Hacker Cinema
Wings
1927 · Film · 144 min
Directed by William A. Wellman
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.
1 positive3 neutralfrom 4 commenters
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9 comments on Hacker News
I try to watch silent films, but I just don't like:
1. reading dialog cards, especially since I can lip read a bit and that's not what the characters are saying
2. the truly awful "period" music added
3. the grainy black and white
I've seen some work on the 1929 film "Wings" that was done in high def, sound effects were added, and some small colorization of scenes.
I'd like to take that further:
1. remove graininess and fuzziness with AI, and of course all scratches, etc.
2. add foley sound effects
3. replace dialog cards with dubbed dialog, lip read if possible
4. add a decent music sound track (Like what was done with "Metropolis")
5. colorize it!
These are all very doable today, as I've seen each done in a small way.
Why should we suffer all the limitations of silent movies? I just want to enjoy it, not suffer.
Out of personal curiosity, how far does this go for you? Would you download (without paying for)
- an old film (the Maltese Falcon, Wizard of Oz, Wings [1927 silent film])
- a really bad film (Santa Claus Conquers the Martians)
- something you already own but don't have access to at the moment
- anime
- none of the above?
> Saying that purists want people to suffer is quite misleading
Not at all. I've watched enough movies where the director clearly wanted the viewer to suffer, based on the idea that only through suffering can the viewer be enlightened. The suffering is in the form of making a bad movie.
Solaris comes to mind. I've tried to watch it multiple times, but the director (and the director's fans) clearly revel in the notion that one must suffer through the movie, and that's the point of it. The movie is boring on every level - bad dialog, bad plot, bad cinematography, bad pacing, bad acting, everything is bad about it. And it's (small) number of fervent fans love it for its wretchedness. They can keep it :-)
I saw a colorized version of Metropolis a few decades ago. The technology to do it right wasn't there, but it was enjoyable in a way the original was not. I've since watched the full version when the missing footage was found, and there's an ideal film that would benefit from the application of modern technology. I bet Fritz Lang would love it.
TCM also ran a version of the silent "Wings". They added some color in a few spots, and some airplane engine sounds. Even just that little bit made the picture much more watchable.
I'd like to see the FM Busby musicals fixed up.
Some movies I wouldn't touch would be Top Hat. It's perfect as it is :-)
> I suspect most of the silent movies of the time would seem quite trivial compared with much amateur YouTube content today
I can't say what constituted "most film" in 1926 (are we going by what sold the most tickets? big blockbusters versus daily newsreels & cartoons?) but if you look at the era of 1925-1927 it includes Phantom of the Opera, Battleship Potemkin, The Vanishing American, The Bat, Metropolis, and Wings. Many of this list is iconic to this day to where they continue to be referenced & emulated in pop culture that many people recognize even if they haven't seen the originals before.
Granted this discussion will be hamstrung by how much film has been "lost" with so much of that content no longer in living memory at all (to say if it was masterpieces or crappy filler).
It's an homage. It's easier to argue the "rip-off" case when the movie being stenciled is commercially successful, like when 2 Days in the Valley tried to ride the success of Pulp Fiction. Filmmakers are film nerds and they reference other works constantly, given the freedom (I'm watching Euphoria on HBO and suddenly there's a tracking shot lifted from the 1927 silent film Wings?). I like identifying these homages and connecting the linage of the art form. A few years ago I made an algo for it that doubles as a recommendation engine: https://cinetrii.com/
"When restoring a film, experts such as James White and Robert A Harris agree: the goal is to create a finished product that resembles the original theatrical experience as much as possible."
I guess I'm not an expert, because I see a great advantage in being able to improve the movie to make it more enjoyable to watch.
For example, take Wings (1927). The version I saw recently was a very sharp HD version. They enhanced it a bit by drawing a bit of color on flames, and added a noise here and there.
I'd take that way further:
1. colorize it with ML learning techniques and techniques used by the /r/colorizedhistory subreddit
2. lip read the actors, get rid of the title cards, and dub in the voices
3. add foley sound effects
4. add appropriate music
People can still see the original if they want, and others can enjoy what the director would likely have done if sound and color were available.
I'd like to see more than colorization. Consider the silent movie "Wings". Very high quality blu-rays are available of it. I would colorize it, remove the dialog cards and dub the dialog, then add foley sound effects and a music soundtrack!
That TIJ cars were distinguishable only by color was made possible by filming in color. A BW movie would not make a film requiring distinguishing colors that filmed as equal shades of grey.
In any case, any such colorizing system would be designed to accept a bit of guidance here and there from the artist. This is much like when an OCR'd document needs a bit of touch-up.
And even if it wasn't perfect, many BW movies would be made much more watchable, like the 1927 Wings, which is crying out to be colorized (and have a soundtrack added).
I know that colorizing it will offend some people, but the originals are not damaged and people who want to see the originals can.
Is it so much different from converting existing movies to 3D?
I watched a restored print of 1929 "Wings" and they added a few foley sound effects here and there. It dramatically improved watching the picture. The flick is already in HD, and looks great. Colorized, foley soundtrack, and dubbing will make it much more fun to watch.
I know a lot of younger people who simply refuse to watch anything in black&white, and I don't blame them.