Jackson Booth-Millard The Academy Awards have been a celebrated annual ceremony since 1929, and I have always been fascinated to watch as many of the winning movies as possible, I was especially excited to watch this, the first film in history to win the Oscar for Best Picture, directed by William A. Wellman (The Public Enemy, A Star I Born, The Ox-Bow Incident). Basically set in the year 1917, in a small American town, Jack Powell (Charles 'Buddy' Rogers), an auto mechanic, and David Armstrong (Richard Arlen), who comes from a wealthy family, are rivals, both are in love with the same woman, Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston). Sylvia's heart belongs to David, but she plays along with Jack's infatuations, Jack fails to realise that "girl next door" Mary Preston (Clara Bow) is desperately in love with him. It is First World War, the two young men both enlist to become combat pilots in the Air Service and are billeted together, they make a brief acquaintance with tent mate Cadet White (Gary Cooper), before he is killed the same day in an air crash. Undaunted, Jack and David endure a rigorous training period, they turn from enemies into best friends, and following graduation they are shipped off to France to fight the Germans. Mary joins the war effort, becoming an ambulance driver, she learns Jack has gained the reputation as an ace called "The Shooting Star", she encounters him while on leave in Paris, but he is too drunk to recognise her. Mary puts Jack to bed, two military police barge in as she is innocently changing, she is forced to resign and return to the United States. During the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel, David is shot down and presumed dead, however he survives the crash landing, he steals a German biplane, and heads for the Allied lines. Jack spots David aircraft, in a tragic stroke of bad luck, he thinks it is an enemy aircraft, he wants for David's "death" and attacks, he successfully downs the craft. Jack only realises what he has done when wants to retrieve a souvenir of his "victory", Jack holds David in his arm, kissing him, David consoles his friend before dying, forgiving his comrade. The war ends, Jack returns home to a hero's welcome, he visits David's grieving parents to return his friend's effects, he begs forgiveness for causing David's death, David's Mother (Julia Swayne Gordon) blames the war for taking her son's life, not Jack, he is then reunited with Mary and realises he loves her. Also starring El Brendel as Herman Schwimpf, Richard Tucker as Air Commander, Gunboat Smith as The Sergeant, Henry B. Walthall as David's Father, Roscoe Karns as Lt. Cameron and Arlette Marchal as Celeste. The film certainly delivers the message of how war can devastate lives, the most memorable sequences are of course the mid- air battles, the rest of the film is mostly slow, and the love triangle storyline is sentimental and clichéd, but overall it is a fairly good silent war drama. It won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Effects, Engineering Effects. Worth watching!

jrich-37411 Wings (1927) is an excellent movie. It starts off in a small town during World War I. Two young men of different social classes are in love with the same girl. David and Jack are both in love with Sylvia. Sylvia loves David, however feels bad and does not want to tell Jack the truth. Mary, Jacks neighbor, loves Jack, but he only sees her as a friend. Both men head off to war to become fighter pilots. They start off as enemies due to their common interests in a particular woman, however they find it hard to stay rivals. Eventually they become close friends and work together as fighter pilots. Although this is a silent film the turn in events throughout the movie keep you on your feet. I would highly recommend this film.

Adventure_Claire7 This was definitely a great film. Not something I would necessarily pick out for myself, but definitely good. One thing that I did not like about this movie was how long the plane scenes were. I will say that they were really well done and they impressed me; I felt like they were a bit long. Besides that, everything was very well done. All of the actors did a very good job portraying the characters. They were all believable and anyone could relate to them. The love story that was one of the main ideas for this movie was very well played as well. The fact that both the rich guy and poor guy were both in love with the beautiful girl, but the poor guy ends up realizing that the girl he knew was actually the girl he loved. This shows excellent character development. This movie was also very long, especially for its time considering most movies were around an hour and a half long. Overall, this movie was put together very nicely and I would definitely recommend it to someone who loves war movies.

gavin6942 Two young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the same woman (Clara Bow), become fighter pilots in World War I.This film has some crazy pilot training exercises. And, for all I know, they might have been completely accurate. Gyroscopes of World War I? One can only imagine how rudimentary the airmen could be prepared for flight.I think this was the first-ever Oscar winner for Best Picture (though it was called Outstanding Picture or something similar). I can see why. For a 1920s film, it is rather advanced. Did the original have airplane noises and gunfire? I am not so sure. But even without it, that is pretty great.