The Oscar Project Part I - Wings

I love movies. They entertain, inform, make you think and bring about a great time. Movies have been around for a century now and there are thousands of movies available that most of us will never see. For movies there is one benchmark that was set in May of 1929. The Academy Awards. One reward in particular is given to the best picture of the previous year. This is the movie that the people that make movies say is their best work. My goal is to watch all 82 of these movies in the order that they were released. After each one I plan to write my thoughts on the movie, thinking about how it stands up today and how it compared to the previous winners.

In May of 1929 the award for Most Outstanding Production was given to the 1927 movie “Wings.” The first Academy Awards honored movies from both 1927 and 1928. A second award was given out titled Most Artistic Quality of Production that went to a movie called “Sunrise.” The academy however refers to “Wings” as the winner of the equivalent award to Best Picture.

Watching “Wings” was a bit of a challenge. First, it is not available on DVD in the United States. Fortunately, someone has posted it on YouTube. I wouldn’t normally recommend watching any movie this way, but if you want to watch “Wings” this is one of the only ways to watch it. If you really want to watch a DVD, the only current release was a Korean release but it does have an English translation. Second, it is a silent movie, a 141 minute silent movie. I’ve never watched a full length silent movie before and I’ve never watched one that wasn’t a comedy. It was difficult to watch but I was glad that I did.

“Wings” is about two men from the same small town that become pilots during World War I. The movie features a growing friendship that involves mistaken love and tragedy. One of the most amazing parts of the movie was the aerial battles. To put on these aerial battles in 1927 just baffles my mind. Going into the movie I expected something light, with a happy ending for everyone. I was wrong. The movie is filled with death and really demonstrates some of the ferocious fighting that was part of World War I. It’s interesting to think of how often World War I is ignored in media today, mostly due to how much easier it is to label enemies in World War II.

The movie was good for it’s time. However, due to the fact it is a silent movie, it loses a lot of impact that it could have if it was not one. With few laughs in the movie and having to read lips more often then I thought would be necessary, it was difficult to watch the entire movie. Only those that really want to watch it should attempt it. An interesting note is that this was one of the first movies to feature a male on male kiss and the first widely distributed movie to feature female nudity, which lasts approximately a tenth of a second. I didn’t think that I would see anything like that during these early movies and it has made me rethink what the film industry was like in the early days of the Academy Awards.

Overall, I think the movie is well directed with terrific cinematography, a well developed plot and great acting. In total it gets 3.5 out of 5 stars. The next movie on the list is “The Broadway Melody.”