Meidän poikamme ilmassa - me maassa: Old School Aviation Nostalgia

Is this for you?

Honestly, only watch this if you have a thing for vintage airplanes or deep-cut Finnish history. If you need a tight script or, you know, actual character arcs, you’re going to be bored in about six minutes. But for the history nerds? It’s a total time capsule.

The whole thing feels like a long, extended recruitment video from 1934. There’s a lot of people standing around looking at the sky. They look very serious. They look like they really want you to sign up for the Air Force.

The Rhythm of the Thing

It’s not paced like a movie. It’s paced like a slideshow that someone kept clicking through even when the projector started smoking. We spend so much time watching planes take off and land that I started to feel like I was waiting for my luggage at a very, very old airport.

There are moments where the camera just lingers on a propeller spinning. It just spins. And spins. It’s strangely hypnotic, even if it adds absolutely nothing to the plot. Which is good, because there isn't much plot to begin with.

The transitions are non-existent. One minute we’re looking at a cockpit, the next we’re at a dinner party where everyone is talking about propellers. It’s jarring. It’s also kind of endearing in its own clunky way.

Wait, why am I watching this?

You find yourself staring at the extras in the background. Someone is always doing something specific, like checking a watch or pointing at a cloud. It makes you wonder what they were thinking about during the shoot. Maybe they were hungry. Maybe they just wanted to go home.

I found myself comparing it to the structural messiness of The Grasp of Greed, but at least this movie knows it’s a bulletin. It doesn’t try to be a drama. It just tries to be a giant advertisement for the sky.

Small Observations

• The sound design is basically just engine noise and polite chatter.
• The hats. Everyone in this movie is wearing a very specific kind of 1930s hat.
• The way the actors talk to the camera—it’s like they’re trying to sell you a insurance policy.
• One pilot has this look on his face like he’s forgotten where he parked his plane.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly good movie by modern standards. But there’s something about the grainy footage of those old biplanes that sticks with you. ✈️ It’s a snapshot of a time when people thought flying was the height of human achievement. And watching it now, it’s hard not to agree with them, even if the movie itself is a bit of a slog.