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framlingem**WARNING** In addition to a reaction to "The Aviator", this post will also contain massive quantities of plane geekery. Read at your own risk.**/WARNING**
OOOOOH, biplanes! Not real Fokkers or Sopwiths or anything, but the paint job's well done, especially the red one which really should have been a triplane but wasn't. Lots and lots and lots of biplanes. Pretty biplanes. And the grand flying circus bits.
That field of Constellations was beautiful, too, even if they were mid-late fifties models instead of the original design. Connies are my absolute favorite non-military plane. They're just such a unique design - look!:http://www.airlinehistorymuseum.com/images/Bowen01b.jpg. I've actually been inside that one at an airshow in Ontario, when I was small. We're pretty sure that's the one used in the film, digitally copied to make a field of them. There're about five or six of them still flying, and they're such a glorious machine. Just the line of her, like she's reaching forward and slipping through the air. Graceful. You can find one near the airport in Toronto, grounded forever as a restaurant.
There's not quite so much awe in airliners these days. Even the 747 is relatively old, and they're the most awe-inspiring thing I've ever actually flown on. Commercial planes at the moment are refinements of old designs - not so much new anymore. Sad, really.
In other plane geekery, the Spruce Goose only really got to about twelve feet over the water. It wasn't quite as triumphant as all that. But still - the Herc is a brilliant aircraft. I was in Scotland a few years ago with the family, and one flew over us. Lovely. Friggin' huge, of course, but that's why it's brilliant.
In terms of the non-aircraft parts of the plot, I was floored. Seriously. We're talking chills, here. Cate Blanchett as Kate Hepburn? Brilliant. She got the voice down pat, and the stride (Hepburn never, ever minced). Alec Baldwin was well-cast, too as the president of PanAm, too. DiCaprio? I fail to understand why people don't like him. The man is brilliant. He was the one who gave me the chills. He got the madness and the passion and the recklessness that characterised Hughes down pat. It was scary.
Okay, so most of that was plane geekery. But c'mon... Connies. I highly recommend this film.
On the other hand, a woman walked out about three-quarters of the way through, towing her four-or-five-year-old boy. While I applaud her leaving, as the film was definitely not suitable, I wonder what in any of the trailers and advertisements led her to believe that this was the right film for her child? Hughes was a genius, yes - he invented the cantilever bra! - and aeroplanes are never a bad thing, sure. But... this is a film about a playboy who was so mentally ill he spent his last years holed up in a hotel room in Vegas, communicating with one person only by notes, and bottling his own urine. He couldn't bathe because he was so afraid of what might be in the water, and couldn't wear clothes either. Not something I'd choose to take a small child to, really, in the first place. And let me just check the rating on it... Hm. G in Quebec. Weird. Anyhoo. If you are not a small child, it is an excellent film and I highly suggest you see it.
OOOOOH, biplanes! Not real Fokkers or Sopwiths or anything, but the paint job's well done, especially the red one which really should have been a triplane but wasn't. Lots and lots and lots of biplanes. Pretty biplanes. And the grand flying circus bits.
That field of Constellations was beautiful, too, even if they were mid-late fifties models instead of the original design. Connies are my absolute favorite non-military plane. They're just such a unique design - look!:http://www.airlinehistorymuseum.com/images/Bowen01b.jpg. I've actually been inside that one at an airshow in Ontario, when I was small. We're pretty sure that's the one used in the film, digitally copied to make a field of them. There're about five or six of them still flying, and they're such a glorious machine. Just the line of her, like she's reaching forward and slipping through the air. Graceful. You can find one near the airport in Toronto, grounded forever as a restaurant.
There's not quite so much awe in airliners these days. Even the 747 is relatively old, and they're the most awe-inspiring thing I've ever actually flown on. Commercial planes at the moment are refinements of old designs - not so much new anymore. Sad, really.
In other plane geekery, the Spruce Goose only really got to about twelve feet over the water. It wasn't quite as triumphant as all that. But still - the Herc is a brilliant aircraft. I was in Scotland a few years ago with the family, and one flew over us. Lovely. Friggin' huge, of course, but that's why it's brilliant.
In terms of the non-aircraft parts of the plot, I was floored. Seriously. We're talking chills, here. Cate Blanchett as Kate Hepburn? Brilliant. She got the voice down pat, and the stride (Hepburn never, ever minced). Alec Baldwin was well-cast, too as the president of PanAm, too. DiCaprio? I fail to understand why people don't like him. The man is brilliant. He was the one who gave me the chills. He got the madness and the passion and the recklessness that characterised Hughes down pat. It was scary.
Okay, so most of that was plane geekery. But c'mon... Connies. I highly recommend this film.
On the other hand, a woman walked out about three-quarters of the way through, towing her four-or-five-year-old boy. While I applaud her leaving, as the film was definitely not suitable, I wonder what in any of the trailers and advertisements led her to believe that this was the right film for her child? Hughes was a genius, yes - he invented the cantilever bra! - and aeroplanes are never a bad thing, sure. But... this is a film about a playboy who was so mentally ill he spent his last years holed up in a hotel room in Vegas, communicating with one person only by notes, and bottling his own urine. He couldn't bathe because he was so afraid of what might be in the water, and couldn't wear clothes either. Not something I'd choose to take a small child to, really, in the first place. And let me just check the rating on it... Hm. G in Quebec. Weird. Anyhoo. If you are not a small child, it is an excellent film and I highly suggest you see it.
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Date: 2004-12-31 03:46 pm (UTC)