Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely Fantastic

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film's opening title card read: "Nebraska, 1926" and shows the old black-and-white Universal Pictures logo presentation, which features an old early 20th Century plane flying around the orbit of the planet earth . The Second Greatest Flyer in the World . The war was over - and the world's greatest flyers had never met in combat . But Waldo was going to change all that - even if it killed him . The era the picture is set in is mostly the ¨Roaring Twenties¨ , specifically the period is between 1926 and 1931 , in which bitter pilots are reduced to defying death in air flying circus such as Waldo Pepper (Robert Redford) , Axel Olson (Bo Svenson) and Ezra Stiles (Edward Herrmann). As a disillusioned biplane pilot named Waldo who had missed flying in WWI takes up barnstorming and later he carries out a movie career in his quest for the glory he had missed . After that , the pilot-become-barnstormer gets hired as a stuntman for the Hollywood movies . Eventually getting a chance to prove himself in a film depicting the dogfights in the Great War . Waldo believes the honor of the best WWI fighter pilots and he deems to be the German Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin) who is working in Hollywwod as an aerial stunt .This attractive drama about flying results to be an elegiac homage to WWI fliers . It features impressive vintage aircraft flying sequences made by expert stunts and professional pilots . However , there are no studio takes in airplanes , all close-ups of actors being airborne were done for real, sometimes with George Roy Hill, a former Marine pilot himself, flying the airplane while directing ; as scenes with Robert Redford and Bo Svenson climbing out on the wing were done without any security harness or parachutes . The film reunited three successful Hollywood professionals of the sixties and seventies : actor Robert Redford , filmmaker George Roy Hill , and screen-writer William Goldman , the latter Oscar Winner for ¨The Sting ¨. All of them got a big hit with ¨Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid¨ . Breathtaking as well as overwhelming flying sequences , intelligent plot and brilliant scenes are major assets in this stunning flick . Robert Redford gives one of his best acting , along with Bo Svenson and Bo Brundin ; both actors are Swedish . The notorious secondary player Geoffrey Lewis also gives an admiring interpretation , as always . The movie represents an early screen role of actress Susan Sarandon , the film was one two 1975 movies that Sarandon appeared in that were released in that year , he other one was The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) which is considered to feature Sarandon's breakthrough film role . The yarn features actress Margot Kidder who became famous for starring in the "Superman" franchise with Christopher Reeve . Colorful as well as evocative cinematography by the great cameraman Robert Surtees , a photographer expert on super-productions . Lively and enjoyable musical score by Henry Mancini , Pink Panther's composer . The movie is pretty well but had a commercial flop . The motion picture was compellingly directed by George Roy Hill . This is third and final of three films that as an actor, Robert Redford made with director George Roy Hill, he first two were The Sting (1973) and Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid (1969) . George Roy Hill had a long career from the fifties until the eighties with hit smashes such as ¨The world according to Garp¨ , ¨Slap shot¨, ¨Butch Cassidy¨, ¨The Sting¨ , ¨Hawaii¨ , ¨The world of Henry Orient¨ and commercial failures such as ¨The little drummer girl¨ , ¨A little romance¨ , ¨Slaughterhouse five¨, ¨Throughly Millie¨ , ¨Toys in the attic¨ , ¨Period of adjustment¨ and this ¨The great Waldo Pepper¨ ; however , the latter being today better considered than old times . Rating : 6,5/10 Above average . Worthwhile watching .

I remember 1975 well, I was living in the New Orleans area and my 4th child was born, a cute little daughter. That daughter is 38 now. And I remember this movie, by title only, but never saw it. For some reason the title didn't draw me in. Now, in 2013 I found it on Netflix and find it to be a very nice, very enjoyable movie.Being a guy I never identified with the "star power" of Robert Redford, but I know why many of the ladies did, he was a really good-looking guy in his 30s. But could he act? Well in fact he was a very good actor, and I witnessed that over the years in other movies.Here he is Waldo Pepper, the story starts in 1926 after WW1. He is a pilot, apparently a very good one, but had spent the war as an instructor and had missed the aerial battles. But he spoke of them, as if he had been there, as if he were the war hero. That comes to an abrupt halt when he encounters the hero he was talking about, Bo Svenson as Axel Olsson. Eventually they form a friendship and fly for one of those traveling aerial carnivals, doing stunts and giving rides.This was the time of transition, planes were getting more common and the government was stepping in, to regulate planes and pilots, to make sure there was a baseline safety factor. Waldo Pepper did not deal easily with those new regulations. The other key character is Bo Brundin as Ernst Kessler, the famous German fighter pilot of WW1. Everyone knew he was regarded as perhaps the best, while he also knew of Waldo Pepper, and knew he was one of the best. The climax of the story is when Ernst and Waldo are hired in a movie-filming job, they are to simulate an aerial battle. But the two rivals, once in the air, were determined to see who was best, and with dummy guns resorted to close passes and physical contact.The last few scenes pay off very well, first as the two men discuss the famous WW1 battle, and then the aerial battle of the biplanes. It was also nice seeing a young Susan Sarandon and a young Margot Kidder, a full 3 years before her famous role as Lois Lane in one of the Superman movies.All-in-all a fine example of a 1970s movie, and Redford was already at the top of his form.

Watching all these wonderful actors in their prime, the great storyline and the great cinematography for the first time has had me enthralled. This is a really enjoyable film with considerable depth. In my mind it is an exploration of the competitive nature of the flyers themselves - whether friends or rivals, one soon becomes acutely aware of their constant need to push their limits, not only amongst themselves but also within themselves. For some reason this film is only averaging a rating of 6.4, and it deserves much more than that, so my vote will hopefully help to reflect a more appropriate rating for what is a really enjoyable movie.Even if you are not into aviator flicks, you will enjoy this movie - it is an excellent example of the filmmakers and scriptwriters art. I give it my heartiest recommendation.

. In the 1970's, I was competing in Freestyle Snow Skiing, and the sport was very new, it went through trying times, people were injured permanently and the sport had to regulate itself and stop the barnstorming aspect of itself. I remember being able to do stunts one year, that were illegal the next year. We, the competitors, felt that the sport was being regulated to death. . But the sport survived, and still thrives, people are doing wilder stunts now than back then, so I guess all came out well in the end. I remember going to a Halloween party in a nice sports car, way back then, dressed as the great Waldo pepper, in a flight uniform with scarf, and knowing that my time, at that age, was very similar to his. I related to the movie at that time in other words. . Paul Bannon