Wings of Courage
(Imax -- 3-D -- Color)
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Henri Guillaumet - Craig Sheffer
Noelle Guillaumet - Elizabeth McGovern
St. Exupery - Tom Hulce
Jean Mermoz - Val Kilmer
Pierre Deley - Ken Pogue
Jean-Rene Lefebvre - Ron Sauve
Question remains whether public response will justify the expense involved in making Imax movies and theaters even as widely available as Cinerama once was. "Wings of Courage" indicates, at the very least, that something beyond novelty still is missing and may be difficult to attain: taut, modern storytelling.
Period air adventure debuts today at Sony's new Imax 3-D Theatre in New York , a state-of-the-art marvel with an eight-story screen looming over 600 steeply banked seats. For about six months, pic will play exclusively in the nine venues around the world equipped for Imax 3-D, then fan out to the approximately 120 other, non-3-D Imax houses in operation internationally.
Recalling a less fluid and witty "Only Angels Have Wings," pic's story derives from the real-life exploits of two famous French airmen. In South America in 1930, Jean Mermoz (Val Kilmer) and Antoine de St. Exupery (Tom Hulce) have formed the first company to fly mail between South America and France.
Early scenes emphasize the perils of such flights and derring-do of those who undertake them, as well as establishing the love between one of the company's new pilots, Henri Guillaumet (Craig Sheffer), and his wife, Noelle (Elizabeth McGovern).
Henri then undertakes a risky mail run between Santiago and Buenos Aires, with most of pic's remainder chronicling his perils.
After one abortive takeoff, he tries another, only to run head-on into a storm that forces down his plane in the Andes. When St. Exupery's rescue plane misses his tiny figure in the snowy wastes, he decides to try hiking out of the mountains, and so trudges off, musing on his plight in thoughts conveyed by corny voiceovers.
No less cornily meanwhile, Annaud cuts from Henri's ordeal to a symbolic ant climbing over a symbolic relief map, and to the waiting figure of Noelle, who is given little to do but wring her hands and watch the antics of her yippy little dog.
While the desire for a G rating may have occasioned pic's tame story, its stilted dialogue seems the product of French writers scripting in English.
The decidedly archaic feel though, is even more pronounced in the acting and the stiff, old-fashioned mounting of interior scenes, both obviously deriving from a format that must use cameras as big as refrigerators, only wide-angle lenses and enormous amounts of lighting.
Pic's visual and stereo aural quality (both require viewers to wear high-tech headsets) mark a strong advance over older 3-D formats, and produce some striking effects -- as when, say, a rock slide roars straight at the camera or a forbidding precipice looms up.
Yet these momentary thrills only underscore the basic contradiction of all 3 -D: What's meant to be "more real" is essentially anti-realistic, drawing attention to visual phenomena that usually go unnoticed in real life, as they do in standard movies.
When used for gimmick-oriented shockers or comedies, or even scenic nature docus, the device can be amusing. But, as "Wings of Courage" inevitably suggests , it weighs against the purposes of straightforward drama, proving less an enhancement than a distraction, no matter how novel or technically imposing.
Camera (Imax 3-D, color), Robert Fraisse; editor, Louise Rubacky; production design, Ian Thomas; costume design, Aggie Rodgers; makeup, Stephan Dupuis; assistant director, Richard Coleman; casting, Mary Jo-Slater (L.A.), Stuart Aikins (Vancouver). Reviewed at Sony Imax Theatre, Sony Theatres Lincoln Square, N.Y., April 4, 1995. MPAA Rating: G. Running time: 40 min.
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