The Oscar Project #1: Wings (1927)

by Chris Marshall:

When I decided to undergo my Best Picture project, I knew that the very first winner, a 140 minute silent film, would be a major hump to get past. I’ve seen several silents before, but they have tended to be comedies, which I think hold up much better than their dramatic counterparts. Wings, which is a romance/action hybrid set in World War I, did not offer the prospect of much comic relief.

As it turned out, there were some laughs, but I’m not convinced they were intentional. “Herman Schwimpf? What kind of name is that for fighting the Kaiser?!” is an example, especially when coupled with Schwimpf’s “proof” of his patriotism: an American flag tattooed on his flabby bicep. Indeed, the American army, as portrayed in the film at least, was an exceptionally pasty, out-of-shape bunch. That may well have been the case at the time, but the net result was one of the least intimidating fighting forces imaginable.

Such concerns aside, however, the movie holds up quite well 85 years later, and I was impressed by how “modern” it seemed in many respects. The aerial dogfight scenes in particular were spectacular, and I still haven’t figured out how they pulled off one scene in a Paris nightclub, where the camera slowly zooms over table after table toward the drunken protagonist. It had the feel of a Steadicam shot, except that the Steadicam wouldn’t be invented for almost half a century.

Some of the on-screen violence was also jarring. The Hays Code had not yet gone into effect, so filmmakers had fewer restrictions on what could be shown. Although it seems very tame now, it was quite a shock to see a fighter pilot be shot and begin to cough up blood in his plane. I'm just so accustomed to people just kind of slumping over and dying.

Although the film’s two-hour-plus running time was not as arduous as I originally feared, it still felt bloated at times. Many of the battle scenes seemed to drag on forever and added little if anything to the plot. In a movie about two fighter pilots, ten minutes of ground warfare seems unnecessary, especially when we have never been introduced to any of the participants. I think half an hour could have been cut out without sacrificing anything of value.

Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Clara Bow

My biggest complaint about the film, though, is that they were sophisticated enough to film these incredible air battles, but they couldn’t figure out that putting a white font on a white background made many of the title cards impossible to read. Several times I simply could not make out the text, which was presumably somewhat important.

Overall, though, Wings is a surprisingly watchable film, and SPOILER ALERT: it was way easier for me to sit through than the following year’s winner, The Broadway Melody, which is coming up next.