The Aviator

I have just seen The Aviator and I am frankly flabbergasted that a filmaker such as Martin Scorsese would take the side of a private businessman as much as he does in this movie. Howard Hughes is portrayed as being the target of collusion between his competitor and the government. Juan Trippe is portrayed as a person who would stop at nothing to maintain Pan Am's monopoly on international flights, including getting into bed with the government. And the government is potrayed as being on the wrong side for going along with Trippe. It is even made clear that Pan Am's monopoly is only made possible by government intervention - in the form of a bill which would grant exclusive rights to international flights to Pan Am, forbidding entry to TWA, which has just acquired a fleet of planes capable of high-altitude, long range flight.

True, by the end of the film, Hughes is portrayed as being overtaken by madness, but not before he is able to publicly confront a senator with his own motivations for investigating Hughes. I personally don't think this detracts from the significance of the portrayal of a private businessman as the hero and the government - and those who seek unfair advantages from it - as the villains in a major movie such as this. It will be interesting to see what impact it has on our culture.