The Holy Land of Tyrol/Bergblut

or

For some reason, I think they look better in the German poster.

Don't ask me why, I'm not getting a lot of sleep these days.

So, the baby is teething. This leads to a lot of hanging out with him at night, when he only wants to sleep in a very specific position in my arms. This position is not good for sleeping myself, but it is good for watching strange foreign movies with the sound way down. I like to pick foreign films for the reason that I can have the sound nearly off and still understand what everyone is saying. (God bless subtitles.) And I like to pick strange foreign films because watching them with Henry always leads to the inevitable "foreign films end too abruptly fight," followed by the "we could have watched Avengers, Lord of the Rings, or pretty much anything else cool instead fight." And I'm too tired for that mess right now. 

Hence, me and the baby watching this strange little gem about a Bavarian woman who marries beneath her, and thus has to move to Tyrol with her new husband and learn to fit in there during the Napoleonic Wars. Spoiler: It isn't easy. 

Not that anything appears to be easy in Tyrol. This state in western Austria is known as the heart of the Alps, and it rivals Poland for most popular place to invade and trade between powerful neighbors. During the time of the movie, this involves Germany and France. And let me just say, I am glad that the baby speaks neither because the slurs going on were not polite. (If you wanna know more about Tyrol, Wikipedia has you hooked up.) 

The movie was by turns sad and heroic and joyful, and the energy stayed mostly on our main lady, Katharina. Her growth from young scared wife to strong confident medic was really neat to watch. I suppose anything else would give too much away, but there are a lot of nice twists and turns that don't end predictably or too tragically. Which is impressive, given the overwhelming presence of war that pervades the whole movie. And the views are out of control beautiful because, umm, Alps. 

Don't wait until you have a teething baby, see Bergblut now! (If you are using Amazon Prime to stream it, look for it under its English name.) 

It's a Wonderful Life

"No man is a failure who has friends."

And no mom is a failure who has a movie-loving son. 

So, I have seen It's a Wonderful Life untold times; most of them on snowy Christmas eves while I frantically wrap gifts and giggle as Henry's Mr. Potter impressions get bigger and bigger, the more egg nog he consumes.  My oldest son has seen up to the lassoing-of-the-moon scene for 6 years in a row, at which point the sugar crashes, his little body gives out, and he retreats to visions of sugarplums. Neither of us have ever seen it on the big screen, so we decide to head over to the Michigan Theater today and watch it. It was magical and I could wax poetic for hours. Believe me, I could; it's one of my favorite movies. However, I thought it would be more fun to let my son do this one, given that it was his first complete viewing. Here's what he has to say:

1. Mom let me have candy, which was awesome. I picked Dots and I like them all, but Cherry is, by far, my favorite flavor. 

2. The theater was really pretty. Mom says it is called Art Deco, which I guess means art decoration for short. And it was really decorated, lots of lights and gold stuff. 

3. A man was playing the organ before the movie and that was really good. 

4. Mom, are you gonna number everything I say? Why? Oh, alright. I guess it does make it easier read. OK, go ahead.

5. The beginning of the movie is funny. Well, sorta funny. When that old sad man was hitting...what? Oh, right, when Mr. Gower was hitting George, that wasn't funny at all, but the rest was pretty funny. 

6. Esp. when the dance floor opens up and they all fell in the swimming pool. That was so funny and the best part of the whole movie! I wish our school had a floor like that.

7. Uncle Billy has a pet crow and that is really nice.

8. The middle part is pretty hard to understand, except Clarence does some magic and then George is happy again, even though he is going to jail. He's kinda happy he is going to jail, which is weird, but maybe he is just happy that he has his kids again. 

9. Our house is almost exactly like the Bailey's because it's kinda broken and messy and we have 4 kids too and everyone is always loud and doing weird stuff, but we like it. George likes it too at the end and all the people come over and everyone was shouting so I didn't hear what they said but I think it was good stuff. And Mom cried, which is silly because I told her, "he's not going to jail now because they have money again."

10. And Mom says that you can be rich in money like Mr. Potter or rich in friends like George. And the right answer is that you want to be rich in friends, but I think it might be good to be both. 

The next Roger Ebert, ladies and gentlemen. 

Birdman

Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance. 

What's unexpected is that Henry and I got to go to a movie.
In the theater.
On a Saturday. 

Birdman is delightfully weird and totally unexpected. I couldn't describe it if I wanted to, but I do want to mention that the depiction of the world of the theater is dead on. Believe me, my B.F.A. may be nearly 15 years old, but you go NOT forget just how dirty and real the theater is. This movie has an ultra-realism that had me squirming in my seat, and it totally worked. The intimacy of the stage was captured perfectly in super close-ups, lingering and excruciating. Everyone is solid and praiseworthy, but Michael Keaton was a powerhouse; heartbreaking and heart-swelling all at once. The Oscar buzz is very very deserved. The parallels to his own career are not: Michael Keaton is no celebrity trying to stay relevant. He is, and always has been, an actor of the finest stuff.

Great, really good-weird, movie.

P.S. The early appearance of an unflappable costume designer, who takes one look at Edward Norton's total nudity and declares that he "needs to go shopping for bigger pants" made me giggle and remember those long ago theater days of just rolling with whatever. Henry whispered "Are actors really like that?" And I said "Oh yes. They are very much like that."

P.P.S. The fact that we viewed this movie at the rather gritty, kinda uncomfortable, I-think-they-might-have-showed-porn-here-in-the-70s State Theater only added to the ultra-realism.

The Triplets of Belleville

This was tonight's film:

I have loved this weird little gem for awhile, but our 6-year-old got to meet the triplets for the first time this evening. He found them delightfully odd. He enjoyed them beating the bad guys best, but he thought the songs were "super nice." The only thing he didn't like was their predilection for frog popsicles. 

22 Jump Street

Tonight's film.

They had me for 1 rather clear reason with extremely well-defined muscles. They kept me with a story that was equal parts sweet, self-aware, and totally side-splitting. And they won me over completely for the sheer audacity to put in a Benny Hill reference. I am starting the Oscar buzz now.

The House

Tonight's Film.

A strange and lingering movie out of Korea about the destruction of a group of falling down old houses and the spirits that dwell in them. Moody and moving, with just enough laughs to keep the children from totally losing it at the end. Just reminded them about the cat-god who stole people's underwear and floated in a purple easy-chair; they were happy again. They absolutely adored the house spirits. The people, well, they didn't really notice them and found their concerns and squabbles rather boring next to the gentle, bouncy spirits. 

Our imaginary-friend-loving 4-year-old loved it the most. Surprise, surprise. The ending is heart-breaking and makes me want to offer a few rice-cakes to the guardian spirit of our house. God knows that just dealing with the noise level around here must be exhausting to even the most benevolent of house guardians.

Toys in the Attic

Tonight's Film:

An entire country of forgotten toys exists in the attic in this stunningly creative movie out of the Czech Republic. The main trio (a bear, a knight puppet, and a clay man with a bottle cap hat) seek to rescue their friend, a doll, from the Land of Evil, which is ruled by a absolutely terrifyingly head statue of a vaguely Communisty dude in Kim Jong Il sunglasses. He has a personality to match and is surrounded by minions of bugs, rotting vegetables, and an disembodied eye that slithers all over the attic with the help of what looks like a vacuum cleaner tube. This is NOT Toy Story. It was by turns absolutely horrifying and fascinating, and while there was certainly some peeking between the fingers watching, not one child, from the sensitive 6-year-old to the fearless 2-year-old, left the room. They huddled in a pile and were riveted by the seemingly endless creativity of these bold film-makers. The use of garbage bags to create an ocean and pillows to create clouds were the children's favorites.

See it. Just don't blame me if your dreams turn out kinda wild that night.

A Cat in Paris

Tonight's film:

Our 6 year old wants to review this one for you:

"This is a different kind of Paris. Just as good as the one with the singer from last time, but a little scarier. But that's OK, you just watch the movie with 1 eye open. The cat was great and there was a funny dog. And this big scary guy and an even bigger guy who wasn't scary at all. Oh, and the end was happy, so don't worry. I think I like Paris. Maybe I'll get a summer house there."

He kinda was born for summers in Paris. 

The Lunchbox

I actually went to the movies tonight, dear Readers! It was delightful just to be at the movies, especially a glorious theater like the Michigan Theater. But to gild the lily, I saw The Lunchbox.

I spent the entire movie afraid to blink; I didn't want to miss anything. It was transcendent. Perfectly paced, lovingly shot. Director Ritesh Batra (with his first feature length film!) provides an eye that is gentle and patient, lingering on scenes long after the main action has been conveyed. And yet, it still isn't enough for the viewer. He seems to know this and allows sounds to bleed into the next scene, just to help you through the transitions. A fascinating technique not often used; it added a magical quality that fit seamlessly. Irrfan Khan always impresses me with his ability to house every emotion known to man in a single glance and he does not disappoint. He is matched beautifully by Nimrat Kaur, who deserves far more than only 6 film credits to her name. Someone cast this woman in everything; she is stunning in her silence. They both built in intensity over the film, allowing their expressions to grow larger and slightly frantic. Their eyes moved faster, their gestures more nervous. It drew the audience in so deeply that by the end everyone near me was shifting uncontrollably, holding our glee back with our hands and arching forward in an effort to help shove these beautiful souls together. We were all so delighted to be enfolded in this heartbreaking yet hopeful tale. I loved it. GO SEE IT RIGHT NOW!

PS. Don't go hungry or you may be tempted to try to eat the screen.

A Monster in Paris

This was tonight's film:

Set in Paris in the year 1910, this delightful fairy tale/French farce focuses on a singer, a budding film-maker, and a delivery driver as they try to save a 7-foot tall singing flea from the wicked Mayor of Paris. Our middle 4-year-old son would like to review this for you:

1. The songs were amazing. Amazing.
2. Monsters aren't always monsters, so you should ask them if they are monsters before you scream at them.
3. We liked dancing during the movie, so that was good.
4. Fleas can jump really really high.
5. We are gonna show you how high!

That's pretty high....

New Plan/Boomerang!

OK, here's the thing. We have 4 kids. Making time to watch movies in any kind of regular pattern just isn't happening over here. We do think we are going to meet our goal of watching every film nominated for an Oscar. We really do. We think we are probably going to be 86 when we do so, but that is beside the point. Therefore, we are not putting any time-limit here. When we happen to watch an Oscar-nominated film, we'll review it. (Or spoiler it, rather.) But no hard and fast rules on when. Cool? Cool.

However, we still do see a lot of movies. A lot of movies. And while we don't have the energy to write long and lengthy reviews of all of them, maybe that isn't necessary, needed, or even nice. How about just a little shout-out to the film-makers who bring us so much joy? Yes, that we can do. 

Boomerang! Perry Mason's father and Law & Order's grandfather:  a docu-noir ripped from the headlines. It was gloriously tense and shadowy. There's a mob scene about halfway in that's as creepy as it is subtle. Of course, the title makes no sense at all, but that's really a minor point when your film is directed by the ever complex Elia Kazan, features the always wonderful Lee Cobb, an impossibly young (and uncredited) Karl Malden, AND an Arthur Miller cameo. It was lovely.

Random Lee Cobb quote: "Theater is the medium of the actor. Film is the medium of the director. Television is the medium of nobody."

Wonder what he would think of the internet......

Wings - Part 2

Now, where were we? Oh yes, a little town in France with a rather kissy General. Wanna catch up? Just read here. Or watch about half of Top Gun. That should do it. 

So, our heroes, Maverick and Iceman....wait, I mean, Jack and David, ace pilots, have just saved a little French town from certain doom at the hands of German bombs and balloons. (Say what you want, they were scary looking.) They get some fancy medals, some cheek kisses, and a well-deserved leave; what are two single and swinging fellas to do? Why, go to Paris, of course!

We see a title card that informs us that the allied army is "on furlough from DEATH," and then we are off to a spontaneous horse race through the streets of Paris. Then a couple naked ladies, some drinking, and some surprisingly leery camera angles that prompt Henry to quip, "Guess they are helping the soldiers forget the front by focusing on the back." Luckily, the children don't get it, nor do they seem to notice all the T. and A. We took the intermission to make some more popcorn and they are rather engrossed in eating at the moment.

We join Mary as she pulls up in front of a nightclub. Through a complicated series of events that we still don't quite understand, she comes to know that Jack is in the club, gets possession of a telegram ordering all pilots back to the front, and somehow gets inside. We follow an impressive and wonderfully done tracking shot through 4 tables to see Jack and David, totally drunk and sitting pretty with some daringly dressed French ladies. Mary sees this too and it causes an avalanche of silent movie stock expressions (anger, sadness, annoyance, curiosity). No wonder she was the queen of the silents; she masters them all and the camera lingers on her for quite awhile.

Then, the Pink Elephants scene from Dumbo starts. OK, not really, but Jack appears to be so drunk that he starts seeing bubbles everywhere. This effect is rather cool and probably involved some poor editor hand-drawing bubbles on frames of film. They start flying out of musical instruments, passing drinks, and, naturally, the cleavage of Jack's French drinking companion. This annoys Mary, although it shouldn't; how can she even see the bubbles? She isn't drunk. A random dance sequence starts up that is half Keystone Kops and half Busby Berkeley and totally pushes Mary away from Jack and into a nearby dressing room. She meets a random lady in there who she tells her troubles too. Random lady says, "you just need to tart it up a little and you'll get your man." We are paraphrasing here, but not much. They find a glittery flapper dress (really? In 1918?) and suddenly there is a whole lotta Clara Bow's leg to be seen. But don't prude-out now, there is more to come!

Mary emerges, but Jack is leaving with his dizzy French dame, so, naturally, there is a cat fight. This leads to a "bubble-off," with each lady shimmying Jack's drunk bubbles out of their garments. Mary wins, but, to be honest, she has a bit of an unfair advantage in an ahead-of-it's-time flapper dress covered in sequins. A blind man would see bubbles coming off that. Jack picks her and they stumble off to his hotel room. More bubble antics (these are starting to wear thin, so, of course, the children love it.) Finally, Jack kisses her, falls asleep and she goes through his pockets, because we guess that makes sense. She find Sylvia's picture. Oh the horror! More silent film mood faces; anger, crying, eventual forgiveness. It's hard to keep up, but the end result is that Mary sets up a screen so that sleeping Jack can't see her changing out of her shiny flapper dress and back into her motor pool uniform. Seems she forgot about the camera man and suddenly we are staring, full-on, at Clara Bow's....ummmm....bows. Us and some passing MPs who don't bother to knock. They scold her for being naked in some dude's room and send her packing back home. Henry and Erin are rather shocked but the children just want to know why all these people are being so noisy in Jack's room. The man is trying to sleep.

OK. We are back at the front and it is the eve of the big battle. (The Battle of Saint-Mihiel for all you history fans out there.) Jack and David take the opportunity to brawl regarding Sylvia. This leads to some extremely heavy-handed foreshadowing regarding David's death. (Of course, you all knew it was coming.) He fights with Jack, who then refuses to give him the "O.K." that he always gives him when they take off. He forgets his good-luck teddy bear that his parents gave him. He says stuff about not making it back and making sure Jack gives his parents the medals he has acquired. There really is no other ending here. But Wings is gonna take it's time getting there.

In some marvelously meticulous and detailed battle scenes, we get to witness the grisly and ugly reality of trench warfare. Folks get shot, soldiers blow up, a man gets run over by a tank. Or rather, a camera gets run over by a tank, giving us a ring-side seat to the slaughter. It is relentless, and it goes on and on and on. Jack completes his mission, but loses David in the clouds. He is still mad at him about the whole Sylvia thing, but he kinda looks worried. Meanwhile, David gets shot down (duh, we all knew this was coming.). He also gets wounded in the shoulder, crashes into a river, and is shot at again by an entire battalion of Germans. He still escapes into some nearby woods. This is about the time that our 3-year-old can't take it anymore and falls asleep.

Jack returns to base, and is present when a cocky and foolhardy German pilot buzzes by to drop a note (held by the tiniest, cutest parachute you have ever seen) informing all that he has killed David, over by the river, and it was awesome. Cue the evil laughter. Naturally, a very angry Jack, crazed with revenge, takes to the skies and basically wins World War I by himself. He takes out hordes of Germans, including the folks who shot David by the river. They are still hanging around there for some reason. He kills everyone he comes across and this does not bode well when we flash to David, still alive somehow, stealing a German plane and heading straight for Allied airspace.

Remember that we told you about those huge iron crosses on German planes? Yep, well, Jack, returning from his spree of carnage, spies this huge iron cross and starts shooting at the plane. We all know that it is David and are thus treated to anguished and heartbreaking shots of David screaming at his friend to please stop shooting at him. It is awful and goes on forever. Well, until Jack shoots David, again in the shoulder, and his plane goes crashing into the side of a nearby house. The residents carry him inside and he is, somehow, still alive, if barely. Jack lands and starts to cut the iron cross off the side of the crashed German plane, as a war prize. The owners of the now 3-walled house call him over and he finally realizes what we have known for what feels like hours. He just shot down his best friend. The iron cross slips out of his hand and he cradles David, who immediately forgives him. Henry, Erin, and our 5-year-old all agree that we would be slightly more pissed off. Jack and David both rail against the Germans, leading to some uncomfortable subtitles that we are glad our son can't read yet. Jack kisses David (in the first man to man kiss ever on film, that turns out to be simply loving and clearly between friends) and David finally dies, as we flash to the slowing propeller on the plane in the yard. Jack stands up and carries his friend outside, stepping on the iron cross war prize as he does, and they make their way out the door. It is a powerful, strong ending scene.

Which, of course, means that it isn't the last scene of the movie! We have a scene where Jack finally reads the back of his Sylvia picture, learning the truth we have known all movie; she loved David the whole time. Jack heads home to a parade, which makes sense given that he basically won the war himself there at the end. He meets with David's parents, who seem to know how their son died. He hands them the teddy bear and David's medals. They forgive him, which again seems really fast to the three of us, but I guess they are just a very forgiving family. Jack heads over to his place and messes with his car for a bit. Mary pops over the wall and there is some long-awaited romance. They see a shooting star, they smooch, and we fade to THE END.

Our final impressions vary. The youngests' are "ZZZZZ;" 2 of them are sound asleep. Guess Wings isn't really for the toddler set. Our 5-year-old thinks that it would be really easy to shoot your friend if he was in the wrong plane, so maybe you shouldn't shoot anyone in the first place. We don't feel like having a war discussion at what is now 9pm, so we agree. He has a solid point. Erin found it very strong as a film; the camera work especially was inventive and fascinating. All aspects were clearly researched and our director was obviously knowledgeable; which makes sense given that William A. Wellman actually flew during World War I. Now, you must also know that William was not known to like actors very much, found them a bit of an annoyance if the truth be told, so the technical aspects of the film do feel a bit stronger than the love triangle/square. The war scenes still seem as harrowing and dangerous as we imagine they seemed at the time, but the love scenes are a little thin. Not awful, just not a whole lot there for folks to work with. It is still a solid, very good film. And as a war film, it clearly set the bar so high that folks are still shamelessly stealing parts of it for modern war films. Henry found the presentation of war to be complicated and mostly even-handed, which makes sense given that it was directed by someone who had actually been there. Overall, we would have totally nominated Wings for Best Picture of the Year. But would we have voted for it to win? Well, you will just have to wait and see. We'll decide after we see the other 5 films that were up that year.....

Now, I think we told you guys that stuff was done differently in 1928. Flappers are weird. There were 2 categories of best picture and each had 3 films in it. We will be combining them for our review because it is more accurate. It is also easier and we are lazy. Speaking of lazy, not all the early nominated films are widely available. For the 1928 Academy Awards, we will have DVD access to 4 out of 6. We are still gonna talk about the other 2 because we like to talk and we love to talk about obscure film. We are rather nerdy that way. So, stay tuned! Next week we are taking on The Racket, Howard Hughes' controversial film about corrupt cops that was actually banned in Chicago upon its release. You know the crazy is upped just by association with Howard Hughes. Should be a wild time, so bring some Kleenex and meet us back here next Friday! Save us a center seat! 

Wings - Part 1

So, it might have taken us 4 months to get through Wings, the first in our list of Academy Award nominated films that we intend to watch. This was due to some poor planning and unexpected end of the year stuff. We are not going to take 4 months to watch every film on our list, which we are sure you are relieved about, given that we know how eager you are to read our thoughts and impressions. We have a new plan that involves us watching one movie a week; it's on the calendar, so there is no getting out of it now. We plan to watch on Thursday and then blog by Friday (can you tell we have been making new year's resolutions over here?); leaving you the weekend to fully appreciate and delight in our ponderings. Because we are sure you are going to. 

In addition, we are not going to ban the children from watching these movies with us. It is just too hard to find a time when they aren't around and awake, and staying up until after they pass out just wasn't working. It left us like 10 minutes before we too were passing out. Bed-times are not easy around here, but that is neither here nor there because we are now including the children in our quest. Maybe it will give them a strong film foundation, and some hidden hipster cred, when they set out in the world. Don't worry, when we get to Scorsese and his ilk, we will show a little parenting sense and lock them in another room. Wait, that didn't come out right......

But on to Wings! Wings  is the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Now, this is actually quite complex, because in 1928 (and for that year only), there were 2 categories of best picture; Outstanding Picture and Unique and Artistic Production. Wings won Outstanding Picture and Sunrise won Unique and Artistic Production. These were to be equal prizes that honored different but equally important aspects of film-making. Apparently, even then, this sounded a little too much like "everyone wins a medal," so it was dropped the very next year and Outstanding Picture was determined to be the top honor, thus Wings is on record as winning the first ever Best Picture Award (which is what Outstanding Picture became known as in 1962, after it was called Outstanding Production, Outstanding Motion Picture and then Best Motion Picture, respectively. You would think the Academy Award engravers were charging more per letter or something....). Now, Erin actually thinks this is a shame because Sunrise is a much better film. Oops. We are getting ahead of ourselves here, like 2 posts from now.

Wings. Click on it if you want the low-down according to imdb.com. There is some super fun trivia there, take a peek. Clara Bow didn't like her role, it actually played in theaters for over a year upon its release, and it actually contains the first on-screen kiss between 2 men. And naked breasts and all kinds of pre-code shenanigans, but we'll get to that in a minute.

OK, so here is what Wings is. Wings is basically Top Gun during World War I. Which means that unless they are time-travellers, the writers of Top Gun are dirty thieves. In addition, Henry thinks we veer into Pearl Harbor territory once they are actually fighting in France and he isn't wrong. Guess there are no new ideas in Hollywood. However, when Wings came out, it was chock-a-block full of them. Read on!

(So, after trying in vain to watch this without the kids, we just gave up and sat down with them to watch. Our youngest promptly fell asleep, after hogging most of the popcorn, so her review of Wings is "ZZZZZ." The 5-year-old and the 3-year-old had a lot of opinions and we'll share them as we go along. Oh, and by the way, Mega Spoiler Alert. We aren't holding anything back, so if you want to be surprised when you watch it, you might wanna do that first. Don't fret, we'll wait.)

Alright, so we open up on the credits page, which has a luminous Clara Bow peeking out between 2 fellows in military uniforms, while planes fly up behind them. The dudes are Jack and David. Jack (Charles Rogers) and David (Richard Arlen) are your standard rivals/friends; Jack being the plucky poor one and David being the rich bored one. It is all pretty standard love triangle stuff, except they actually aren't into Clara (whose name is Mary in the movie). And while, yes, there is some interesting and underlying homoerotic tension that isn't fully explored, they are actually in a love triangle with this girl named Sylvia, who isn't even on the credits page. Poor Jobyna Ralston. She spends the movie, and the entire war it appears, moping on a swing in her garden. Plus, imdb.com doesn't even have a photo of her. And her name is weird. Poor thing.

Anywho, she does get things going by giving Jack, who is heading off to war, mind you, a photo of herself that she has inscribed on the back to David, who she really loves. He never bothers to read the back, so this doesn't become a thing until later, but become a thing, it certainly does.

But let's back up, the movie actually opens on Jack, our plucky hero, building a car from scratch, while the neighbor girl, Mary, looks on adoringly. This part is our 5-year-old's favorite part and he couldn't take his eyes off the screen. It is goofy and charming and utterly adorable. Clara Bow is being full-on Clara Bow, and Charles Rogers is good ol' America boy perfection. They are like the entire 1920s, with all its energy and passion for life, in a few precious frames of film. Which is funny because it is actually supposed to be 1914. Which means war! Jack somehow gets word that they are looking for pilots, so he drives off to go tell Sylvia (who he thinks he loves but we all know that he is destined for Mary) his plans to become a war hero. He tells Mary that she can have his car while he is in France. Mary looks like she would rather have him, but smiles (her sad, perfect, doe-eyed Clara Bow smile) and lets him go.

And we are at David's house, or maybe Sylvia's; it is pretty unclear, but they are both on a swing in the front yard and the camera appears to be mounted on the swing, which is totally cool. We watch a blurry Jack pull up behind them, as we are actually focused on David and Sylvia in young love. Henry thinks that David looks like Crispin Glover crossed with Tom Cruise. Erin thinks that is super creepy to think about. But there is no denying that David is total cool rich boy to Jack's eager and down-home poor kid done good. They glare at each other over Sylvia and we are off!

Next couple of scenes are folks gearing up for war. We have Jack gleefully heading off, while Mary sadly watches him and tries to give him her picture, which he halfheartly takes; he already has Sylvia's incorrectly inscribed one, remember? We watch David's cold and stony parents completely fall apart (in one of the strongest and emotional scenes in the movie) while saying goodbye to him. They give him a tiny teddy bear from his childhood for good-luck and Erin actually cries. Then, we are at the recruiting station and we have all the stereotypes present and accounted for; folks fainting at the physical, the grizzly Irish Sarge, the nerdish one with the unfortunately German sounding name so he gets an American flag tattoo on his arm, which he likes to wave around when in trouble. Our boys think this is hilarious. We head into basic training, with its usual montage of ratty band of misfits becoming a powerful band of brothers (although this was a totally unique montage at the time and works really well, so we aren't surprised so many have stolen it). This culminates with Jack and David (now friends) being sent overseas to their first assignment. They immediately run into pre-famous Gary Cooper, a hardened ace who had seen most of his friends die and appears to be made of gratite. Or at least his jawline is. He is there for 2 minutes, broody and stunningly handsome, before he too goes off and gets into a crash. Well, don't blame the good folks of Wings, they didn't know he would go on to be a star. Clara Bow apparently did; they are totally rumored to have "gotten along quite well" during production and after....nudge nudge, wink wink.

We are now well in the war and the dog fights are incredibly impressive. The filming that is pulled off here is nothing short of a miracle; we have no idea where they mount the cameras or how they get some of the shots they do. For some reason, our DVD has colorized the shooting guns and all fire a distracting orange, which we don't love. The added soundtrack, with gun noises and music that would not have been there, is acceptable, but a black and white movie can remain all black and white, thank you. You aren't the little red-coated girl in Schindler's List......OK, off track, sorry. Other than that, the restoration was quite impressive and we were very happy with all the rest.

So, dog fights. The children are extremely confused as to who the bad guys are, and we have to say, so are we. Things are a little confused up in the air and we spend a lot of time asking "who is that?" "Wait, is that a German guy?" The pull-back shots are easier because all the German planes have huge black iron crosses on them (mind that, it comes up later), but the close-ups are a little confusing, as everyone is in goggles and hats. What isn't confusing is that there is going to be no sympathetic portrayal of any Germans here. Slurs are freely used in the title cards and the Germans are often seen laughing maniacally as they take out huge groups of Allied soldiers. The boys refer to the "bad guys" as the Empire (i.e. out of Star Wars) and it is pretty much that black and white. (Pun intended.)

OK, so we have our big mid-movie-arc battle scene now. Both Jack and David are in the air and Mary has somehow found her way to France! Wait, what?! Oh, I guess we forgot to mention that since she got Jack's car when he went away, she practiced her driving skills and joined the motor pool. She is driving a medical supplies truck and just happens to roll into the little French town that the Germans are shelling and the Allies are protecting. She sees Jack in his glory and falls more in love. Jack, David, and the rest of the Brother Band fight off the Empire and save the little town. There are medals given by a grateful French Captain who seriously lingers with his cheek kisses as he awards our heroes. In fact, some of his kisses veer into neck territory, which is decidedly strange and gives us all something to giggle about as we head into intermission.

Speaking of intermission, take one yourself. Go get a snack. Get up and stretch. Take a nap. There is a lot more to come!

We are gonna take our own advice and take a break. Don't you worry, we will totally be back tomorrow (Saturday at the latest) to finish up our review/retelling of Wings. And you know that you wanna come back because we promised you naked Clara Bow, and we never forget a promise!