We are starting at the beginning. The first academy
awards were held in 1929 and movies were nominated from the previous two years.
Wings became the first movie to win best picture at the Academy
Awards. Then it was called “Outstanding Picture”
I got the DVD from Netflix a couple of months ago. I’ve
been putting this off because Baldvin (my husband) is not exceedingly excited
to watch this movie with me (for the second time).
My brother and his girlfriend came over for a visit and
drink that afternoon. (They came over means they walked
downstairs. Gibert and Marina occupy the other floor in our
multi-family house.) When they heard about the plan, they invited me
upstairs to view Wings on their large screen TV. It wasn’t
until we were upstairs that I told them that we were watching a silent movie.
They weren’t entirely enthusiastic, so we decided to make it
fun by playing roles. Marina narrated. She was a great
narrator. We each read the lines of different
characters. We drank Champagne in the theme of the Paris scene. Baldvin
got pretty excited when “I’m forever blowing bubbles” (West Ham United song)
played. The narration only got better and at times we descended into
“Mystery Science Theater 3000” mode. The film isn’t classified as a
comedy, but with the right audience, the film is pretty funny.
I think there may have been an early example of product
placement (“women who drive Ford cars especially desired”), but I think to be
legitimate product placement, money has to change hands. I was also
surprised to see nudity in a movie from the 1920’s (naked men getting physicals
and Clara Bow’s breasts in Paris.)
Wings was filmed entirely in and around San Antonio,
but there aren’t any San Antonio scenes, so it isn’t really a great movie for
traveling.
A friend of mine said Wings is still revered as
having some of the best flight scenes in the history of cinema. The
actors flew the planes themselves (and in some cases learned to fly just for
this movie), and many of the shots were from inside the plane. They were
good flight scenes, but it did feel like some scenes (even some of the flight
scenes) were drawn out and the characters weren't fully developed.
The music was fun and it was interesting to see how music
and exaggerated expression made up for the lack of words.
Overall, I enjoyed my first silent movie. But I
look forward to the talkies.
