If Casablanca has more iconic lines than any other movie of Hollywood’s Golden Age, then Wings is its equal in terms of iconic camera shots for the silent era — and that’s just counting the ones that take place on the ground. There’s the often-imitated “swing shot” featuring Richard Arlen’s Dave and his lover Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston) prior to getting accosted by Jack (Buddy Rogers). As our protagonist, Jack thinks that he and Dave are competing for Sylvia’s affection. But it turns out that she just feels bad for him.

The other equally-iconic shot is the one at the cafe in Paris as the camera literally splits a column of couples in half as they sit at these tables facing one another. For a silent film, director William A. Wellman’s adroit camerawork, with the help of DP Harry Perry, brought a sense of space to a medium that was just learning what that could mean. Wings was a big informant of that, ultimately getting awarded the first-ever Best Picture at the 1929 Oscars.

Released in 1927, Wellman’s seminal picture became the benchmark for how aviation could and should be filmed on screen. Eager to prove himself after getting tossed around the low-budget movie pool during the start of his career, the director worked tirelessly for seven months perfecting the ample in-air sequences. And the end result is magnificent, with some dozen scenes that involve aerial events, and to great success. Unlike films even decades later, which use a lot of cutting to create the effect of motion and excitement, Wings lets you see large chunks of the action, only cutting when necessary.

While the ‘20s proved to be an important decade for aviation with the rise of domestic airlines and the increased usage of planes for things such as postal travel, we still had a long way to go. Most audiences hadn’t seen aerial stunts like this in their lives, let alone knew they were possible. 1927 also happened to be the same year that Lindbergh completed the first-ever solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. Wings came about at the perfect time.

That year, Clara Bow was featured in six different films for Paramount (which was nothing compared to her cool 15 in 1925), and you could guess as much. Here, she stars as the love interest, or pursuer of Jack, an ace pilot who becomes a war hero famous for his aerial exploits. Yet, despite serving as the face of the film and being one-half of the melodramatic story, she’s in very few scenes compared to her costars.

And still, she’s what we remember most from the film, largely because of the actress’ on-screen presence and her sheer ability to captivate the camera. For a silent movie that tries and fails to overcome the lack of personality of its action sequences, Bow provides us with a much-needed break whenever she shows up. Sadly, she’s underutilized.

Of course, a few years after Wings, the war film was instantly improved upon, if not perfected, by Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930. But Wings was a crucial stepping stone in showing the mechanics of the battlefield without making them feel mechanical. Although, at times, Wellman’s picture doesn’t always know how to balance those mechanics with the human element, but not for a lack of trying.

So was the nature of silent cinema. Few were able to capture the sort of pathos of Chaplin or Leni during that era. Likewise, the director can’t quite distill the film’s levity into context like the German filmmakers were doing so well at the time (including Leni, but also Lang and Murnau — Chaplin’s movies were more straight comedies). Wellman would have more luck in the age of sound with austere hits like The Ox-Bow Incident, The Public Enemy, and The Story of G.I. Joe.

One could draw an interesting parallel between Wings and Casablanca in 1942, despite being set during two different World Wars. If Wings inadvertently managed to balance the gory side of war with the glamorous, Casablanca improved upon the filmic conventions of battle by not showing it; a war film without the war, but still with all of the effects of it on life.

Wings would win Best Picture in 1929 because it was a masterpiece in accomplishment unlike anything we’d ever seen before. Its influence sustained for decades; you can even see glimmers in 1985’s Top Gun and the like. Was it the best movie of 1927? No. My vote goes to Metropolis for that. However, Metropolis, a German film, doesn’t feel like Hollywood. In fact, it’s almost anti-Hollywood in route, when you look at its themes.

There are so many scenes that go by without verbal communication that it’s easy to forget that Wings is silent to begin with. Wings wasn’t just confirmation of how silents were still valued products in the face of the shiny new talkies — a staggering display of how movies can be effective without talking — but a preview of where Hollywood was heading in terms of technical capabilities. And with a whirlwind of global change teeing off just over the horizon, it gave the country the hope it needed to push through.

Twizard Rating: 80