Starring Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Richard Arlen
Produced by
Jack Powell is a day dreamer. He stares at the sky dreaming of what it would be like to soar through the clouds. Unable to fulfill his fantasy, Jack satisfies his urges by focusing on hurtling along the roadways in his custom-built race car. The car does more then scratch his thrill-seeking itch; it's also a vehicle for his attempts to impress Sylvia, the beautiful focus of his romantic gestures.
Unfortunately, Sylvia only has eyes for the local rich boy, David Armstrong. Sylvia indulges Jack a little, but it's clear that she sees him as a boy and doesn't want to break his heart. David feels secure enough with Sylvia to let it slide.
Still, Jack thinks he is in the hunt for Sylvia. He doesn't notice his awkward attempts to woo Sylvia are not working. The same way he does not notice his beautiful neighbor Mary Preston making eyes at him.
All of these romantic dreams are thrown aside when the reality of World War I intrudes. Jack and David head off to become pilots. At basic training, the competitive Jack pushes and prods David until a fistfight erupts. Jack wins but is impressed with David's spirit. The former rivals become fast friends.
Soon the duo are on the frontlines, flying patrols and sorties for the US of A. Will they survive the brutality of war? How will the conflict change them? And... Why is Mary in France?
Wings was the very first Oscar winner for Best Picture and in many ways it's a prototypical of the Academy Awards today. It's a sweeping wartime epic. It features some technical innovation with fantastic aerial combat scenes. And it features some strong performances, especially from the leads.
It also has some significant plot issues, including an unnecessary subplot and a sequence in its second act which is just annoyingly corny.
What's good here is really good. The aerial combat scenes feature real biplanes flying and it all has a weight and chaos that feels authentic. During the film's extended climactic battle, the camera takes you inside the cockpit to see both the determination and horror of what the pilots go through. The film goes the extra mile to make it all real and it works better than most modern films featuring aerial combat. There is no way to get this effect with CGI or even miniatures.
The two main leads are critical to making us buy the melodrama and both fit their parts beautifully. As Jack, Buddy Rogers comes out the gate perhaps too naively boyish, but once he befriends David, he is pitch perfect. We feel his arc from wide-eyed kid to grizzled veteran and it centers the picture.
The direction here is fine. A lot of the heavy lifting is done by the pilots with cameras strapped to their planes. The ground scenes are for the most part by the numbers, but there are the occasional flourishes, like early in the film when the camera is attached to the swing David and Sylvia are on. As the camera moves back and forth, we see Jack's arrival in staccato movements that create a slight tension in the scene that would be otherwise absent.
There are two romantic subplots in the film and neither of them really work. The main source of antagonism between Jack and David is their love of Sylvia. While much is made of the rivalry, it's clear that Sylvia loves David and Jack never had a shot. There's no real conflict because the end is never in doubt. To make matters worse, Sylvia herself barely registers as a character. She's an abstract concept, but we never know what the appeal is.
Worse yet is Clara Bow's role in the film. It's just not necessary. In the beginning, she's pining for Jack, but he is so engrossed by fast cars and Sylvia, he barely acknowledges Mary's existence. The boys go off to war and Mary is forgotten for a bit.
Then we get Mary's adventures in the army (she joined up and is driving a truck in France). She survives a bombing. She bumps into a ridiculously drunk Jack in Paris and saves him from going off with another woman. Finally, Jack returns to the States after the war and is ready to love her.
There are really two problems here. First, this is Jack and David's story. Mary is not involved in that at all. She barely interacts with Jack and certainly doesn't have anything to do with David. All of which means the filmmakers have to shoehorn her into the tale...
...which leads to the second issue: Jack and Mary's scenes together in Paris. They are by far the worst moments in the film. Jack is on leave with some other soldiers at a Paris club. He starts literally seeing bubbles coming out of people in his drunken stupor. And he cannot stop talking about bubbles. It's supposed to be funny, but it's just dumb. We get a ridiculous series of coincidences: Mary seeing Jack in the first place, a woman offering Mary a dress to seduce Jack, the military police walking in at the wrong moment. The direction is clumsy and feels completely out of place with the rest of the movie.
Wings is melodrama, but it's damn good melodrama. You could edit out Clara Bow almost entirely and the film would lose nothing. Wings is about the brothers we find when the chips are stacked against us and the bonds forged by war. Oh, and there are dogfights. Lots and lots of glorious dogfights.
**** out of *****
NOTE: We previously saw Gary Cooper in a small role in It. He's here again in a small role again as a veteran, but ill-fated pilot.
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