On 30 Dec 2004 06:01:39 -0800, wrote:

Did the ending bother anybody else? We have a rough idea of how it
should end, but after sitting there for three hours I thought they may
as well show it.

Well, the movie just stopped. I think everybody in the tiny 12-holer
theater (five seats to the left of the center aisle, three seats to
the right!) was willing for it to go on for another half-hour, surely
the sign of a successful movie.

I stood up to go, but watched the credits because I wanted to know who
had played Juan Trippe, a fine performance. The gal behind me loudly
said: "Sir?" So she was also hooked enough to want to read the credits
also. I saw a lot of people doing just that. (Well, as many people as
you can get into that theater, which was smaller than the one where
Howard supposedly lived for a time.)

It was a movie, for crying out loud! A movie-movie. Not art, not
biography. A pleasant, dumb, colorful movie that kept me interested
for 2hr 45min or whatever it was.

If you want biography, you might start with George Marrett, Howard
Hughes, Aviator, from Naval Institute Press. Marrett was a Hughes test
pilot who earlier wrote Cheating Death about flying a Sandy Skyraider
in Vietnam.