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For the unrelated, but same-named TV Show, see here. For Paul McCartney's 1970s solo band, see here.
Wings is a 1927 film that tells a love story between two pilots and two girls. Their lives are disrupted by World War One. Notable for its realistic air battles, filmed without miniatures or rear projection (the latter hadn't been invented yet).
It's also notable for the fact that it won the very first Oscar for Best Picture. Note that there were two categories for Best Picture in the first year. The one that's officially counted today is "Best Production," which was won by this film. The other one, "Unique and Artistic Production", was won by Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, a film that is far better remembered today.
For several decades, it was also the only silent film to have won Best Picture, as the first ceremony coincided with the rise of "talkies."[1] The only other one--The Artist--won Best Picture a whopping 84 years later.
The film features the following tropes:
- Ace Pilot
- The Alleged Car
- Catchphrase Spouting Duo: "All set?" "OK!"
- Defeat Means Friendship: All it takes is one hardcore boxing match for Jack and David to become best friends.
- The Lady's Favour: Sylvia's portrait.
- Logo Joke: The 2012 version with added sound effects and overture begins with different Paramount logos appearing in backwards chronological order.
- Love Triangle: David loves Sylvia. Sylvia loves David. Jack loves Sylvia. Sylvia accidentally encourages Jack. Mary loves Jack. Jack ignores Mary. Jack and David have a very strong friendship.
- Memento MacGuffin: Both Sylvia's portrait and David's medal.
- Ms. Fanservice: That's Clara Bow, people.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Averted It's more "shoot the hypotenuse dead in the fog of war by complete accident and suffer Heroic BSOD". Jack shoots down David, who had just stolen a German biplane. When Jack realizes it, he's far from happy.
- Mushroom Samba: Champagne is a hell of a drug.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Count von Kellermann is definitely not Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron).
- One-Scene Wonder/ Hey, It's That Guy!: Gary Cooper started a long film career in his cameo as a Cadet White.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Herman Schwimpf.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: The air battles were mostly filmed on cloudy days to give them a sense of perspective, because otherwise the real planes looked like models.
- Red Baron: Jack is known as the Shooting Star.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment
- War Is Glorious / War Is Hell: Mostly the former, since air combat was one of the only glorifiable parts of World War One, but the trench scenes emphasize the latter.
- World War One
- ↑ The first talkie, The Jazz Singer, was rendered ineligible despite coming out during the same period just so this film could win.