Movie: Wings

Release Date: August 12, 1927

Director: William A. Wellman

Starring: Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Richard Arlen, Gary Cooper

Personal History: Never Been Watched

Rating: 6.5 Oscars out of 10

Thoughts: Sitting down and watching a movie for the first time is a very exciting event in my life, which only proves that I really do not lead a very interesting life. But as I sat down on the first day of my Academy Award Best Picture Movie Challenge, I honestly was not that excited.

‘Wings’ was the first Best Picture winner, or as the award was called back then “Outstanding Motion Picture,” at the very first Academy Awards. So that is where I started this challenge because one must start at the very beginning – as it’s a very good place to start.

War is not my favorite genre of film, and that is how ‘Wings’ is classified. It is also an almost three hour silent movie, so my eagerness to begin this challenge was tampered a bit by the film that was scheduled to be watched. However, I am happy to report that I was more than pleasantly surprised about how much I was actually entertained.

Besides ‘The Artist’ (Click here to see my thoughts on that film) and maybe a few Charlie Chaplin films, I have not watched many silent movies. I do watch a lot of foreign films, so “reading” a movie is not an issue for me, they are probably just films that fall under my radar. And although I consider myself a cinephile, I am more of a modern day cinephile.

With that said, I have to say that I enjoyed my viewing of ‘Wings’ today and found myself swept up in the story, the visuals as well as the score. Now I did watch the remastered DVD which gave me the choice to watch the movie with full orchestrated score or the original ‘organ’ instrumental. I opted for the full orchestrated score. So I did not watch the movie as originally intended, but as a lover of film scores, I thought I would enjoy that more than just the organ music. I didn’t want to feel like I was at church.

The story of two rivals from a small town fighting over the same girl and then being sent off to war was more complex than I was anticipating for a silent film. The love story was not central and I found the story to be more about those two men who eventually bond over the love for their country and become friends. It is a sweeping dramatic story with a somber, tragic ending, one that the Academy is not shy of showing its love for throughout its history. That with the stunning visuals (albeit from 1927) it is no surprise that this one the top prize that year.

Yes, ‘Wings’ is a long movie (but it does have an Intermission) and it is a silent film (although you don’t have to read too much) as well as a war movie but it is one that I actually enjoyed and one that I am very glad I finally watched.