Yesterday, Jimbo and his girlfriend saw the movie The Aviator. We received some discount movie passes from my son and his girlfriend for Christmas, so the price was very comfortable. Thanks, again, guys for the gift.
My overall opinion of the movie was favorable and I would recommend it. The movie is about the early years of Howard Hughes and gives us an explanation why he had a phobia of germs and therefore, for those of us familiar with Hughes’ later years, it helps to explain why he lived out his life as a virtual hermit and in isolation. The later part of his life was not shown in the movie. Maybe they will do a sequel sometime to show the rest, although it would not be necessary.
The movie depicts Hughes as a child and there was an epidemic and his mother put an effort into washing him and keeping him clean from the disease, something that foreshadowed the rest of his life. Many in his community were in quarantine. For those who have seen the movie that is Q-U-A-R-A-N-T-I-N-E, as his mother spells out for him as a child and he spells out for himself in moments of psychotic paranoia in his adult life. Throughout the movie Hughes (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) has a phobia of coming into contact with men or having them touch his food, although he seems to have no problem about contact with women, with whom he seems to be in frequent close contact throughout the movie. Perhaps this is because his mother kept him clean and sterile in his youth. This is just speculation, of course. Do I look like a psychiatrist? When you look in you dictionary under psychiatrist, you’ll not find a line drawing of my less-than-handsome countenance.
I thought DiCaprio’s performance was extremely good. I would imagine it would be a challenge to go from pretty boy to psycho at the drop of a hat. I was pretty impressed.
Hughes is depicted throughout the movie as an eccentric who leverages his family’s tool business to finance his career as a movie-maker and an aircraft pioneer and he puts his fortune on the line numerous times and teeters on the edge of solvency in order to advance his projects like film making, aircraft manufacture and running an airline. During the entire movie he drifts into and out of periods of psychosis, each time leaving the viewer to wonder whether he will remain that way, helpless, forever. Each time he manages to regain his sanity temporarily and accomplish some other remarkable feat.
I particularly liked the early part of the movie, during which Hughes was making the movie Hell’s Angels, and the amount of time and money it took to bring the movie to the screen. I also thought it was a very realistic depiction of the nightlife in the twenties and thirties, with the entertainers rolling their eyes and acting goofy as hell. From what I have read of those times, the entertainers were about as sedate as rockers of the seventies. Of course, I don’t know for a fact. I wasn’t there. I’m old, but not that old.
The Aviator is a bit of a long movie—about two-and one-half hours—so make sure you go to the restroom before you go into the theatre, but if you are interested in being entertained, I would highly recommend this film.
Here in Jimbo’s world we know a nut case when we see one, even if we can’t explain it in the proper psychological jargon, and we also know a good movie when we see it.
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