A landmark silent war-romance with astonishing aerial spectacle, real emotional stakes, and a surprisingly modern sense of kinetic action. Its melodrama is broad, but the flying sequences and the friendship-betrayal triangle still land with force.
Wings
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Action
Fri · 2h 24m
Director: William A. Wellman
Starring: Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen
Overview
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.
Director
William A. Wellman
Cast
Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen
Curator Review
Verdict
A landmark silent war-romance with astonishing aerial spectacle, real emotional stakes, and a surprisingly modern sense of kinetic action. Its melodrama is broad, but the flying sequences and the friendship-betrayal triangle still land with force.
Best for
silent-era cinema fans
war film enthusiasts
viewers interested in early action spectacle
fans of romance-melodrama with tragic edges
people curious about film history and Best Picture winners
Skip if
you dislike silent films
you want fast, contemporary pacing
you prefer dialogue-driven character drama
you are not interested in early aviation or World War I settings
Overview
Wings is one of those foundational movies that still feels alive because it understands movement, scale, and emotion. The plot is melodramatic in the old Hollywood way, but the film earns it with genuine visual invention and a real sense of danger in the air and on the ground. For a 1927 film, the flying scenes are astonishingly immersive and still carry suspense.
Worth noting
What makes it endure beyond its historical importance is the mix of spectacle and feeling. The friendship between the two men gives the war material a human core, while the romantic triangle adds a bittersweet, almost cruel tension. It can be broad and sentimental, but that’s part of its appeal: the movie is committed to big emotions and big images.
Bottom line
If you’re open to silent cinema, this is an essential watch rather than a museum piece. It’s a movie about courage, vanity, desire, and loss, but also about how cinema itself can turn machinery and combat into something thrillingly expressive.
Top Letterboxd reviews
David Sims (4★) · 923 likes
clara bow hot
eely (3.5★) · 721 likes
gary cooper the two minutes he’s in this movie: “i’m here to look hot and to be unforgettable and to make you all look bad in comparison. goodbye.”
san (4★) · 531 likes
did wonders for the bromance genre and aviation cinematography, i’m sure.
lee (3.5★) · 495 likes
this got really gay really fast thank god
Tooley I Am King (4.5★) · 389 likes
Homoerotic wars epics are the best kinds of war epics.
1932 · Drama, Romance, War · 1h 29m · NR · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Philo, MGM Plus, Pure Flix, FlixFling, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Combines war, romance, and tragedy in a classic early sound-era melodrama.