Review of The Wings of Eagles (1957) by Grant S — 25 Dec 2014
Historically inaccurate, cliched, and quite silly at times.
The movie starts in an almost farcical way, showing the hero as a loveable larrikin and defier of authority. It gets worse from there (and I didn't think that was possible at the time), as the next few scenes mainly involve silly punch-ups. At this point the movie looked like it was meant to be a slapstick comedy, and a very bad one at that.
From a point, however, it loses the silliness and becomes a drama. Some scenes are quite emotional and engaging but many feel trite and cliched.
The WW2 stuff contains a host of historical inaccuracies. Things occur in the wrong chronological order and this part just seems very sloppily done. This is all despite the producers having some great WW2 footage at their disposal, and the help of the US Navy.
I mainly watched this because it starred John Wayne. He does fine in the lead role, but is miscast. He is far too old for the character he is playing.
Considering this movie was made long after WW2 had ended, so isn't a propaganda movie, and considering how little known Commander Wead is in terms of military history, I'm not really sure why this movie was made.
This review of The Wings of Eagles (1957) was written by Grant S on 25 Dec 2014.
The Wings of Eagles has generally received positive reviews.
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