1980 be one of hollywood true golden year ( the strongest be and probably 1939 and and the weak be probably 1956 . ) everyone remembers such great film a rag bull and the elephant man and ordinary people and and coal miner daughter and but there be other and overlook or nearly overlooked film . of these and the finest be and beyond a doubt and melvin and howard . base on a twentieth century addition to american folklore ( the improbable saga of howard hughes and melvin dummar ) and jonathan demmes film tell the story of a chronically unsuccessful everyman and melvin dummar and who claim to have unknowingly pick up howard hughes one night in the nevada desert and and who also claim to have be write into hughes will . demme use these material to fashion a parable about the american dream and human aspiration . it be funny and superbly act ( robards probably deserve a third oscar and and mary steenburgen fully deserve hers ) and well write and and profoundly human . melvin dummar may not have actually pick up hughes in the desert and and the will may have be a forgery and but his life story do tell some important truth about the meaning of life .