After watching The Aviator, I became more aware of Howard Hughes career as a producer and director of films and wished to watch more of his films. The Outlaw is one of his more notable films, and at the time was a source of great controversy, due to the "prominence" of Jane Russell's breasts, which now a days is not enough to even cause anyone to raise an eyebrow.
The film is good, and apparently is very well regarded, especially for a western, and while it was a decent film to watch is not overwhelmingly noteworthy to me.
One thing that did is perplexing is that the two main characters are Doc Holiday and Billie the Kid. It's odd that these two historical characters were used in a completely fictional story. Why not use new characters? The use of established characters in a unrelated story seems uncommon for the era this film was made in, but now is too common. Too many films take establish characters, stories and even TV shows and makes a completely unrelated film. This has worked well in rare instances, most commonly in Disney's animated films such as The Little Mermaid, and strangely enough Brian De Plama's remake of Howard Hughes own Scarface film.
Monday, April 14, 2014
The Aviator (2004)
I have been torn about watching this film for years. This internal conflict was due to my great interest in Howard Hughes and my distaste for Leonardo Dicaprio, so it took me until now to watch the film.
As I said, I have a great interest in Howard Hughes, but too many times films focus on the insanity at the end of his life, which is irrelevant in comparison to all his accomplishments. I have the same problem with films about Kennedy that feel his assassination is the only note worthy moments of his life, when it is the least irrelevant. There is NOTHING for us to learn from either of these events.
When the film starts out, Dicaprio seems to be none other than himself, which is one of the problems I have with him, but as the film progresses you get more of a feel for who Howard Hughes was. Having read Howard Hughes biography, I was rather surprised by some of the extremely notable events that took place in his life that I didn't recall.
Overall, this is an excellent overview of Howard Hughes life and accomplishments. It does give glimpses of the insanity that eventually consumed Howard Hughes, without making it the focus of the film or neglecting his numerous accomplishments.
P.S. Is there any DiCaprio film in which he doesn't show his ass? It was in this film. I also caught a few minutes of The Wolf of Wall Street ( which seems like a pretty good film, but I have avoided due to lack of interest on my part and Dicaprio's involvement), which also prominently shows his ass.
As I said, I have a great interest in Howard Hughes, but too many times films focus on the insanity at the end of his life, which is irrelevant in comparison to all his accomplishments. I have the same problem with films about Kennedy that feel his assassination is the only note worthy moments of his life, when it is the least irrelevant. There is NOTHING for us to learn from either of these events.
When the film starts out, Dicaprio seems to be none other than himself, which is one of the problems I have with him, but as the film progresses you get more of a feel for who Howard Hughes was. Having read Howard Hughes biography, I was rather surprised by some of the extremely notable events that took place in his life that I didn't recall.
Overall, this is an excellent overview of Howard Hughes life and accomplishments. It does give glimpses of the insanity that eventually consumed Howard Hughes, without making it the focus of the film or neglecting his numerous accomplishments.
P.S. Is there any DiCaprio film in which he doesn't show his ass? It was in this film. I also caught a few minutes of The Wolf of Wall Street ( which seems like a pretty good film, but I have avoided due to lack of interest on my part and Dicaprio's involvement), which also prominently shows his ass.
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