This was going to be Howard Hughes' glass. The senator knew of Hughes' germ-related fears and was trying to shake him up--when they are sitting down to eat, Hughes notices the fingerprint and is disturbed because the glass is unclean.
What's "the OP"? By the way, I recommend The Aviator. It has the best performance I've seen by Leonardo Dicaprio since "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?". Cate Blanchett's Katherine Hepburn impression was cute, and the movie was very entertaining overall.
I hope that everybody realizes that they took creative liberties with certain people and timelines. One example is Hughes becoming involved with Ava Gardner right after the Hepburn breakup. I remembered reading in the book "Kate Remembered" that Hepburn considered her relationship with Hughes, her most intense physical relationship even moreso than with Tracy. She also considered Hughes a genius, who's freaky behavior was compounded by his deafness which caused him to feel isolated from the world.
Thanks for confirming this for me. I thought this might be what Scorsese was going for, but I wasn't entirely sure and thought there might have been a problem with one of the reels at the theater I saw. Bluest peas I've ever seen!
Scorsese had fun doing each time period in Hughes' life to correspond with the type of film stock and color processing available at that time period, thus, movie-lizing Howard Hughes' life with this technique.
"OP" = Original poster, or thread starter.
BTW, what was up with HH and that 15 year old girl?
Upon repeat viewings, it's also pretty cool how Scorsese and Howard Shore incorporate the theme of HELL'S ANGELS into the actual AVIATOR score. I didn't catch it the first time around (possibly because I was unfamiliar with it)... but for those who are seeing it again or want something to listen for: the HELL'S ANGELS score/main refrain is heard during the HA premiere in Hollywood, when we actually see the opening titles of the movie. Going off memory here, I'm pretty sure the same theme played occasionally during the filming of HA (especially when the whole fleet is taking off at the beginning) and I'm pretty sure it pops up in the overall Howard Hughes theme (the one with the castinets).
They probably do. I figure everyone is aware of the fact that biopics are never completely 100% true to life. Especially when the person(s) that the movie is about isn't/aren't alive to be interviewed by the screenwriter(s).
How much of the instrumental score was original? Much of it was incredible and Howard Shore has certainly shown he has the chops for that top of the stuff with the LOTR trilogy. Yet a lot of it sounded so "operatic" that I assumed that it was from existing works which Scorcese so commonly uses.
I like how he used music that seemed really authentic...I mean, music that sounded like it came from the time period in which the movie takes place. He did the same in "Ed Wood".
I'm certainly not a music buff, but AFAIK aside from the classical music pieces (used for the flying sequences) and the HELL'S ANGELS riffs, it was all Shore.
As I noted in the "WOW moments" thread, the LA crash was the most amazing and heart rending minute I have had at the movies this year. It was so completely unexpected, but worse, so unfliching in it's brutality and realism.
I am still reeeling from it.
The AVIATOR will be somewhere in my top 10 (only topped by more personal movies like Eternal Sunshine, Before Sunset or Sideways). Thought I will champion other movies, I will accept the BP win if it gets it.
This is also the first time I have been blown away by a Scorcese movie, something that didn't happen with The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Raging Bull or Taxi Driver (which I did like mostly for "NYC Noir", to steal someone's expression). I typically find his movies to be somewhat hollow techinical masterpieces.
I am also a bit surprised at the relatively anemic amount of discussion?
What is the significance of the childhood scene which bookended the movie?
I may be reaching here, but I am alone in thinking that the initial bathing scene suggested some sexual abuse?
Or was the abuse mental, from an overprotective mother drilling into her child's head the words "You are not safe"?
I didn't read anything sexual into the bathtub scene. I thought it was to emphasize a couple of things: her over-protectiveness, like you mentioned, in combination with feelings of vulnerability on his part. Being naked in the tub underlies his later feelings of being vulnerable to germs all around him, and having the mother bathing a child who's obviously old enough to bathe himself demonstrates how over-protective she was.
I thought it was an obvious device to show one of the root causes of his paranoia about germs was his mother's admonishment about disease and germs being all around (Howard makes a couple comments to that effect about Houston being a swamp of disease before any of his psychotic breaks manifest themselves).