The Wings of Eagles

Frank Wead, known as Spig, was a navy pilot and an officer who worked to advance aviation. An accident at home broke his neck and left him paralysed. Understanding he would not fly again, he started writing; he went to Hollywood and wrote screenplays for aviation films. When the Second World War came he returned to the navy despite his disability. John Ford's film is about a real man who was his own friend; Wead wrote several of Ford's pictures. The film does not hide that closeness: the director character played by Ward Bond is openly based on Ford, and Ford's own office furnishings were used in the scenes. John Wayne plays Wead and Maureen O'Hara his wife. The first half is close to comedy and the second a heavy drama; the tonal break is deliberate. Who it's for: Viewers who like John Ford, biographies of real people, and wartime drama. Who it's not for: The tonal shift is abrupt and the comedy in the first half has dated. The glorification of military life also goes unexamined.