Wings (1927)
Two small-town rivals for the same woman's affections put aside their feud to become fighter pilots and close friends during the First World War, a bond tested to its limit when one shoots down the other's captured plane without realizing who is inside.
Wings won the first Academy Award for Outstanding Picture, the only fully silent film ever to take the honor, and its harrowing aerial combat sequences — shot with real aircraft and featuring a young Gary Cooper in a small early role — set the template for war films to come.
Background
William Wellman, who had flown as a pilot in the First World War, directed Wings for Paramount. It was filmed near San Antonio, Texas, with the cooperation of the US Army, which supplied aircraft, pilots and thousands of soldiers as extras. Clara Bow was the biggest star in the cast, Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen played the two pilots, and Gary Cooper appears briefly. It won the first Academy Award for Outstanding Picture.
What to watch for
The flying scenes are the reason to see it. Cameras were mounted on aircraft, and the dogfights are filmed with a directness that still impresses. The battle scenes on the ground are equally ambitious, and the film’s ending has a tenderness that is unusual for a war film. Paramount restored the film in 2012 with a new score and sound effects. Some of the romance and comedy will seem dated, but Wings is an extraordinary piece of large-scale filmmaking, made when aviation itself was still a young technology.
