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7.1/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 7.1/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Hell in the Heavens remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Should you watch Hell in the Heavens? If you really dig old-school aviation melodrama or have a soft spot for Warner Baxter looking intense in a flight cap, maybe. If you want a movie that actually feels like flying or has any real stakes, you are gonna be bored out of your mind. It's for the folks who like their war movies neat, tidy, and tucked away on a soundstage.
The whole movie moves at this weird, lurching pace. One minute everyone is laughing and drinking at the mess hall like they're at a garden party, and the next they are staring into the distance with that haunted pilot look. It’s a lot of whiplash.
Warner Baxter is doing his best, but he looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. I spent half the runtime wondering if the budget for the sky effects was just someone shaking a piece of gray fabric behind the actors. Sometimes it really feels like that.
There is this one scene where they are prepping for a mission, and the technical talk is so stiff it might as well be in another language. You can tell the writers were reading from a manual while trying to make it sound like grit. It’s not quite as charming as The Sea Squawk, which at least had a sense of humor about its own nonsense.
I kept waiting for the dogfights to actually mean something. Instead, you get a lot of cutaways to cardboard-looking planes wobbling in front of blurry backgrounds. It’s not exactly Wings, you know? It feels more like someone playing with models in a basement.
It’s not all bad, though. There is a weird, melancholy vibe to the whole thing that almost works. It’s like the movie knows it’s a relic. It lacks the punch of I Am the Law, but it’s got enough of that old Hollywood sincerity to keep you from turning it off completely. Just don't expect it to change your life.
Actually, there is a moment where Baxter stares at a map that lasts about three seconds too long. It’s a small thing, but it’s the most honest part of the movie. It’s just a guy, a map, and a whole lot of nothing happening. ✈️
