xREL.v3

Wings.1927.NTSC.DVDR-DVDR

THEATRE DATE....: 10/20/2010 (France)
RELEASE DATE....: 1/5/1929
STORE DATE......: 1/24/2012
GENRE...........: Drama/Romance/War/Silent Film
RATiNG..........: 7.8/10 (3,683 votes)
NO. SCREENiNGS..: ???

RUNTiME.........: 139 Minutes
ViDEO BiTRATE...: 3947 kBit/sec 6-pass CCE
AUDiO BiTRATE...: 448 kBit/s AC3 DD 5.1 at 48KHZ, orchestra
ASPECT RATiO....: 4:3
ARCHiVES........: dvdr-wings.rar  *95x50MB*
DVD SiZE........: *4.374 GB* *4,479 MB* *4,586,006 KB*
SUBTiTLES.......: EN Intertitles; FR, ES Subtitles

Wings, the first feature film to win an Academy Award, tends to disappoint a little when seen today.
Too much time is afforded the wheezy old plotline about two World War I aviators (Buddy Rogers, Richard
Arlen) in love with the same woman (Jobyna Ralston), while the comedy relief of El Brendel is decidedly
not to everyone's taste. But during the aerial "dogfight" sequences, the film is something else again:
a grand-scale spectacular, the likes of which has never been duplicated, not even by more expensive
efforts like Hell's Angels (1930) and The Blue Max (1965). Twenty-eight-year-old director William
Wellman, himself a wartime aviator, was fortunate enough to have the full cooperation of the US War
department at his disposal (even though his legendary temper nearly lost him that cooperation on more
than one occasion!) Brilliantly handled though the aerial scenes may be, they are matched by the
Earthbound combat sequences, including the now-famous shot of a long trench caving in on hundreds of
unfortunate doughboys. The storyline is as follows: Jack Powell (Rogers) and David Armstrong (Powell)
hate each other during basic training, grow to like each other, and fall out again while competing for
the affections of Sylvia Lewis (Ralston). Mary Preston (Clara Bow) sacrifices her own nursing career to
save a drunken Powell from disgrace, Powell goes on a rampage when he believes his pal Armstrong has been
killed, inadvertently shoots down Armstrong while decimating the German air corps, and is finally reunited
with the nurse. Wrapped up in nurse's garb throughout most of the film, the ebullient Clara Bow is
permitted a sequence in which, disguised as a Parisian floozie while trying to rescue a revelling Rogers,
she displays a great deal of epidermis. One of the film's chief claims to fame is its "introduction" of
Gary Cooper (who'd actually been in films since the early 1920s), in a brief but crucial role as veteran
flyer with a cheerily fatalistic attitude. When originally released, Wings included a sequence lensed in t
he wide-screen "Magnascope" process; even when seen "flat", however, the film contains some of the best
flying sequences ever captured on celluloid.

Director               ...       William A. Wellman

Clara Bow               ...         Mary Preston
Charles 'Buddy' Rogers ...         Jack Powell
Richard Arlen               ...         David Armstrong
Jobyna Ralston               ...         Sylvia Lewis
Gary Cooper               ...         Cadet White

Movie only. Removed the 36 minute WINGS: GRANDEUR IN THE SKY docu and the DD 2.0 organ score.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018578/
RETAIL DVD: http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Clara-Bow/dp/B0067MLCD4/

FILM REVIEW: http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=1846
FILM REVIEW: http://www.classicfilmguide.com/index8dcf.html
WINGS AND THE ACADEMY AWARDS: http://nighthawknews.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/the-history-of-the-academy-awards-best-picture-1927-1928/