Wings (1927-28)

In 2003, on the afternoon of the 75th Academy Awards, I went to the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Avenue to see the film that is usually credited with winning the first Best Picture honors, Wings. In truth, you know that there were really two winners that first year of 1927-1928, and Wings was the one chosen for Outstanding Picture. I was thrilled to watch the movie for the first time back in 2003, and I can certainly see why it was a winner. It's got almost all of the elements that the Academy tends to love: epic in size and scope, action sequences that are relevant to the plot, somber dramatic moments and lighthearted sequences to balance the emotions, and even a romance or two thrown in for good measure. After watching several Best Picture winners, I can assure you that the formula seems to have been set from that very first year.

The plot begins in 1917 just before America’s entry into what we now call World War I. Two young men from the same town—one wealthy, the other middle class—are in love with the same woman and both join the military to fight in the war. Through a couple of misunderstandings, each young man thinks that he is the one that the girl truly loves. They become top fighter pilots during the war, and the film follows their adventures in France and their battles in the air. They also become friends…or perhaps more than that.

Jack Powell, played by boyishly handsome Buddy Rogers, carries as his good luck charm a locket with a picture of Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston). He never sees the inscription on the back of the photograph, which is written for David Armstrong, played by Richard Arlen. To further complicate matters, Jack's next-door neighbor Mary, played by Clara Bow, is in love with him and even follows him to Europe by becoming a driver for the Women's Motor Corps. Her attempts to make him fall in love with her are no more successful in Europe than they have been in the United States, sadly.

To be honest, though, the focus of the movie isn't about the romances. It's about the men's relationship with each other. This is a rather homoerotic film in many ways. Jack and David become good friends and seem to share in almost everything that happens after they leave their homes and the women. During basic training, these two are boxing and wrestling with each other, and their actions move quickly from one of jealousy to one of affection for each other. Jack even says, “Boy, you’re game!” to David after they've wrestled for a while; his statement is accompanied by a large grin and a hug. It becomes apparent that they develop a love for one another, and any subsequent "fighting" over Sylvia is merely an excuse for them to become and stay closer to each other. Just watch the many ways that David tries to return to Jack after he is shot down on the wrong side of the fighting, for example, and now how Jack becomes increasingly more reckless in his attempts to avenge David’s “death.” That would be strange behavior for someone who is allegedly your rival.

I know I may be about to spoil a key point in the plot here, but the movie is more than eighty years old, so here goes: When David lies dying in the remains of a house near the film’s end, Jack acts more like a grieving lover than he does a friend. Watch the way the two men hold each other and stroke each other's hair and face, and then tell me they're just good friends. If it weren’t a death scene, you’d easily note just how it’s shot in the same way that love scenes typically are done. They’re almost close enough to kiss each other at several moments during this last scene together. Well, they actually do kiss, but not on the mouth… but very close…

Eve Sedgwick, years ago, theorized that many of literature's great love triangles are really about the feelings that the two men in such a triangle have for each other. Wings is pretty clearly an example of that, but I'm sure that many people never quite realize it. It doesn't hurt my theory that Rogers was one of the most beautiful men in silent film. Arlen is handsome as well, but it's Rogers' Jack who must slowly help Arlen's David become more at ease, more comfortable with his "new life." David had always been somewhat sheltered by his parents; his good luck charm is a small teddy bear that his mother gave him, and he speaks of her several times while they are in Europe. There's a lot of antiquated beliefs here about masculinity, certainly, but they don't necessarily deflect attention from Jack and David's feelings for each other.

Of course, you don't have to accept my premise to find this film enjoyable (but I don't think it hurts either). The flying sequences are pretty spectacular for the time period. Some of the shots during battle must have taken a remarkable amount of planning to be executed so precisely. The mid-air collisions and the plane crashes are as thrilling as the dogfights between the Germans and the Americans. Even the sequences involving trench warfare and the bombing of a French village are very realistic. One of the most intriguing aspects of Wings is how the pilots are shot in close-up while they are flying. We get to see their faces when they feel victorious, and we even watch some of them die when their planes (and they) get shot. It makes their demise even more moving to watch it happen in close-up.

Wings was also the recipient of the first Oscar for visual effects, called Best Engineering Effects at the time, most likely for its battle scenes. However, even in smaller moments, the visual effects are exceptional. For example, while on leave in Paris, Jack becomes quite inebriated and thinks he sees champagne bubbles emerging from everywhere. In an extended sequence, bubbles come out of musical instruments and other random objects, even from Bow’s sparkly dress. (He’s too drunk and obsessed with bubbles to make love to Bow’s Mary. Make of that what you will.) It might not seem as impressive as realistically depicting the destruction of a French village or a mid-air collision between two planes, but it makes for a quite charming few moments on film and is another sign of the attention to detail that the filmmakers had.

Rogers and Arlen are both solid in their roles although Rogers is a bit more energetic than Arlen, who’s a bit less emotional. Bow is quite stunning to watch, and you can’t help but realize that she was very underrated as an actress. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s quite breathtakingly beautiful, and she makes a military uniform look sexier than it has a right to look. Even Gary Cooper, in the tiniest of roles as a doomed pilot, is eye-catching. He's so tall and thin and, really, beautiful. I think his character's death after only seconds on the screen is meant to show us just how precious our time with other people can be. El Brendel provides some great comic relief as Herman Schwimpf, a Danish draftee who has an American flag tattooed on his bicep. He takes great joy in showing others how he can make it “wave.” (However, even he realizes how much Jack misses David when everyone thinks David has died at the hands of the Germans.) One other notable performer is Julia Swayne Gordon as David’s mother, someone who clearly belongs to the “grand dame” school of acting. She’s emoting for those in the back of the theater even though she’s on camera. Some, like Rogers and Bow, were better suited for film acting while others, like Gordon, were still quite stage-bound in their acting.

All in all, this is solid entertainment and a good example of what the movie studios were capable of producing at the end of the silent era. The war scenes can be quite brutal; there are lots of deaths onscreen. The notion that all war films, by showing what wars are like, are by their very nature anti-war applies to Wings. The film’s director, William A. “Wild Bill” Wellman, even goes so far as to depict the German dead sympathetically. That had to be quite radical for a film released just a decade after the events that it depicts. It was also just one risk that the film took. Wellman and his crew mastered some amazing visual effects and corralled tons of extras to make an engrossing war movie.

Oscar Wins: Outstanding Picture and Best Engineering Effects