The story is told by Hughes (as voiced by Michael Ferreri) in his trademark vociferous style. As such, you quickly realize, this video is biased in Hughes favor, and he will come out as the hero, no matter what the truth. The visuals are a mix of grainy old film, animated photos, illustrations and recent interviews with some of his contemporaries. I've never seen a serious biography done in such a amateur style, but I guess when you don't have much in the way of source material, you do what you can with what you have.

As far as the story goes, anyone with knowledge of the man, likely knows the story. After taking a ride on a plane as a child, the chance to soar becomes an all-consuming dream in life. Using the assets his father leaves him, he sets about making his dream a reality. As a developer, Hughes gets involved in making planes for World War II, but some complications land him in hot water with the government, who feel Hughes is stealing taxpayer money. From there, it's a race against the clock for Hughes, as he tries to keep his empire from crumbling, while his own mind slips away. Massive Titanic-like plans, including an eight-prop plane called The Flying Boat, gave insight into a mind that thought bigger than anyone.

Under governmental pressure, and with his airplane business struggling, he turns his attention to Las Vegas, where he becomes a major player and a legend, for all the wrong reasons. His decent into madness is covered well by this disc, answering questions some may still hold about his secretive life in a still developing desert.

Now, I have found Hughes interesting for years and love documentaries, but this one simply had me yawning. I was shocked this DVD came from Shout! Factory, but in looking at the package, they seem to only be responsible for the disc's marketing. It was Rigel Entertainment that put the show together. Looking at their catalog (Universal Soldier III, Miracle Dogs) this disc fits right in. Poor TV-like pacing (complete with commercial-ready fade-outs) and editing that does nothing to help the flow mark the show as a low-level production.

The DVD
The 56-minute main feature is supplemented by a selection of special features, in addition to animated scene selections and a trailer for "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls." The disc is packaged in a keepcase, with an insert listing the chapter stops and descriptions of the special features. The keepcase design is very unimpressive, reminding me of the public-domain DVDs sold at the dollar store.

The Quality
The mostly black-and-white full-screen footage is loaded with the scratches and other damage that source material of this age is bound to have. Other than that, the archival video is quite clear and impressive. The new interviews, on the other hand, are a bit soft and run a bit red. The highest quality video comes during animations of illustrations and still photos, which are done with outstanding clarity. The audio, a staid Dolby 2.0 mix, is adequate. There's nothing here that demanded a better audio presentation.

The Extras
Six short featurettes kick things off, clocking in at between five and 15 minutes each. These are extended version of footage seen in the main feature, including trailers from Hughes' productions, his testimony in front of the U.S. government, the planes he built and the headquarters he built them in. They can get a bit slow, but for aviation fans, there's a lot of good stuff here, and the government hearings are fascinating for scandal buffs.

Four interviews follow, and again, some of what you see was used in the main feature. The participants include Terry Moore, one of Hughes' wives, his personal assistant George Francom, Hughes' Las Vegas liaison, Robert Maheu, and Hughes' only real friend Jack Real. These interviews are extremely dry, and will only be of interest to those completely into Hughes and his mystique. His secretive life only allowed a few details out, so much of what the four interviewees talk about overlaps. It was a definite struggle to get through this section of the disc.

Also included is an extensive photo gallery with 10s of pictures of Hughes and his planes, including rare color photos of the enigmatic empire-builder.

The Bottom Line
It's not exactly the most unbiased biography ever made, but it does give a good overview of a man who changed the world by pushing the development of aviation. Focusing on his work with planes and his notorious love life, the story is fairly straight-forward, and the bonuses flesh it our well past the original 56 minutes of history. Unfortunately, you have to be really into the topic to sit through this very dry, and truthfully boring bio. At this point though, no matter what biographies like this say about Howard Hughes, he'll be known as a recluse maniac with a fear of germs. Either that or Leonardo DiCaprio. Which is worse though?

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.