Sunday, April 8, 2007

THE HOAX




Drama, true story

BACKGROUND
Howard Hughes was born in 1905. His father made his fortune by designing a special drill bit that enabled speculators to reach the large pockets of oil lying beneath hard rock. The Hughes Tool Company held the patent for the new drill bit and leased them to oil drillers.

When Hughes Jr. was just 18-years old, his father passed away. He received 75% of his father's million-dollar estate; the other 25% went to relatives. Hughes soon disagreed with his relatives over the running of the company. But being only 18-years old, he could not do anything about it because he was not considered legally an adult. Frustrated but determined, Hughes went to court and got a judge to grant him legal adulthood status even though he was not yet 21. He then bought out his relatives' shares of the company. Consequently, even though still a teenager, Hughes became full owner of The Hughes Tool Company.

He went on to become a pioneering aviator, engineer, playboy and film producer. Unfortunately during this time he contracted syphilis and much of the strange behaviour at the end of his life — his well-documented aversion to handshaking, for example — has been attributed to the tertiary stage of that disease. He became very much a recluse during the last ten years of his life. He died in 1976, aboard an airplane, while travelling from Acapulco, Mexico to Houston, Texas.

The term “Watergate scandal” refers to a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate Hotel, Washington, D.C. by members of Richard Nixon’s administration. The cover up lasted two years but the court ordered release in August 1974 of the so-called “smoking gun” tape brought with it the prospect of certain impeachment. Nixon resigned four days later making him the only U.S. President to have resigned from office.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Richard Gere: Clifford Irving, author of several novels and one biography
Marcia Gay Harden: his wife Edith, a Swiss/German artist
Alfred Molina: Clifford’s partner Dick Suskind
Hope Davis: Andrea Tate, Editor with McGraw-Hill Publishers
Stanley Tucci: Shelton Fisher, President of McGraw-Hill

REVIEW
A successful hoax can only thrive on the gullibility of others. And when that gullibility is laced with greed the outcome is often quite spectacular.

A great story that keeps pretty much to the facts combined with excellent acting and crisp editing make this a very entertaining movie. Some would say it’s great just because Richare Gere is in it. That too.

CLASSIFICATION
rating just for language: maybe the Rating Board was looking the other way when Nina shows up?

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