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| 25-year-old Gary Cooper's indelible bit part in Wings |
Today came the news that the
last surviving World War I veteran died at the age of 110. This reminded me how, suddenly, World War I seems to have re-upped in pop culture consciousness. It's been a wakeup call for me, as for most of my life I have been swamped by Baby Boomer novels and movies romanticizing World War II (and codifying Hitler as the bad guy of all time).
"The Great War," in contrast, had faded to a kind of dusty prelude -- perhaps in part because there were less photos and films of the battles.
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| Georges Méliès sets the moon afire in Hugo |
The current revival round up has to start with -- I'm almost embarrassed to mention -- the
ubiquitous Downton Abbey, the BBC miniseries
airing on PBS.
But it's also the setting for Spielberg's movie
War Horse (which, sorry, I couldn't get through), and even
Hugo finds its historical footing in filmmaker Georges
Méliès falling into despair and disfavor after the "Great War" and burning all his movie props
[above].
Yet the depiction of WWI I enjoyed more than all these recent examples was a restored print of the first Oscar-winning best picture, 1927's silent
Wings, just
released on DVD.
