I saw it for the first time last night, and I went in expecting to think it was alright, but I really enjoyed it. Beautiful cinematography, compelling performance by DiCaprio and Blanchette as well as Beckinsdale (although she had a smaller, but important part). John C. Reiley was great too.
The Obsessive Compulsive Disorder elements of the movie were phenomenally done, and the entire movie had a very cohesive and never directionless feel to it. I think Scorsese could relate to Howard Hughes for being so meticulous to detail, a quality many people attribute to Scorsese.
One of my personal favorites in movies is when there are a lot of shots filming people filming something, such as the scenes earlier in the movie where they are making Hell's Angels and the shots during the Howard Hughes investigation where he is charged with war profiteering. All these shots were beautifully done.
I honestly didn't expect the movie to be amazing, but I probably give it an 8 or 9 out of 10. DiCaprio gave his best performance to date, and everyone in the movie, especially Scorsese, were at their best. I am surprised the film didn't win more of the "importnant" Academy Awards, although it did garner won for cinematography and best supporting actress (Blanchette).
I never saw Million Dollar Baby (movie that won best picture that year). Anyone seen both? How do they compare in quality. I never saw Million Dollar Baby because I think it has one of the dumbest names ever for a movie.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
