1927 – Wings

Produced by Paramount (Famous Lasky Corporation), directed by W. Wellman. It stars Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen. It’s a story about the piloting and aerial dog fights in World War I. I watched it on YouTube here. It is the restored version that was finalized in 2012 for its 85th anniversary.

Some movies have an amazing effect on people. I was 5, almost 6 years old, when my dad took me to see War Games at the theater – anybody in their right mind would tell you that’s not a movie for a 5-year old. And yet, that movie sparked an everlasting love for computers in me, how he reversed engineered (hacked) his way into what he thought was a gaming company, the first time I heard about a modem, heard about a branch of mathematics called game theory… I begged and begged my dad for a computer and when he owed me a favor for a trip he flaked out on, I got it and have been hooked ever since. The first thing that Apple IIc taught me was perfect strategy in blackjack, heh!

Why do I tell that story? Well, it was only 2-3 years later that Top Gun came out. All the boys in my class started drawing jet fighters instead of houses, families, etc. when it was “drawing time” at school. Aviator glasses and jackets were suddenly cool. Apparently, enrolment in the air force went through the roof. It’s just like that, a movie can entice you, give you your calling… Well, judging by the technical aspects of the 1927 movie Wings, I am sure it would’ve been a siren call to many to become pilots or at least be fascinated by the aerial prowess possible with airplanes then. Last year, I read The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead and was fascinated by the teenager girl bootlegging liquor from Canada during prohibition – she too, must have been fascinated by Wings. It was something different in the 1920s, aviators were like astronauts, something special, that barely anybody could do! I totally get the fascination with flying!

The plot of the movie is quite simple – it’s an epic of two pilots (Jack and Dave) during World War I, they pine over the same girl Sylvia at home. But just as Challengers this year, it’s also about the “friendship” these guys have with each other (and it’s still unclear whether this movie features the first gay kiss on screen or not); how they have each other’s back during the dog fights with the germans (Heinis). Sort of added, because Clara Bow’s complete star persona, was the character of Mary, who pines for Jack and joins the army as an ambulance driver.

Why did I choose the movie? For one, hey, it’s the first ever Best Picture Winner from the Academy Award. For the other, I love Buddy Rogers and Clara Bow and seeing them together should be good. I also must confess that I mixed it up with Hell’s Angels, the Howard Hughes produced movie, which fascinated me back when I saw The Aviator. Alas, it’s not that different, the filming is all original, done on the airplanes themselves, which made the movie crazy expensive (2 million dollars back then). Richard Arlen already could fly airplanes, Buddy Rogers learned for this movie.

Unfortunately, I have to say the movie is just fine. And it’s a shame, because

(a) the technical aspects are so amazing. The dogfights are a delight to see, the scenes in the air bristle with excitement and artistry. You really get the sense of airplanes being crucial to many roles in the war. As said above, I am certain, just like me with War Games and computers, this must have been an inspiration to many young people to get into aviation.

(b) Clara Bow is widely underused. She has such a magnetic personality, I would’ve much more been interested in how she came to be a uniformed mechanic and ambulance driver during WW1, than her infatuation with pretty boy Jack. Apparently even Clara Bow, didn’t see the point of her limited role in the movie, as she thought this movie was focussed on the two pilots.

As for the rest of the movie? Look, I can take the melodrama. The scene where Jack comes home from the war and meets with Dave’s parents or the “choice” Sylvia makes for Dave. But I can’t take the “aw shucks” approach this movie has to war. You tell me in a title card “The Horrors of War” and the next few scenes show them getting drunk in Paris and having a jolly good time – the bubbles gag just goes on and on and on. Or you show me the patriotism of Schwimpf with a wobbling tattoo of the Stars and Strips, jeez. And it can’t be a movie of it’s time or American sentiment during the silent film era, not when just 3 years later the masterpiece “All Quiet on the Western Front” produced in America will be released. So sure, watch this movie, because it is important for the history of movies, but sadly not because it’s a well told story.