Wings

source: Wings

If you are a fan of silent movies then this would be a classic. I accept it was ground breaking at the time of its creation and it does have some great flying scenes. For viewers in 1926 this film would have been fantastic.,However, with the advent of time and increased technology for contemporary viewers this film is painful to watch. But you just have to watch it once to see the film that one the first Oscar. After that forget it

Its another one of those silent films that i wish i could see back when it came out and not in 2018. It seems pretty good for its time but again i find it hard to feel immersed into it. Two pilots who fight in world war 1 also fight with each other for the same girl.

Watching a silent 1927 movie and flying an airplane have something in common. They both take a little getting used to. This is a pretty good movie about the US Air Service in World War I. (Kids, that means 1918. The airplanes are so old they're funny. They have two wings and they're not bent backwards. You'll laugh. But, on the plus side, they don't serve peanut snacks, so your Mom doesn't have to worry about allergies.) Rogers and Arlen have grown up together and are best friends, though they happen to be in love with the same girl, Clara Bow. Arlen thinks she loves him, but she really loves Rogers, but Bow and Rogers keep it a secret from Arlen because they don't want to hurt his feelings or something and meanwhile -- the viewer pendiculates. The movie gets off the ground when the two buddies get to jab their elbows in each others' ribs while going through flight training. There's something a little odd about that friendship, by the way. I see no reason to get into it too deeply but when one dies in the other's arms and they're confessing their mutual adoration I thought they were going to have one last great big French kiss. There IS a kiss but it's on the cheek, an expression of comradeship, and after all this is France. Of course, the director, William Wellman, might be willing to tackle such an unusual homoerotic theme but it would never be allowed on the screen. A highly stereotypical ethnic -- Herman Schrimpf -- yes, but not the love that dare not speak its name. I don't want to give the ending away. That's not usually the case but here the resolution of the plot is both important and ironic. What isn't surprising is the climax of the love affair. The minute that I saw these two rivals for the girl's hand march off to war, I wondered which of them would be the survivor. It is, as I say, a pretty good movie. The affair with Bow is handled tactfully and doesn't take up an inordinate amount of time. It's a long movie, though, and one scene could have been condensed or even eliminated without too much trouble. I refer to the longish scene in the café in Paris where Rogers gets loaded and carries on about the champagne bubbles he's hallucinating. It seems like an excuse for an exercise in contemporary photographic legerdemain -- all those bubbles coming out of nowhere and floating towards the ceiling. Willaim Wellman was quite a character, full of "thumos", as the Greeks would have called it. A spirited youngster from an aristocratic Boston background he wound up flying in combat in the Lafayette Squadron in France, winning the Croix de Guerre, so he knows whereof he directs. And the air combat scenes are very good indeed. And some aerial shots give us panoramic displays of the battlefield itself, full of zig-zagging trenches, craters, and lines of barbed wire. I don't know how much money the movie cost but it must have been more than my own salary. Or yours. The acting is unexceptional, hemmed in as it is by the strictures of silent film making. At one point, I'm reasonably certain, an angry Rogers looks into the camera and clearly says, "Bastards!" Wellman would easily have been capable of that. He was always more of a craftsman than an artist but he tackled some startling subjects, as in "Wild Boys Of The Road," and sometimes produced some truly sensitive and underplayed work, as in, "The Story of G. I. Joe." Nice job here.

*Note: before I begin my review, I must state that this film is in NO way related to the TV show of the same name. But you probably already figured that, so let's move on. Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen play two young boys in pre-WWI days, with the former having a desire for car-racing and the both of them having a desire for Jobyna Ralston (who was actually Arlen's wife at the time - go figure.) Also, the "It" girl, Clara Bow, has a desire for Rogers, but he does not return the love. Unfortunately, they were just an itsy bit pre-WWI too late. So they're off to the war against Germany. Arlen and Rogers go off to fight in the war, and once they are signed up, they begin training (along with some guy who looks and acts like Danny Thomas who has trouble convincing the Air Force that he's not German. He convinces them with a tattoo on his arm of the American Flag. Yes, comic relief. Yes, we see more of him.) they both go off to the air. But after flying for only a few moments, they are attacked by a baron of some sort, who has "The Chivalry of the Sky" (i.e., he doesn't kill the heroes.) But soon, Bow is off as a nurse to save her dream boy, nearly killed by an air raid that is in turn stopped by Rogers. Later, during shore-leave in France, Bow tries to save her drunk boy wonder again by becoming a "beau" and taking him up to her room. But some Army Officers charge in, taking out Ms. Bow of the army. And it's finally time for our climactic apex, in which the entire Armed Forces engage in a very big (and immensely entertaining) segment in which our heroes dog fight over the dough boys (I believe a young Gary Cooper is in this scene), and Arlen being shot down. But he manages to escape in one of the German's planes and almost makes it back to the HQ, but Rogers ironically shoots it down, landing on a small French chapel (!) killing Arlen. But Arlen forgives him before he dies, and Arlen goes back home a hero (Hedda Hopper, Hollywood columnist, is there to greet him!) And, finally, Bow and Rogers fall in love, see a shooting star, and she finally gets to show him that she has "IT". In other words, The end.

I've recently embarked on the (probably too) ambitious project of watching all films to ever receive Academy Award nominations in any category since the awards were first handed out in 1929. When I get into later years and more of the films are available for viewing, I'll probably get selective (do you really want to watch a movie just because it was nominated for Best Sound Recording?) But for the Academy's first year (the eligibility period of August 1, 1927 through July 31, 1928), I'm pretty much watching whatever is available. And what better way to start than by viewing the film that holds the title of Oscar's first Best Picture? "Wings," directed by William A. Wellman, who would shortly go on to direct much better things, including "The Public Enemy" just a few years later, is a daffy love triangle about two hot-shot WWI flyboys who both love the same woman (like "Pearl Harbor" without sound or Ben Affleck) and a fourth wheel, the girl back home (Clara Bow) who no one seems to want until other options become unavailable. This goofy, almost comic story is wrapped around a typical war film that shows our flyboys spring into action and showcases some impressive (for the time) live aerial footage that won the film its only other Oscar (and indeed only other nomination) in the one-year only category of Best Engineering Effects. Audiences were no doubt dazzled by the technical accomplishments of "Wings" back in the day, and it's an entertaining enough movie, but it's far too long and its tone far too erratic to put it in contention as an important movie-making milestone. That it's awarded that status is only because it's the first Best Picture winner, not on any merits of its own. Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen are the flyboys, while a young Gary Cooper appears in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. Clara Bow's part is written as if the actress showed up on the set one day and the script writer was told to find some reason to have her in the movie, but (evidence of its pre-Code status), like Cooper, Bow's boobies make a blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameo of their own that justify her presence. Wellman's impressive battle scenes aren't limited to the air -- there are some epic action sequences depicting the trench war fare of WWI as well. I don't know where you're going to find this film, unless you do what I did and watch it in segments on a site whose name I won't mention. You'd better do it soon before someone gets wise and takes it down. Grade: B+

To Paramount Studios went the honor of getting the first Oscar for Best Picture about two fliers in World War I and their rivalry over Clara Bow. If you have to have a rivalry, she's a good person to get in heat over as many did in real life. The two guys in heat over her are Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen who are from different sides of the tracks in their home town. Rogers is the poor kid who has a love of flying and of speed. He likes Bow, but she can only see Arlen, a rich kid who likes Jobyna Ralston who's from his own set. When World War I breaks out both men rush to the colors. Their different backgrounds don't help at first, but they gradually develop a respect and camaraderie for each other during their training. Rooming with them is Gary Cooper who was killed in a training accident. Cooper's small role gave a big boost to his career. It's modeled on the air training accident deaths of Vernon Castle and former Mayor of New York John Purroy Mitchel. Although Cooper was associated with many Oscar nominated films including two Oscars of his own for Best Actor, Wings is the only film he was in that won for Best Picture. Although Bow plays a small town good girl, the kind usually played by Mary Pickford or Janet Gaynor, she brings a lot of sexuality to her part. No doubt as to what these two guys are fighting for. Although El Brendel's twisted Swedish speech pattern is not in use for this silent film, he's still a pretty funny fellow as the recruit of German ancestry at a time when those folks were held in suspicion. The training sergeant in the film is former heavyweight contender Gunboat Smith who fought Jack Dempsey twice on Dempsey's way to the heavyweight title, once going the distance with him. Wings was director William Wellman's first great film and first film he did about aviation, a subject near and dear to the former flier with the Lafayette Escadrille. As far as cinematography goes, Wings holds its own with the more acclaimed Hell's Angels from Howard Hughes in that department. Oscar made an auspicious debut with Wings.

So anyways, I saw Wings, the very first movie ever to win the Academy award for best picture, and I have to say, it was a damn entertaining film, but I'm wondering how many people caught on to how damn homoerotic the whole thing was. Jack and david are two peppy go lucky boys who seem to rich for their own good. Jack is aspiring auto mechanic (who names his car, ahem, the "shooting star" while David is this very pampered nancy boy it seems who still lives at home (he looks to be pressing 30). They both aspire to have the hand of the "foreigner who is just on a visit" but can't stop eyeing each other in the meanwhile Soon the war comes, and they must part their loved ones (David (the rich one) has a scene with his parents.. The parents acting gives a classic definition of "wooden acting". Then they are off in training camp, where the only highlight of that that the director must point out is the exercise class, where lots and lots of men in tight undershirts box, wrestle and sweat just for us. When Jack and David show up for flight training school, they meet up with a veteran flyer who assures them "You'll be seeing a lot of me" where then, of course, he's killed off the next scene. The next scene after that, the boys are called up into the air by the commander or womever it was, and he acts like nothing has ever happened. Anwyays, the story is silly, on it goes with many high stupidity scenes, but there are some very interesting moments (especially in the end) which seems to hint that the movie is just ready to burst out of the closet. Essential viewing!

Wings (1927) An epic WWI movie that uses all the classic approaches to a war film and has a lot of great battle footage. It's a tale of rivalry over a girl, of fighting for country (and against the Germans), and of facing death. There are several scenes that make death really gruesome--blood spurting from a pilot's mouth, or a man crushed under a tank--that took me by surprise. I didn't know that such a mainstream American film would go there. "Wings" is in a way exactly what American movies would look like thereafter--not just war movies, but all of them. By that I don't mean directors studied this movie and it was the inspiration from here on. But just that the story line, the romance, and even the filming, adventurous but straight on, with more attention to characters and plot than visual effect, all of this would be how films would be made for decades. Including many more by the director, William Wellman, who is one of handful of truly expert but never quite daring and inventive directors of classic Hollywood. To back this up neatly, compare this film to the other film that jointly won Best Picture this year (the first year the Oscars were given, and the only year when the best picture category had two separate parts). That is Murnau's "Sunrise." Never mind which is better ("Sunrise," easily by most accounts). Notice how this film is utterly conservative and "conventional" in its approach to the art of making movies. It's superbly well done, but well within the rules of the time. Yes, there are moments of inspiration, including some double-exposed stock where a scene takes play in the sky over another scene on the ground. But "Sunrise" shows the lyrical art of the camera, and of editing, and of a less literal kind of storytelling. "Wings" is probably much easier to watch for most people--that's the idea. But "Sunrise" is far more engaging and complex, begging you to watch it twice. I doubt anyone needs to see "Wings" a second time. But then, I have to admit the acting makes more sense in this film. The naturalism of the three leads helps you get emotionally involved. The most famous by far is the woman, Paramount's biggest star, Clara Bow. She doesn't get a huge role (the men do the fighting and flying) but at least when she's there she's a treat. The flying is actually done by the actors, and many of the people involved were veterans (including Wellman, who was a WWI pilot himself). It's pretty exciting to find this so exciting all these years later. Give it a look. It's been restored really well (there's even a new Blu-Ray release). And it looks great. Don't expect anything new from the story or the filmmaking, but just expect a really well made high drama affair.

You could justifiably criticize WINGS lesser moments: the naive, "gee-whiz" dialog...the less than comedic "champagne" sequence in Paris...any of the romantic scenes...the idealized view of military life.... But as light entertainment, WINGS manages to hold its own, despite the passage of years. The battle scenes, easily the highlight of the film, may not have the intensity of later films, but the narrative is clear and precise. And this was not meant to be the last word in documentary accuracy: it's an adventure film tinged with romance, with engaging aerial fight scenes that capture your attention whenever they occur. And personally, I felt that the music from the Wurlitzer organ tied together the film's various themes, musical and narrative, quite tidily.