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!