As a pseudo-literary youth who loves movies, if you say that you have never even heard of "Iron Wings" (also known as "Wings"), then the so-called "love" is probably going to be greatly discounted. Indeed, this is like a psychology major who doesn't know "Interpretation of Dreams"; a biology major who doesn't know "On the Origin of Species", which will only make people laugh. But it is such a classic that has been ignored by me again and again, and has been occupied by those junk movies for a lot of time. (Eh...it's a waste of life) So on this coincidental afternoon, well, it was actually a boring afternoon. I clicked on this classic 80 years ago and started my first Oscar trip.
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There is no doubt that The Wings is destined to be a film that will be remembered in history for the Oscars, and its first best picture Oscar has a halo even larger than the film itself. Of course, some movies, like this one, are destined to be remembered because of the Oscars, and some movies, like Titanic, are destined to be brilliant because of the Oscars. But as far as Wings is concerned, its series of innovations should also give it a place in film history.
The plot angle First of all, in terms of the plot, the story of this film is not very good, it can even be said to be mediocre, because the design of this plot can probably be completed by an undergraduate student studying screenwriting (this should be envied by the current screenwriting majors). Hate it, such a script can actually win an Oscar). And the core plot of this play is a dog-blooded four-cornered love. The male No. 2 Gao Shuai Fu and the female No. 2 Bai Fumei are in love with each other, while the male No. 1 poor dick Si admires the female No. 2 and thinks that the female No. 2 also likes him. , but didn't know that the girl next door was the one who really had a crush on him. Of course, after the baptism of the war, the male No. 1 realized the true meaning of love and lived happily with the female No. 1... As for the goddess and the female No. 2, she cried blood because the male No. 2 died in battle. Finally, by the way, the second male was mistakenly killed by the first male. Well, this is the basic bloodline of the whole play. (Hahaha, do you think I would easily say something like the scene of the female No. 1 dew point in the play!)
At the same time, the character portrayal of this film can also be said to be too single. Because except for the male number one and the female number one, the other characters are basically face-based characters. The core character in the play, the male No. 2 David, is too rigid and single in order to highlight the protagonist, and the existence of the goddess is more a symbol than a character. Of course, as the first Oscar, what makes Iron Wings stand out is not the plot and character design. Of course, this does not deny the film at all. After all, the 1920s were still the first decades of the film's birth, and many elements of the film were being explored at that time. I think the complex character images and character characterizations in the current film should benefit from the development of psychology and its influence and application in film studies. The look and feel of the film is much stronger than when the film was born. The main reason why this film really won the award lies in the application and innovation of technology in its special effects.
From the perspective of special effects , it can be said that the wonderful air combat effect in "Wings" is an epoch-making innovation in film and television. In order to restore the real air combat scene, the director did not hesitate to hire a large number of choreographers from pilots. The aerial combat scene occupies a large amount of space in this film and becomes the biggest buying point of this film. And all the hard work that year has paid off enormously. Because as a commercial film, the biggest purpose of a movie is to entertain the audience, and "Wings" really leaves people speechless on this point. It uses real aerial photography to restore the appearance of air combat to the maximum extent, and thus creates a new experience for the audience. (I think about it now, the 3D innovation of Avatar in the past two years has the same meaning as this film) This is exactly it The reason why the myth of the box office number one for a year was created in the 1920s. And because of this film, Oscar also established its important role in promoting the development of commerce.
It is true that film as a form of artistic expression cannot exist independently of the nourishment of business, just as during the Middle Ages in Europe, a large number of artists were able to meditate on the creation of art because of the support of the church and the nobles. Therefore, business is to art as rain is to saplings. It is precisely because of the support of business that various special effects in movies can be developed and innovated. Therefore, it can be said that from "Wings" to "Avatar", the development of this commercial film It is in the same line. Of course, some people will say that many poor artists have also created amazing works, and they have not received any funding. But this is only a one-sided talk, because the emergence of amazing works is often accompanied by a large number of mediocre works. And these mediocre works are not meaningless, it is precisely because of these mediocre works that bit by bit innovations in art have created amazing works. It can be said that the mediocre works and the world-shattering works are the relationship between quantitative change and qualitative change.
Background angle Of course, my own viewing experience does not lie in the content, characters or special effects of the film itself. Because I'm used to watching contemporary movies, I'm going to review a movie 80 years ago. His so-called plot design, special effects, etc. are very poor today. After all, this is all subject to the limitations of the times and technology. The naivety of this kind of film in the early stage of development is understandable. So I am concerned with the film itself and the historical context in which it is revealed and refracted. The film was filmed and released in the late 1920s, a period in the 20 years between the two world wars. From the movie, it can be seen that ordinary people at that time believed that the war was gone and that a peaceful and beautiful life followed. But the reality is cruel, the Great Depression and World War II followed in the 1930s. But the ordinary people at that time did not have such foresight and consciousness, and the unprecedented war of World War I would make the society at that time think that such a perverted world war would not happen again. (Unfortunately, they were wrong. World War II, which was more perverted than World War I, followed after the Great Depression.)
In fact, from a macro historical perspective, World War I and World War II are inseparable, because the significance of World War I lies only in the disintegration of the old world. There is also a plot in the movie. In the early days of the war, when the second man had his first air battle, the German pilots saw that the machine gun of the second man was malfunctioning, and they carried forward the spirit of chivalry and let go of the second man and the first horse. It is a product of the old world, although before and after the outbreak of the First World War, the European feudal society and its strata produced by chivalry have long been replaced by industrial society. But social traditions often have continuity. (Just as there are still many feudal royal families in Europe today) Many social spiritual products produced during the European feudal society did not completely disintegrate before the First World War. It is a pity that the beauty of these old worlds was shattered in the war. It can be said that the material and spiritual of those old worlds were all destroyed in one battle. The new order, however, could not be established until the end of World War II. It is a pity that when the new order was established, the rulers of the old world still disappeared with the flames of war. And this war that changed the world was not unique to the last century. It was the Peloponnesian War in classical times.
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