What to expect
William A. Wellman’s film remains extraordinary for aerial photography that places bodies and machines inside real motion. Its technical confidence supports a melodrama whose most affecting bond is the friendship tested by combat.
How to ease in
The romantic triangle is broad and sometimes comic before war changes the register. Use the two pilots’ friendship as the spine, and remember that the 144-minute length belongs only to the named BFI programme presentation.
Heads-up
Two young pilots carry rivalry, friendship, and romantic misunderstanding into the aerial violence of the First World War.
The planes make distance look exhilarating until a face appears inside the cockpit. I keep feeling the film alternate between sky as freedom and sky as a place where friendship can become impossible to recognise.
Open the note ↓
The planes make distance look exhilarating until a face appears inside the cockpit. I keep feeling the film alternate between sky as freedom and sky as a place where friendship can become impossible to recognise.
— Momo
Credits & versions
Version map
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