A new trailer for Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator (Miramax, 12.17 is up and running online. The main impression is that Leonardo DiCapro’s (and Scorsese’s and John Logan’s) Howard Hughes character isn’t exactly a charmer. Brave and fearless, okay, but a nutter — driven, obsessive, intense. When he asks Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsdale) to marry him, she says, “You’re too crazy for me.” The second thing you notice is that DiCaprio isn’t using his natural voice — he sounds reedy, higher-pitched, a bit hick-y.

At the start of the Aviator trailer, it says that “the film advertised has been rated PG-13.” It says “PARENTS [ARE] STRONGLY CAUTIONED” over “thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and a crash sequence.” Thematic elements? In this story of an eccentric, go-for-broke, control-freak aviation pioneer, what thematic element could possibly be considered threatening or upsetting to the jaded mind of a typical 10 year-old? And what kid these days is going to blink an eye at a mere depiction of a plane crashing ito a residential neighborhod in Beverly Hills (which Howard Hughes actually did in 1946) when they spend 80% of their free time on ultra-violent video games?