Unbelievable
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kilgomr — 19 years ago(March 29, 2007 03:50 PM)
Yes, I believe that this movie is very underrated. I think that the main romantic story line is just as good as the technical, fighter pilot, scenes. I have never seen a silent movie before and I'm sure there are other great ones, but I have no complaints with this one. I think the academy awards started with a great choice! I think the drunk scene in Paris is especially challengine for its time. Really good movie. was entranced.
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wtl471629 — 17 years ago(July 28, 2008 06:57 AM)
I agree. I hadn't seen this movie till last night on TCM. I had seen Sunrise, The Jazz Singer, and The Racket and while these three were great outstanding movies Wings was the right winner. The war scenes were fantastic especially when you consider they were made in the 20s. A great movie well worthy of being voted Best Picture.
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joan_freyer — 15 years ago(September 02, 2010 01:39 PM)
I have been seeing a lot of silents but I honestly must say Wings is quite possibly one of the greatest films ever done by Hollywood.
The director (one of the best in Hollywood then or now) was in the war and he wore his heart on his sleeve when he made this film. Every frame and image is wonderful and heartbreaking.
The ground breaking visuals of the battle scenes are still great even today and back then would have been amazing indeed. No computers were used. pilots took cameras up in the planes to film the scenes!
The film balances the romance and the horror of war. The film is also one of the few American Films to balance the American effort. Too many American films imply America won the war! The director was careful to show the totality of war for all the countries involved, the totality of the war relating to the airforce and the infantry on the ground, and the totality of the war front and the home front. The director even showed an image of a German dying on flowers forming an Iron Cross implying compassion for the German fighting man.
The final scene (being famous for the kiss) was also about friendly fire. This is something not talked about much in films or real life as the Tileman(?) friendly fire incident shows. To include death by fiendly fire is daring and pushes the film conclusion to greater tragedy.
So for many reasons I offer this as one of the best films ever made by Hollywood.
J E F Rose -
netshopper-2 — 15 years ago(March 06, 2011 08:02 PM)
Finally saw Wings today and agree with your assessment. A much better film than I thought it would be. In fact, this films is iconic. It is much more than amazing early era flight scenes that we have heard about. A sweet and tragic story, great acting and a few laughs as well. Some of the effects were quite funny as welllike the bubbles and sketched flames from the crashing planes.
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Jake-219 — 14 years ago(February 07, 2012 11:35 PM)
"Too many American films imply America won the war!"
Really? Which films have you been watching?
I'd say "The Big Parade" did a lot more about showing the horrors of war than making any pretentions to some glorious victory.
And then there's "All Quiet on the Western Front," which shows the war entirely from the German point of view, balancing things out pretty nicely, I thinkand remains arguably the most devastating cinematic view of war ever made, at least until "The Thin Red Line." (In my opinion, "Saving Private Ryan" had some greatand TERRIFYING!battle scenes, but didn't really show the grit in between to such good effect.)
The only film I can think of that deals with WWI from the perspective of America's winning the war would be "Shoulder Arms," which was obviously a broad comedy and shouldn't be taken seriously.
Then againby 1917 virtually every country involved in the war, certainly all three on the Western Front, had literally lost an entire generation to that abatoir. There was no way to break through, and no way to capitulate while saving face, so everyone just kept pumping in fresh meat for the machine guns. By 1917 Germany (and probably Britain and France, as well) was resorting to sending octogenarians and 12-year-olds to the trenches.
Then Germany finally makes the fatal mistake of allowing America an entrance into the War. Suddenly you have one of the most populated countries on the planet, fresh and full of vim and vinegar, entering a war against 80-year-olds and grammar school children.
No, on a case by case, incident by incident, battle by battle basis, America did not win the War.
But it could be argued that, just by arriving when it did, America did make the eventual outcome inevitable.
In that sense, America did win the War.