Starting #54- “Best Picture” Oscar winners- "Wings" (1927)

 Last night I began on goal #54 (see every movie that's won a “Best Picture” Oscar, rewatch ones I've already seen 0/85) with the movie Wings. I got the movie all ready to go on my computer and got ready to press play.

I was super excited- I've always wanted to see more old movies and this was the perfect opportunity to do that while beginning on a Day Zero goal!

I was unstoppable, an Oscar-winning-movie-watching Day-Zero-goal-achieving HERO.

I started the movie and settled back to watch.  I had tried to convince my husband to watch with me and was surprised by his reaction:

   Me: I'm going to begin on my day zero goal to watch all the best picture winners tonight with the movie "Wings." It's a war movie, you'd probably like it.
  Him: I think my mom made me watch that. Isn't it in black and white and several hours long?
  Me: What? No. I mean... the poster is in full color. They wouldn't do that if the movie was black and white... right?

Wrong.

Ok, I thought, so it's in black and white.  That's fine, black and white movies have a certain romantic quality, and I'd wanted to see more of those anyway!

A couple minutes more into the movie the characters starting talking but I couldn't hear the audio.  I started fiddling with my sound settings, trying to make the voices come out.

Then I realized that it was a silent film as well.

 

Um ok... ok, that's fine.  After all, I'd wanted to see more silent films too! I even have that listed as goal #56! 

About a half hour in, the ever-present pipe organ music started grating on me and I turned the sound to half.  But the movie was kinda cute so far- a couple cutesy romantic scenes had caught my interest already, and a love triangle was forming. Jack and Dave were in love with Sylvia but Sylvia loved Dave.  Meanwhile Mary is in love with Jack and Jack has no idea!

Then the war part set in.  Both young men decided to become fighter pilots for WWI and the next 45 minutes was all pilot training, flying, and shooting things with very little actual plot progression.

Now, I'm not opposed to war movies.  And I'm sure this movie had a lot of resonance for people who were watching it only ten years after experiencing WWI.

But dear God, if I had to watch another hour of fighter planes swooping around in the sky and shooting at one another, I might actually chuck the computer out the window.

I looked at the time left on the movie.  Relief! There was only 15 more minutes left!  I finished the 15 minutes and thought that it was weird that the movie had cut off and ended without any resolution and right in the middle of a scene.

Then I realized... that was Part 1.

 

I took heart- Part 2 couldn't be that long, right? I mean how many more shots of fighter pilots shooting at enemy planes with bad pipe organ music playing in the background could they possibly have afforded in 1927?

Turns out, lots.  

Maybe I should have watched the trailer before starting on this goal so that I would have known what I was in for:

"Whopping air spectacle," indeed.

I started Part 2.  And five minutes in...

I was out cold.

So this morning when I woke up, I vowed I would finish the damn movie if it killed me.

And I did.  I made it through. Despite the cheesy "oh gee golly mister!" moments,  awkward mother-son and bromance kissing scenes, I made it through. 

And I have to say, I was impressed by the amount of feeling these actors were able to portray without speech.  I even shed a tear when one of them died.

I'm proud of myself for enduring and finishing "Wings." But here's hoping that the next one isn't a two and a half hour long... black and white.... silent.... WAR MOVIE!


Other goals in progress:
51. Make a list of 101 things that make me happy (7/101)
63. Make a playlist of my 101 favorite songs (83/101)
74. Hug at least one person every day for a month (4/31)
94. Keep a “my day in 6 words” blog every day for a month (4/31)