A few words about...™ Wings -- in Blu-ray

Wings, the Academy Award winning Outstanding Picture for 1927, hasn't looked really good in decades.  I've actually never seen a quality print.

After bringing together and examine the extant elements in a cooperative venture, it was decided that a duplicate negative was the best starting point.  Enter digital technology, and a great many dedicated souls, who have brought the film, literally, back to life.

Viewing Wings today, more than a couple of decades after its release, those who go in with in open mind, will find that the William Wellman film will hold its own against anything from 2011.

Just without spoken dialogue.

From an element that wore its years as a badge of courage, scratches, cinch marks, detritus and damage have been removed, and from the labors of all involved has emerged a phoenix.

For most viewers, a film about The Great War, aka, WWI, will bring to mind productions such as Sergeant York, Paths of Glory and The Dawn Patrol.

Go back a bit further however, and you'll find the wonders of The Big Parade (please, WB), All Quiet on the Western Front (coming from Universal, Hell's Angels, Renoir's Grand Illusion and the cause for this discussion Paramount's Wings.

This Wings, as restored by Paramount and The Academy Film Archive, with sound effects from Academy Award winner Ben Burtt (Star Ward, E.T., Indiana Jones) in a true work of love, and with technical functions via Technicolor, has created an amazing image.  As there is no easily attainable reference, precisely what the original looked like, and how far that image may have changed because of the necessity to eliminate scratches, is not an easy question.  Grain may have been removed, image softened, grain replaced.  There are many ways around the problem.  But regardless, as much of this is critical care, the resultant image is pleasing to the eye, and if not a clone of the original, a very viable representation.  Scratches are the work of the devil.  For future silent restorative efforts, many will not be lucky enough to begin with even the most ragged of Wings elements.  Some may begin at a higher level.  M-G-M's The Big Parade, based upon the original camera negative would be the perfect silent to come next.

The bottom line is that as the first restoration to hit Blu-ray in 2012, Wings is the one to beat, at least for the era of the late 1920s.

The archival hat is off to Paramount's Wings on Blu-ray, and it could not be held higher.

This is one of the greatest films of all time, and it demands to be seen.

Want to know precisely what is "the stuff that dreams are made of?"  This is it.

No serious collection will be complete without a copy.

Very Highly Recommended.

Neglected to mention, I love what they've done with the Paramount Logo.

RAH

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Lachmann 

They re-created this film from several sources, some so damaged that not even the perfs remained. 

Perfs?

We don't need no stinking perfs...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian McHale 

Note that RAH stated "...more than a couple of decades after its release...", not "...a couple of decades after its release..."
His statement is accurate. The film is more than a couple of decades old. I believe he was making a purposeful understatement.

Thank you.

I've always found the passage of time, and resultant technological changes along the way, of great interest, especially when viewed from a certain perspective.

That perspective, for a film such as Wings might best be viewed by placing the film at a mid-point in time.

The film was produced 85 years ago.

Go back 85 years from Wings, and one finds themselves in 1842.

Our nation was 66 years old.  

John Tyler, our 10th President, was in the White House.

Lincoln was 33 years old.

Andrew Jackson and James Monroe were still alive.

The Union had 26 states.

There was little need to "Remember The Alamo" as it had only occurred six years previous, and as very recent history was still on people's minds.

And very few people had an iPhone or iPad.

RAH

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Newcomb 

And he was using it to kill vampires...

Yes, there's an app for that!

But be aware, that this image is a fake.

History has it that Lincoln did not make a move toward facial hair until 1860, and this is a later incarnation of that growth.

What does this prove?

That while there may have been an iPhone in 1860-61, it is doubtful that even this early model (not a 4 or 4s) would have been around

in 1842.

RAH

Now this is turning into an interesting thread.

There's something to be said for the quality of humor (humour for Mr. Hodson) on HTF.

RAH

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSLasher 

What else can I say except that I hope the Blu-ray of Wings is a best-seller for Paramount. Not only that, but the fact that this is a serious attempt by a major studio to preserve those silent films worthy of restoration. Another point I wish to make regards their noteworthy decision to re-record the original music score by John Stephan Zamecnik, rather using some feeble excuse to commission a non-original score by some contemporary composer (ie. Carl Davis). It would, for example, have been nice to have heard Gance's Napoleon with the original/compiled Honegger score. Ditto, other silent films screened by BFI.

There WAS NO original Honegger score for Napoleon.  Honegger wrote was about 25 minutes of material, which was then used interspersed with classics.

His various motifs survive.

That's it.

I've a feeling that you're going to be swimming upstream referring to Mr. Davis' score as "feeble."

His score is brilliant.

The scores by Mr. Davis and Mr. Coppola both work beautifully with the film, and in differing ways.

If you are the John Lasher who has been working with the Kinopanorama gear, my hat is off to you, but in this case...

RAH

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulMSchneider 

I have a question for Wings film buffs ...
I had always heard that with the original presentation of this movie (in Hollywood presumably) , they tried a very early quasi-Cinerama process for the battle scenes at the end of the first part, and then again in the second part. Three angles of film projected side-by-side for a widescreen feel.
This is how I heard it worked: when the big dogfight in the sky occurs, right before intermission (did they put an intermission on this release?), the curtains in the theatre were pulled back wide to reveal the right/left screens projected simultaneously (like Cinerama), making the image widescreen. At the end of the first part, the curtains closed again. When the second part started (after intermission), the screen had reverted back to standard 35mm (1.37:1 ratio). Then at some point in the second half, it widened again to the "widescreen" battles.
Does anyone have any more/better info on this? Was any attempt made to locate the right/left footage used in the widescreen dogfights?
Thanks in advance for any input or clarifications.

I believe you may be referring to the Magnascope process, used in a number of early productions, and later, among others, in Selznick's Portrait of Jennie for the storm sequence.

Occurring at a changeover, curtains would open, and image size would expand via a shorter focal length projection lens.

RAH

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveF 

(sigh) I was hoping Mr. Harris was commenting on a favorite '90s sitcom I enjoyed during college.

 

Wings

 

You should know better.