Released in 1927, the elegant silent classic Wings is famed for being the first ever winner of an Oscar for Best Motion Picture.  It deserves that award and more.  Set during World War I, Wings blends great acting with incredible stunts and mesmerizing aerial cinematography to weave a complex and riveting tale of romance, male friendship, heroism, tragedy, and loss of innocence in the slaughterhouses of war.

Middle class boy Jack Powell (Buddy Rogers) and rich boy David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) are rivals for the attentions of high society beauty Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston), while the less showy but more spirited Mary Preston’s (Clara Bow) secret love for Jack goes unnoticed. 

Everyone’s lives change with the outbreak of the war. Jack has always dreamed of flying and enlists with David in the newly formed Army Air Service. Tensions between the two boys run high as they train together, but along the way, their rivalry turns into a powerful friendship. Unbeknownst to either boy, spunky Mary also enlists as an ambulance driver on the battlefield where she displays her own brand of courage.

Jack and David become decorated flying aces.  Then, in the midst of an intense air battle, David is shot down. Presuming his friend to be dead, Jack swears vengeance.  Drunken with grief and battle-rage, he recklessly flies across enemy lines and slaughters German soldiers, unaware that David survived.  In a daring one-man assault on a German airbase, David successfully escapes his German hunters, but tragedy strikes as he breaks for freedom and crosses paths with Jack.

Containing some of the greatest battle scenes in film history, including dogfights featuring daredevil stunts performed by the US Army Air Corps, Wings flies high as one of the unsung masterpieces of American cinema.  A more beautiful portrait of youth and great-heartedness in war and its wake you’d be hard-pressed to find.  Gary Cooper makes a cameo appearance where he displays the screen presence that made him a star when the era of talkies dawned.  Clara Bow’s sparkling performance as Mary is a divergence from her usual roles but an absolute must-see.