If your image of Hughes is tainted by the memory of the aged, longhaired weirdo, hiding from germs in a Las Vegas hotel, Scorsese offers up a fascinating reminder that Hughes achieved far more than eccentricity. Oh, to be sure, even the young Hughes was a strange fellow, eating only steak and peas at every meal, and washing his hands compulsively to avoid infections. (As the film shows us in flashbacks, his phobia was a lifelong remnant of an overly protective mother.)

But before the famous neuroses destroyed his public life, Hughes made history on at least two fronts — in the air and in Hollywood.

After the briefest of childhood sequences, "The Aviator" leaps directly into the late 1920s. Hughes at 21 is confidently ordering his large crew and cast on the desert landing strip location for "Hell's Angels," an epic film about the beginning days of air war in World War I. The final fight sequences remain astonishing 75 years later — and Scorsese recreates much of them for "The Aviator."

The wealthy son of a Texan who invented a special bit for oil drilling, Hughes has decided to parlay his millions into efforts to become an independent filmmaker. But he's no mere dilettante; when Hollywood develops sound as he finishes "Hell's Angels" (1930) he scraps much of his multimillion-dollar film to remake it as a sound picture.

Hughes is even more fascinated with flying, and "The Aviator" tells the stories of several experimental aircraft designed and tested by Hughes, leading up to the famous Spruce Goose, the world's largest airplane, which Hughes flies once before it became the world's largest museum exhibit.

Along the way, Hughes romances several of Hollywood's most famous beauties. In the film, Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale) are particularly prominent. Blanchett's delightful channeling of Hepburn is particularly entertaining, especially in the sequence in which Hughes lets her take over the controls of his plane.

Far from the recluse of his later years, this Hughes is constantly on the go — at the Hollywood studio, at his airfield, or the legendary nightclub Coconut Grove. He's also in the boardrooms and courtrooms involved in his lifelong fight against Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), the head of rival Pan American Airways, and Trippe's friend, the corrupt Sen. Owen Brewster (Alan Alda).

Though now 30, DiCaprio still exudes youthfulness, but the quality is perfect for the young and energetic Hughes. And he uses a nicely maturing talent (and good, subtle makeup) to create a believable older Hughes in the later segments. It's a large, expansive role, but DiCaprio pulls it off.

Scorsese tells Hughes' story with energy and brilliant imagery. Stand-out scenes include the "Hell's Angels" dogfights, the flight of the Spruce Goose, another test flight that ends with a fabled, near-death crash into a home in Beverly Hills, an elaborate, old-fashioned movie premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and so much more. Scorsese is the most famous and astute of Hollywood historians among today's directors, and it's particularly entertaining to watch him recreate the world of 1920s and '30s Hollywood.

Scorsese remains the greatest living filmmaker to have never won an Oscar. Perhaps this lavish and wonderfully entertaining epic will finally put the gold statuette in his hands.

Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexual content, innuendo, and nudity.