Aeroplane Flight and Wreck (Piloted by M. Cody)

It's really hard to rate many of the early films, as they were mostly very short films featuring practically no story. By 1910, when this film was made, this had changed a bit--though the bulk of films still were only a few minutes long. Sure, there were some exceptions such as Georges Méliès' feature-length "Voyage dans le Lune" (1902) which was 14 minutes long and "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) which was 12 minutes long. But the bulk of the films people went to see were a lot like the 4 minute long "Aeroplane Flight and Wreck". Essentially, most films still hadn't changed that much since the early Lumière Brothers films other than they'd gotten a bit longer (from 90 seconds to 240 seconds) and the camera was no longer stationary during the entire film.

Here in this film, something occurs that the Lumières could not have done--the camera follows (as best it can) a plane taking off and soon crashing. Audiences of the day must have been astounded to watch an early airplane (apparently a Curtis biplane) spectacularly crash--especially because in 1910 few people had still actually seen an airplane. By today's standards, the crash is a major anti-climax, as the plane is only going perhaps 20 miles and hour when it thuds unexpectedly to the earth from a height of perhaps 10 or 20 feet! I would assume the crash was not planned and just occurred by chance. Considering the pilot looked okay afterwords, it seems this was actually a very good thing--giving the audiences a thrill.

While most modern audiences probably won't be particularly amazed by the film, it is great for film buffs and people who would like to see perhaps the earliest footage of a plane in flight (the 1903 Wright Brothers flight was only captures by a camera--not a moving picture camera and very few additional flights actually occurred between 1903 and 1910).

Most of the films that have survived from the earliest years of cinema are interesting in some respect, but this one particularly so, in that it gives you a look at two fields in their formative years. The still-recent invention of the movie camera is used to show a representative example of pioneering efforts in aviation.

The camera begins to follow the plane from the time when it leaves the hangar, and sticks with it as best as possible through its flight. At times, the plane moves too quickly for the camera to catch everything, but in general it is a creditable job for a time when that kind of photography was not so common.

The airplane itself is quite interesting, since it is the kind of eccentric-looking contraption that was common in the early years of powered flight. This short film also does a decent job of capturing the mood of those who were involved with the flight, as they hope that their hard work will prove worthwhile.

All in all, this is a pretty interesting little feature.