Wings (1927)

Winner: Best Production

Directed by: William A. Wellman

Starring: Charles Rogers, Richard Arlen, and Clara Bow

Plot: Two young from the opposite sides of the tracks come of age as pilots during World War I.

Thoughts: It's easy to see why the Academy chose this as Best Production; because it's one ginormous production. This film begins the Academy's adoration with epics. While tastes would certainly change over time, epics seem to almost certainly wind up in the nominee lists. The popularity of Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight the previous year certainly helped (Lindbergh was the biggest non-Hollywood celebrity at the time).

William Wellman based Wings on his own experiences as a World War I pilot. He had fought in the war and flew as a barnstormer (local daredevil pilot) before moving on to the world of motion pictures.

The massive scale of warfare is captured incredibly well given the technology at the time. Wartime footage is combined with model shots and studio footage almost seamlessly. The $2 million budget ($23.7 million in 2007 dollars) for a production of this size would be impossible today. While the story is as old as time itself, it's one that's put together fairly well here. However, some of the romantic subplot I felt detracted from the film and helped make it a bit long. That said, there's a ton of great stuff here.

So far, Wings has only been released on VHS and laserdisc. The various DVDs you see on eBay have been mastered from the laserdisc, so caveat emptor. Paramount is allegedly in the process of restoring the film for some kind of release, be it DVD or Blu-Ray.

Although Wings took home Best Production (it is often, erroneously, called the only silent film to win Best Picture; see Sunrise), it was only nominated for one other category, that being Best Engineering Effects for Roy Pomeroy's amazing work with models and animation effects.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Winner: Best Unique and Artistic Presentation

Directed by: F.W. Murnau

Starring: George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor

Plot: A philandering husband rediscovers his love for his wife.

Thoughts: I have a distinct feeling that the Academy pretty much made this award so Sunrise could win it. The film certainly embodied the phrase "artistic presentation" and was rather unique in American cinema at the time.

F.W. Murnau had produced a number of films in Germany before William Fox brought him to America after being impressed with The Man Who Laughs (one of the original inspirations for the Joker of recent Dark Knight fame. Fox wanted a decidedly different film than what audiences were used to at the time. Well, he got what he wanted and then some.

Almost every shot in Sunrise was a deliberate crafting of symbolism and emotion. Forced perspectives on the sets and effective use of lighting set the tone of each scene quite well. This style was quite evocative of what has become known as the German Expressionist movement in film. The aforementioned symbolism and use of sets in a deliberate fashion (sometimes called mise en scene to add additional depth to a story became the preferred style in German films after World War I when monetary issues forced many a filmmaker to be more creative.

Runners-up Chang and The Crowd were both well made and works of art in their own right but the Best Unique and Artistic Presentation award rightfully went to Sunrise. As mentioned in other entries, this award was folded into the Best Motion Picture category for the second Academy Awards. Janet Gaynor took home Best Actress (which also reflected her work on Seventh Heaven). Also won was the Best Cinematography award by Charles Strosser and Karl Struss. Although nominated for Interior Decoration (eventually to become Best Art Direction) for Rochus Gliese's artsy sets, it and Seventh Heaven lost to William Cameron's work on The Dove and Tempest.

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927)

Directed by: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

Starring: Kru, Chantui, Nah, Ladah, and Bimbo the Gibbon

Plot: A Siamese family struggles to survive against the wildlife of the jungle.

Thoughts: When I first watched the film, my admittedly liberal sensibilities immediately came to the fore. My initial reaction was this was an exercise in exploitation; one of those "Look how different these people are - not civilized like us" types of films that littered news reels and short films in the 1930s and 1940s. After a bit of research and a second viewing, I began to appreciate the film much much more.

You might recognize the names Cooper and Schoedsack from a little film they put together for RKO Pictures in 1933 called King Kong. The pair got their start making what were called "travel films" back in the day. "Travel films" were pretty much the Discovery Channel/Animal Planet of their time, providing a taste of exotic locales or different cultures. Before Chang, the directors put together a film called Grass, which was about nomadic farmers in Iran (then called Persia).

According to the commentary and the publicity material included in the DVD, filming Chang was grueling and often dangerous. Many of the scenes were filmed using actual wild animals, often caged and then set free to be filmed with rifles at the ready. Although the story was rather simplistic, the technical achievement was nothing short of astounding. Add in some clever editing and you have a final product that definitely would have wowed audiences and critics alike back in 1927.

Chang was only nominated for Best Artistic Quality of Production (which would be folded along with the Best Production category into the Best Motion Picture category for the next ceremony) that year. It and King Vidor's The Crowd (which will be covered Friday) both lost out to F.W. Murnau's Sunrise.

Seventh Heaven (1927)

Directed by: Frank Borzage

Starring: Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell

Plot: Based on the 1922 play by Austin Strong, a French sewer cleaner saves a street urchin from her cruel sister. Over time, he falls in love with her and it's their love for each other that sees them through the horror of the first World War.

Thoughts: This was the first silent film I had ever seen that was any longer then 20 minutes and it was a good one. The characters were interesting and there wasn't too much of the overwrought physical acting normally found in silent films. Frank Borzage's use of multiple camera techniques and subtle symbolism enhanced Benjamin Glazer's screenplay, making it easy to see why it was hailed as a cinematic masterpiece at the time. I haven't been able to find much about the play the film was based on, so I couldn't verify if it was an accurate adaptation or not.

While the story centered mainly on the romance between Chico and Diane, there were several bits of humor as well as a few scenes of intensity (though relatively tame compared to the stuff of today). The still gallery and the screenplay on the DVD hint at a number of additional scenes that may have been filmed. Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon for a theater owner to cut a film in order to have more showings per day or excise material deemed unsuitable. Because of this, it's very difficult to verify on some films if a copy is complete or not.

Before last month, Seventh Heaven was rarely shown outside of scholarly circles. Fox brought the film to DVD as part of the Murnau, Borzage, and Fox collection on December 9, 2008. The film was remade 10 years later starring Jimmy Stewart as Chico, but good luck finding a copy of that.

While Seventh Heaven didn't take home Best Picture that night, it did help earn Janet Gaynor the first Best Actress award as well as Best Director, Dramatic Picture for Frank Borzage and Best Writing, Adaptation for Benjamin Glazer. Although nominated for Interior Decoration (the category that became Best Art Direction) for Harry Oliver's terrific set designs, that award went to William Cameron Menzies for The Dove and Tempest.