Martin Scorsese knows how to make a film. How to make it look, sound, and flow. While The Aviator isn’t Scorsese’s best film, it’s great to watch. The weakness with The Aviator is in the script. With a better script, Scorsese would have made a great film. The performances are solid and the deep love of filmmaking that Scorsese has translates well to the screen. The film is enjoyable and great to watch. Fun and harrowing at times. A sequence where Hughes crashes a plane is frightening and viseral and seamlessly combines effects, sound, shooting and editing together. Thelma Schoonmaker is a gifted editor who is able to cut (or not) at the perfect moment to move the story along, draw our attention to a detail or give us time to think. As the film progresses the look changes to mirror that of different film stocks with their own particular colour responses. Every time I see a film by Scorsese I learn something and the Aviator is no exception.
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