More interesting is Hughes's business interest in aviation when, having bought TWA, he had numerous battles with Pan Am and its hard-nosed boss Juan Trippe played in barn-storming fashion by Alec Baldwin.
There were also his confrontations with Senator Owen Brewster (a creepy Alan Alda), a man investigating Hughes's alleged corruptions who gave him a hard time at a Senate committee hearing (Hughes won that battle).
The story comes in bits and pieces with the occasional Scorsese flair shining through, most notably an aircrash which nearly killed Hughes.
And the scenes of Hughes's mental affliction with cleanliness have a gruesome appeal including one in which the naked Hughes locks himself in a room and keeps his urine in a row of bottles.
There are some wasted performances (Ian Holm pops up as a Hughes sidekick but has virtually no dialogue) and the film ends rather awkwardly.
