Wings

William A. Wellman's monumental silent epic, "Wings," unfurls a classic wartime melodrama against the brutal backdrop of World War I's aerial theatre. It charts the intertwined destinies of Jack Powell, a working-class mechanic with dreams of flight, and David Armstrong, a privileged scion of society. Both men, unknowingly rivals for the affections of the charming small-town girl Mary Preston, find their lives irrevocably bound by the call to arms, transforming into elite fighter pilots. Their personal romantic conflict is soon dwarfed by the grander, more terrifying reality of dogfights above the Western Front, where camaraderie and rivalry collide under the constant specter of death, forcing them to confront the true cost of heroism and sacrifice.