Review of Wings (1927)

The battle scenes in this silent film about a love triangle between two World War One airmen and an army nurse are a clear highlight of the first Best Picture winner. They are gory, thrilling, blessed by the lack of sound (it allowed Wellman to attach cameras to the wings of the planes as they performed their aeronautical manuevers) and often spectacular.

The rest of this film is a bit of an uneven melodramatic mishmash about love during wartime. Too much effort is spent on overly descriptive title cards and the Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen (the two leads) have limited screen presence.