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AUSTRALIAN CINEMA / DVD
THE AVIATOR (1985)
MGM/UA DVD (region 1)
d. George Miller; scr. Marc Norman; novel. Ernest K. Gann; ph. David Connell; m. Dominic Frontiere; ed. Duane Hartzell; cast. Christopher Reeve, Rosanna Arquette, Scott Wilson, Tyne Daly, Jack Warden, Sam Wanamaker (96 mins)
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Australian Director's First US Film Indulges Popular Star Christopher Reeve's Love of Flying
After the success of the Superman films actor Christopher Reeve sought to escape association with the Man of Steel.
However, his efforts to broaden his range generally proved unsuccessful. As intriguing as many of these efforts were, they generally remain obscurities – only the period romance of Somewhere in Time has generally received any kind of longevity. The Aviator is amongst this neglected body of films to have virtually disappeared from memory. Directed by Australian George Miller (not to be confused with his namesake, the director of Mad Max), The Aviator was a project of personal interest to Reeve who was an avid pilot. He in turn did his own flying scenes in the movie, hoping to give these aerial sequences an added authenticity. The film, however, was not considered even particularly marketable by the studio and it belatedly found only the barest of cinema releases. Written off, the critics were hostile to the film, impervious to its simple charms and accusing it of banal familiarity; hence, Reeve’s career again seemed limited to Superman films. But just as Reeve was overlooked, his young co-star Rosanna Arquette fared far worse as almost all seemed to agree that her grating characterization was one of the more irritating ever put on film. Indeed, The Aviator was one of the most harshly treated of 1980s flops, so much so that it regrettably remains an easy target for derision.
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Synopsis (contains spoliers)
The Aviator takes place circa 1918: Reeve is a flight instructor for an insecure student pilot. Reeve encourages the young man to have confidence in his abilities and attempt a landing on his own.
This goes horribly wrong and Reeve thereafter blames himself for the consequences, also now having a facial scar to forever remind himself of the incident. A decade later, Reeve is a pilot for the burgeoning American airmail Postal Service. He has shut himself off from all but necessary human contact, preferring the solitude of his lone flights; although he has a friend in fellow pilot Scott Wilson and a sympathetic boss in Jack Warden. One day he is informed that he has to transport an adolescent girl (Rosanna Arquette) along with his usual mail run. Not having a say in the matter, he reluctantly agrees, finding the girl a rather rebellious teen who her father (Sam Wanamaker) considers beyond his ability to control. Reeve takes Arquette on the flight but soon there is a mechanical fault and the plane crashes into the wintry woods, quite a way off the established flying route. On the ground, Reeve advocates that they wait until someone sees them although Arquette argues that they should climb down a cliff and follow the river to the first sign of population. When a wolf pack senses their presence, Reeve reluctantly leads Arquette down the cliff side, finding himself again responsible for another human life.
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Emotional Distance, Misanthropy & the Triumph of Empathy
COMING DOWN HARD
Siskel & Ebert Give Reeve and The Aviator
the Worst Reviews of His Career
The Aviator is a deliberately old-fashioned film. Although much of it is familiar, Reeve does manage a solid depiction of a man who has shut out his emotions and sense of empathy for so long that he has turned misanthropic.
His sense of conflicted sadness permeates a film about the need for responsibility. Reeve has turned away from people, fearing that he may one day be again responsible for another person. Arquette is being sent away by her father, who feels that she is too difficult for him to be accountable for. Patriarchal reluctance to take responsibility for younger lives makes for the film’s initial sense of emotional desolation and dislocation. But, the tone of the film gradually changes towards restoration as its men, written off as scarred, distraught or hollow wrecks, respond to the challenges put forth when Reeve’s plane goes down. So too, as Reeve gradually accepts his responsibility to protect Arquette, whose independent attitude makes it tough for him, so does his sense of patriarchal duty return. Indeed, the triumph of patriarchal pride, humanity and responsibility is the key issue here and it is significant thus that Wanamaker realizes that it is his duty to care for Arquette, and even more: that he would simply miss her if she wasn’t there. The sense of trepidation in accepting the essential human empathy in the need for interpersonal communication makes The Aviator a rather delicate film.
The triumph of empathy restores hope to people who would shun away from others and it is this quality that humanizes the film above its familiar plot mechanics and ultimately makes it a gentle and endearing experience.
The ordeal faced by Reeve and Arquette thus becomes almost allegorical – the embrace of a perilous patriarchal responsibility. It is through such ordeals that the characters both make peace with their troubled pasts, as if (especially for Reeve) seeking forgiveness and restitution for their deeds. To be at peace with oneself and others is a key notion throughout this understated film. The awareness and natural though initially begrudging empathy eventually felt by the men in this movie underscores a kind of innate, decency. Rosanna Arquette plays her character thus as an early flapper, a young woman whose defiance of patriarchal authority makes her a troublesome prospect to her father’s sense of morality and social decorum. But when her father realizes that she may be lost to him, he too rediscovers his sense of human empathy and with it, responsibility for the lives of others, a prospect also facing Reeve. Indeed, few films have so delicately conveyed the sense of quiet empathetic catharsis brought out by the fear of losing connection with other people. Much remains unsaid by the characters but it is this dilemma – the human need to relate to others – that is at The Aviator’s core.
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Taking to Flight: Visualizing Christopher Reeve Beyond Superman
The visual transfer on this DVD is functional, available in both widescreen and fullscreen versions.
Clarity levels are consistently effective and the film has an often stunning sense of wintry wilderness colors. The sense of hostile beauty is well preserved in the scenes in which Reeve and Arquette must make their way down the treacherous cliff. Their journey proves as much emotional as physical. Reeve’s facial scar works as a nice reminder of his personal emotional burden and his fear of responsibility and empathy. What is also most intriguing about The Aviator is the visual glimpse it gives into the world of early aviation – the details of costume, airfields and old planes thus manages a convincing historical context. The aerial scenes add a sense of scale and are quite impressive, nicely capturing the thrill and spectacle of early flight. The compositions also nicely stress the solitariness of the pilot’s existence and Reeve’s inability to participate in group dynamics. Initially isolated, Reeve is thus slowly drawn in to frame amongst others, especially Arquette; nicely charting the slow return of his sense of empathy so that his experience in the woods re-enforces the literal and metaphorical dangers of the solitariness which he must now fight against. Daylights are especially crisp, the misty mountainous terrain well rendered as is the sense of snowfall in the woods. On its own terms, The Aviator succeeds well.
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Sounding Out the World of the Pilot
The sound transfer is in stereo surround, which adds some nice depth to the flying scenes and some intriguing directional effects.
The score is, like the film, deliberately old-fashioned and in its sweeping moments underscores the film’s attempt to recapture the filmmaking style of the early 1930s. The contrast between Reeve’s laconic bitterness and Arquette’s incessant whining is amusing, although many people found this irritating. It serves to chart how Reeve responds to a position of patriarchal responsibility for a young woman initially sworn off by the same. Voices are always crisp and there is an emphasis on realistic detail on the ground – the plane crash scenes thus carry impressive force. The use of offscreen wolf howls adds to the sense of encroaching danger and the natural woodland sounds make for a captivating background, again subtler than expected. The plane engines make for a motif throughout and the bad weather also makes for a subtly understated background presence. As the score develops, it gets increasingly romantic, nicely underlining the return of human emotion and empathy within characters affected by the possibility of loss. Although there is little of home theatre forcefulness here, the aural design is most effective and nicely transferred onto DVD for a pleasing aesthetic experience. Gentleness and even dignity amidst an initial emotional austerity seems the intent here.
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