann.
Disc 2 contains an assortment of bonus materials. One of these is a short deleted scene where Hughes tells Ava Gardner about his car accident. Another is an 11-minute making-of featurette.
There are four extras about Hughes on Disc 2. One is the 14-minute "The Role of Howard Hughes in Aviation History." Another is the 43-minute History Channel documentary "Modern Marvels: Howard Hughes." A third is the 14-minute "The Affliction of Howard Hughes: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder." And finally, there's a 15-minute panel discussion on OCD where the participants are two UCLA experts, DiCaprio, Scorsese, and Terry Moore, an actress who knew Hughes intimately and claims to be his widow.
Disc 2 also contains additional bonus materials dealing with the movie. One of these is a 28-minute featurette where DiCaprio and Alan Alda sit on a stage and talk with a moderator about "The Aviator." Also, there are five short (three-to-twelve-minute) production featurettes that cover visual effects, art design, costuming, hair and makeup, and musical score. Another extra is the five-minute featurette on the Wainwright family, three singers who perform in the Coconut Grove sequences.
There are two separate DVD versions of "The Aviator." One is widescreen, the other is full-screen. Both are two-disc sets, and except for the aspect ratio of the feature film, they are identical.
Below I've listed all the special features of the widescreen version of "The Aviator" DVD set.
DVD Details for the Widescreen Edition of "The Aviator":
Release Date: May 24, 2005
Number of Discs: 2
Feature Run Time: 2 Hours 50 Minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Thematic Elements, Sexual Content, Nudity, Language and a Crash Sequence
Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1), Color
English Dolby 5.1 Surround
French (Dubbed in Quebec) Dolby 2.0 Stereo
English Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
French Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Scorsese, Film Editor, Producer
Deleted Scene (1 min. 39 sec.)
A Life Without Limits: The Making of "The Aviator" (11 min.)
The Role of Howard Hughes in Aviation History (14 min. 35 sec.)
"Modern Marvels: Howard Hughes" (43 min.)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (14 min.)
OCD Panel Discussion (15 min.)
An Evening With Leonardo DiCaprio and Alan Alda (28 min.)
The Visual Effects of "The Aviator" (12 min.)
Constructing "The Aviator": The Work of Dante Ferretti (6 min.)
Costuming "The Aviator": The Work of Sandy Powell (3 min. 33 sec.)
The Age of Glamour: The Hair and Makeup of "The Aviator" (8 min.)
Scoring "The Aviator": The Work of Howard Shore (7 min.)
The Wainwright Family – Loudon, Rufus, and Martha (5 min.)
"The Aviator" Soundtrack Spot (18 sec.)
Still Gallery
