I saw “The Aviator” on Sunday night, and guess what? It’s a damn good movie. I’d seen some favorable reviews, including two from libertarians – but somehow both neglected to mention that in addition to being an engrossing film, it’s also a profoundly libertarian one. In many respects, the movie is a paean to entrepreneurship and competition. The central conflict of the movie – at least, the one that occupies that last hour or so – concerns an attempt by Pan-Am and Senator Ralph Brewster to pass legislation giving Pan-Am a legal monopoly on international air traffic from the U.S. Howard Hughes takes on Brewster in a televised hearing, calling him to task for his rent-seeking behavior and defending open competition in air travel.
In reality, it appears that Hughes may have been a hypocrite (at least according to this unfavorable review), which is certainly disappointing. But I’m willing to give the movie credit as a work of fiction. Most biopics clean up the lives of their subjects to emphasize their most admirable, or at least their most dramatic, qualities. So I’m just pleased that someone saw fit to present free enterprise in a heroic light – something rarely done in Hollywood.
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Glen's Favorite Posts
- A Libertarian Case Against Non-Voting
- A Matter of Coase
- A Metaphor
- And Yet More Rational Curmudgeonry
- Ashton, Demi, and Coase
- Bar Flight
- Bar Flight, Part 2
- Bar Flight, Part 3
- Breaking News
- Coase's Toilet
- Condorcet's Committee
- Dietary Efficiency
- Do Teens Commit Suicide More Often?
- Doing Lines
- Every Abortion Analogy Fails
- Fat Chance
- Flatus Comitatus
- How "Libertarian Paternalism" Greases the Slope
- How to Score
- In Defense of Gouging
- Is God the Decider or the Knower?
- Joey Tribiani, Meet Gary Becker
- Karaoke Queuing
- Kopy-okay?
- Labors of Love
- Lexicographic Lapses
- Lifting Waits
- Linguistic Cosmos and Taxis
- Litter Bugged
- More Breaking News
- Naturally Binary
- Optimal Christmas Decorating
- Optimal Crime and Punishment
- Optimal Haircuts
- Optimal Sex Frequency
- Random Enfranchisement
- Relationship Cycles
- Skill Crane Skillz
- Spontaneous Orders and Internal Critiques
- Statistical Dating
- Stop the Rape Penalty
- Suicide Bombed
- Superfunding, Part 1
- Superfunding, Part 2
- The (in)Significance of Significance
- The Calculus of Commitment
- The Cause of Oz
- The Coasean Blues
- The Corpse Theorem
- The Economics of Alchemy
- The Libertarian Small Sample Problem
- The Rational Curmudgeon
- The Rational Romantic
- The Slide Rules of Attraction
- The Truth About "Libertarian Paternalism"
- Those Wacky Raelians
- Toilet Training
- Transtemporal Economics
- Turning Market Failure on Its Head
- Virgin Management
- What's Comb Over You?
- WHO's Healthcare Rankings, Part 1
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- WHO's Healthcare Rankings, Part 3
- WHO's Watching Over You
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Tom's Favorite Posts
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- Excuses to Sing About Contract Law
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- Gory Details by Demand
- Hello, Jonah
- How Surfing Saved My Sabbatical
- The Interstate Commerce Blues
- Jefferson's Wall, Take Two
- "Just Believe!" Why?
- Law School Rankings as if the Public Mattered
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- "Monster": A Consent Theory Sing-Along
- Name That War
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6 comments:
Howard Hughes, once the symbol of the alpha-male glamour had such a sad ending. But then I guess no one's death at an old age is glamorous. I think I read somewhere years ago that he became a recluse, germaphobe, and practically agoraphobic--apparently, truly a pitiful site in his deathbed.
I think it's good that most biopics accentuate the admirable qualities. I like feeling good about humanity's accomplishments.
I just remember how moved i was watching 'Amistad' years ago. But at the end of the movie, there was a little caption that read that the main character, after all that struggle for freedom and fighting human trafficking, ended up becoming a slave trader himself when he found out his family and village was burned down. I was so dissapointed.
Or when I saw 'October Sky' and how the movie made it seem like the main character became this rocket scientist for NASA when he wasn't really an engineer but an employee of NASA training astronauts.
sk
The movie does get into Hughes's germaphobia and OCD, but that subject doesn't dominate the movie. The movie stops at a point early enough that his mental problems haven't taken over his life.
Not that being a trainer at NASA is a bad thing, it's great in fact. But the point is that the movie makers decided to 'lie' about his career to better fit the movie's inspirational script.
sk
I hadn't seen 'Aviator' yet because I brushed it off as another Hollywood fluff (at least that's how it was marketed). But I was wrong! Upon this rave review by Glen, I went and saw a matinee showing. It was a fine piece of history on screen and a good look at his psychosis. His vision, entrepreneurism, and lifestyle was exhilarating to watch, but the psychosis was a heartbreaking one, sometimes difficult to watch. And that combination made it all the more complex making the movie a masterpiece with a tragic air to it.
Judging from his paranoid schizoid behaviors, it seemed that he had more than just OCD.
My vote for Best Picture now goes to 'Aviator'. It's shifted from 'Finding Neverland' with Johnny Depp. I still have 'Million Dollar Baby' to see, but I have no desire to see a movie about a female Rocky.
Btw, Senator Brewster, wasn't he the dad in 'Family Ties'? I couldn't get over it, although he did a good job as the senator. I kept thinking, 'Hey, it's Steven!'
sk
Brewster was played by Alan Alda -- not the dad in "Family Ties" (that's Michael Gross), but Hawkeye on "MASH." Interestingly, Alda is a well known left-winger.
Ooooooooo! It's that guy from MASH! Hmm...Alec Baldwin(Juan) is also a big time lefty.
sk
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