Re-appraising Scorsese’s Aviator

On an initial viewing I rather underrated this film but I now believe this might be Scorsese’s very strongest work in terms of visual texture with the possible exceptions of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. I love a certain kind of dynamism with the camera — Eisenstein over Tarkovsky, Kurosawa over Ozu and so on (not that I rate filmmakers only on these grounds) — and to my mind Aviator exhibits these qualities. Leaving aside the marvelous color tones of the film Scorsese is splendid in terms of filming Hughes filming Hell’s Angel (quite a meta-conceit here or cinematic trope if you will!). Then there is his usual restless camera capturing groups of people in crowded rooms, the montages etc.


The other way in which I underestimated the film was that I was a bit unhappy that Scorsese had focused so much on the ‘bright’ side of the legend. But now I realize that the film fulfills a different purpose. Scorsese I think means to de-mythologize the whole ‘pioneer’ notion in American history. There are celebratory accounts in the culture on this score and the director shows how the ‘pioneer’ in the US is usually a rather ‘embattled’ figure. Furthermore the corporate establishment is quite likely to throttle such ‘pioneers’. And of course ‘politics’ becomes an extension of corporate logic.

This doesn’t mean that I consider the film perfect by any means. For all the film’s stress on the character’s OCD there was a lot more going on that reflected his ‘dark side’. But again Scorsese is interested in the high points here to the extent that he can comment on ‘America’ as such. And the aviation industry is certainly a good one to pick, not least because in Hughes the connection between the cinematic and the ‘aviatory’ is a rich one indeed.