Wings of Courage (1995)

Director:

Jean-Jacques Annaud

Writers:

Alain Godard (written by) and
Jean-Jacques Annaud (written by)

Release Date:

18 September 1996 (France)

Genre:

Adventure | Short | Romance

Tagline:

From Academy Award Winner Jean-Jacques Annaud comes the first dramatic motion picture filmed in IMAX 3D.

Plot:

While flying mail across the Andean mountains, Henri Guillaumet's plane has to crash-land, he must trek back to civilizatin on foot.

Plot Keywords:

Airmail | IMAX | Period Piece | 3 Dimensional

Cast

Craig Sheffer	...	Henri Guillaumet
Elizabeth McGovern	...	Noëlle Guillaumet
Tom Hulce	...	Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Val Kilmer	...	Jean Mermoz
Ken Pogue	...	Pierre Deley
Ron Sauvé	...	Jean-René Lefèbvre
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Freddy Andreiuci	...	Air Mail Pilot
Balinder Johal	...	Peasant Woman
Molly Parker

Also Known As:

Guillaumet, les ailes du courage (France)
Les ailes du courage (France)

Runtime:

France:50 min | USA:40 min

Country:

USA | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.44 : 1

Sound Mix:

IMAX 6-Track | DTS 70 mm

Certification:

France:U | Norway:7 | Spain:T | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Alberta, Canada

Company:

Iwerks Entertainment

Trivia:

Available theatrically in both 2D and 3D formats.

An Uninspired Epic in 40 Minutes

From the director who brought you the Name of the Rose, Seven Years in Tibet and Enemy at the Gates, comes a movie that has all the tangibles of an epic. A man gets stranded in the mountains and must overcome all obstacles to get back home. Now, it sounds like this movie would be two to three hours long, but surprisingly it's little over a half-hour. Yes, a half-hour, which is incredibly surprising since it is starring big names such as Val Kilmer and Tom Hulce (Mozart in Amadeus). However, this was the first dramatic piece for Imax, and since Imax specialized in science theater at the time, which only ran about a half-hour a piece, they were worried that their audiences would have the patience to sit through a two hour film. Thus, they grabbed this film, a rather heartfelt but incomplete film that has good intentions, but rather poor execution. Thus, it is no surprise that this movie was released in Imax theaters rather than traditional theaters nationwide, simply because regular movie goers would be outraged by such a short and half-done film.

Imax movies tend to be technological achievements more than anything. They're basically nature specials on a huge screen, but because of that screen and sound, they seem better than they really are. Unfortunately, Wings of Courage doesn't take advantage of Imax's technological advantages, thus it's a surprise why this movie even was released in such an atmosphere. However, despite it's technological "miscast" the movie is hardly worth Imax's steep price of admission (yes, i saw this in theaters amazingly). The plot is simple and heartwarming, but the characters really never pop out or grasp the audience's attention. They seem aloof and conservative, which is not a good thing to do in a short film. Thus, the audience never seems to get into the characters, and the plot suffers because of it, because instead of getting an inspirational story, it just seems as if the story drags. Thankfully, it doesn't drag on too long since the movie is only 40 minutes.

Anothe problem with the movie is the casting. In all the promotions, Val Kilmer was on everything, from movie posters to all the commercials. However, Val Kilmer really makes a glorified "Cameo", saying a few lines and dying in a newspaper article. It's bad enough that the director deprived Kilmer of any lines, but depriving him of his own demise? Come on! Thus, the movie suffers without any real star power, because none of the other actors really flourish. Whoever was in charge of the promotion obviously did a good job of fooling people, because instead of getting a movie with Val Kilmer, like everyone expected, the audience gets a film with a few lousy actors who never do a good job in their role, making this movie a total bore-fest.

It's a shame that Imax's first drama was such a sappy and boring one, but thankfully they have released much longer and more feature films, most recently Batman Begins. However, while Imax's blunder was great and perhaps costly (i'm sure this movie tanked for them), the director really should be a bit embarrassed with this flick, for it seems as if they ran out of money during production and were forced to do a forty minute flick instead of a two hour epic. While there are some positives in the movie, such as good cinematography, the rather boring plot, lifeless actors and short time make this movie a frustrating snooze-fest that has viewer grinding their teeth after realizing they had just wasted 10 bucks. Too bad they don't give refunds for bad movies.