Wings

Starting off the new year, the wife and I began watching in order all the best picture Oscar-winning films. We start with the 1927 film Wings, the only silent film ever to win best picture.

Wings on www.ricknovy.com

The film Wings stars Charles Rogers and Richard Arlen as two guys in love with the same woman (played by Jobyna Ralston). They become fighter pilots in the Great War (First World War), becoming good friends despite being rivals. Meanwhile, another girl (played by Clara Bow) loves one of the men, who keeps brushing her off.

I’m not going to issue any spoilers. (Yeah, Wings is almost 90 years old, but anymore a lot of people haven’t even heard of the film, much less watched it.)

The film is said to have won the Oscar for the footage of aerial combat, which set the bar for war movies to come. The air-to-air combat sequences are outstanding, and portrayed the dangers of flying in what were essentially little death boxes. Being filmed less than 10 years after the end of the war, while the memories were still fresh, the portrayal of the horrors of that war, trenches and all, was thoroughly convincing and terrifying.

While the plot was a bit predictable, I suspect that’s more due to the plot points being copied later than any lack of originality on this film’s part. I enjoyed the film a lot, and award Wings 4 of 5 stars. The main reason for the 4 instead of a 5 was for the drunken bubble scene–something that really defies description and you’ll have to see for yourself.

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