theseekerhp

If the battle sequences weren't so well-done, this first Oscar-winner wouldn't deserve 8 stars nor the Oscar, but the flying sequences are dazzling; even more so when you consider the state of the art at the time. But the rest of the story is mostly melodramatic nonsense that was old-hat in 1927. And there are plenty of continuity errors. By 1927 Hollywood pretty much had continuity and cinematography figured out and was making very artful films, so it's surprising that a big-budget epic like this had these issues. Although the cinematography is pretty great in the action scenes, especially considering that a lot of the action was filmed by pilots busy flying planes, there are some odd photographic choices made when our boys aren't in battle.

That said, the horror of war is depicted as not pure glory. When someone dies onscreen, the actors are allowed to portray their dying characters' agony rather than just clutch their chests and keel over. This is true whether it's the death of an Allied/American character, or the death of a Central/German character. You don't want to stand up and cheer when the enemy is killed; you are allowed to recognize that a human being has been mutilated, and think about how that feels, regardless of the character's allegiance.

Paramount released a fully restored DVD of Wings in 2012, 12 years and a few months before I watched the version that Tubi had in 2024. Tubi's soundtrack was basically the same jaunty piano tune throughout the movie, regardless of whether it was an exciting scene, a merry scene, a tense scene, or a sad scene. Paramount's restored version from 12 years ago included a newly recorded version of the original score. Although this is basically a silent picture, in 1927 it was released *partially* silent... it included an orchestral score, even though no dialogue was recorded (The Jazz Singer, considered to be the first "talkie" and released the same year, had a musical score that included Jolson's singing, but was only part-talkie... only some of the dialogue was recorded). Only the picture has survived the century since Wings was originally released, so we can't hear the original recording of the film score, but if you can find a version with a true score, whether the original score or not, but not just the same couple of songs repeated ad nauseum, you might add another half-star to my rating.

Some documentaries seem to show off, the producers trying to show the world how they have such great new ideas about how documentaries can be made. For me, this detracts from the story; since they're trying to tell me something about real life, when the filmmakers do a bunch of things that distract your attention from the story or the facts, it feels like instead of showing me something, it feels like they're just trying to convince me of a certain point of view. The Queen of Basketball sticks to the facts.

But it tells a story that draws you in: The story of Lucia "Lucy" Harris, whose skill at basketball helped bring attention to Women's basketball before the NCAA was interested, and before there was a WNBA.

Despite Lucy's current habit of twisting her tongue in strange ways during pauses between or at the end of sentences (maybe she has ill-fitting dentures?), I found her to be charming and and not-at-all impressed with her past accomplishments on the basketball court. Very proud of it, but not impressed. It's not false modesty. She played because she loved playing, not because she wanted adulation.

No, the producers aren't worried about impressing with their filmmaking techniques. They trust their audience, and let the record speak for itself.

The Dress is a short film in which Julka, a hotel maid with dwarfism, longs for romance, or at least a sexual experience. Julka has dealt with cruelty from strangers, and can be a little defensive about her size, but is capable of friendliness and soon attracts the interest of a truck-driving hotel guest. Things don't go as well as we hoped (actually, pretty awfully), and it would be interesting to know how this affects Julka, but unfortunately the filmmakers already used up the entire running time of the film with things that aren't very interesting.