The Great Waldo Pepper

The Great Waldo Pepper is a 1975 drama film directed, produced, and co-written by George Roy Hill. Set during 1926–1931, the movie stars Robert Redford as a disaffected World War I veteran pilot who missed the opportunity to fly in combat and his sense of dislocation post-war in the America of the early 1920s. Margot Kidder, Bo Svenson, Edward Hermann and Susan Sarandon round out the cast.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Plot  ==Plot[ edit] == World War I veteran Waldo Pepper (Redford) feels he has missed out on the glory of aerial combat after being made a flight instructor. After the war, Waldo had taken up barnstorming to make a living. He soon tangles with rival barnstormer (and fellow war veteran) Axel Olsson (Svenson).
 * 2 Cast
 * 3 Production
 * 4 Reception
 * 5 References
 * 5.1 Notes
 * 5.2 Citations
 * 5.3 Bibliography
 * 6 External links

Enemies at first, Waldo and Axel become partners and try out various stunts. One of these stunts, a car-to-aircraft transfer, goes wrong and Waldo is nearly killed after Axel is unable to climb high enough to clear a barn and Waldo slams into it. Waldo then goes home to Kansas to recuperate with former flame Maude (Kidder) and her family. Maude, however, is not happy to see Waldo at first; because every time she does, Waldo gets injured in some way. Eventually, however, they make up and become lovers once again. Meanwhile, Maude's brother Ezra (Hermann), an old friend of Waldo's, promises to build him a high-performance monoplane as soon as he is well enough to fly it. Waldo's goal is to become the first pilot in history to perform an outside loop, and Ezra feels that Waldo can do it with his monoplane.

In the meantime, Waldo recuperates and rejoins Axel. The two eventually get a job flying for a traveling flying circusowned by Doc Dillhoefer (Philip Bruns). In an effort to attract bigger crowds, Dillhoefer hires Mary Beth (Sarandon) to act as the show's new attraction. As the show moves from town to town and the crew practices new stunts; they experience problems, errors and crashes.

As a result of the death of Mary Beth during a wing walking stunt, Waldo is grounded by Newt Potts (Geoffrey Lewis) (a man from Waldo's war past), now an inspector of the newly formed Air Commerce division of the federal government. Tragedy occurs at the Dillhoefer Circus when Ezra attempts the outside loop in his monoplane. He crashes on his third attempt, and the crowds rush out of the stands to see the wreckage. Some of the spectators are smoking as they watch Waldo struggle to free Ezra. One of the cigarettes is flicked into gas leaking from the aircraft, igniting it and eventually burning Ezra to death. Because no one helped Waldo try to save him, Waldo goes on a rampage, jumps in his aircraft and begins buzzing the crowd, which leads to his permanent grounding.

That does not stop Waldo from flying for long. Using an alias, Waldo gets a job as a stunt pilot in a Hollywood film depicting the air battles of the Great War. Famous German air ace Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin) has also been hired by the producers, as a consultant and to fly a Fokker Dr. I replica.[N 1]

During filming of a famous wartime duel, although their aircraft are unarmed, Waldo and Kessler begin dogfighting in deadly earnest, using their aircraft as weapons, each repeatedly colliding with the other—Waldo in a Sopwith Camel, Kessler in the Fokker. Eventually, Waldo damages Kessler's aircraft so much the German can barely control it; he concedes. Each salutes the other, and flies his own way.[N 2] ==Cast[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==Production<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The Great Waldo Pepper was a "passion project" for director George Roy Hill, who was himself a pilot. He and William Goldman had what Goldman described as "a huge falling out" during the middle of Goldman's writing the screenplay. Nevertheless, they managed to complete the project.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[3]
 * Robert Redford as Waldo Pepper
 * Bo Svenson as Axel Olsson
 * Bo Brundin as Ernst Kessler
 * Susan Sarandon as Mary Beth
 * Geoffrey Lewis as Newt Potts
 * Edward Hermann as Ezra Stiles
 * Philip Bruns as Dillhoefer
 * Roderick Cook as Werfel
 * Kelly Jean Peters as Patsy
 * Margot Kidder as Maude Stiles

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Frank Tallman flew the air sequences using actual aircraft – not models. Waldo flew a Standard J-1 biplane. A lot of the other aircraft in the film, including Axel's, wereCurtiss JN-4 biplanes. A number of de Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes, modified to look like Curtiss JN-4s, were used for the crash scenes.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The Great Waldo Pepper was filmed in Elgin, Texas. Aerial sequences were filmed at Zuehl Airfieldnear San Antonio, which is not too far from Fort Sam Houston, where the pioneering silent aviation classic Wings was shot in 1926-27.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[4]  Several aerial scenes were also filmed over the Sebring, Florida, Airport (also known for the 12 Hours of Sebring, a Le Mans-style endurance car race). Hill, who flew as a U.S. Marine Corps cargo pilot in World War II, made sure stars Bo Svenson and Robert Redford did each sequence with no parachutes or safety harnesses. He wanted them to feel what it was like to fly vintage aircraft. Fortunately, no one was hurt during the air scenes. ==Reception<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The Great Waldo Pepper opened to mixed to good reviews, with the biggest praise going to the film's aerial sequences. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "'The Great Waldo Pepper' is a most appealing movie. Its moods don't quite mesh and its aerial sequences are so vivid— sometimes literally breathtaking— that they upstage the human drama, but the total effect is healthily romantic."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[5]  Leonard Maltin noted that the film disappointed at the box office, and, although compared to earlier efforts such as The Sting (1973), it was director George Roy Hill's "more personal" account that "... wavers uncomfortably between slapstick and drama."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[6]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The aerial sequences staged by Frank Tallman included the climactic fight between Waldo Pepper and Kessler. The scene featured a replica Sopwith Camel and a replica Fokker Triplane, that was loosely patterned after a real dogfight between German ace Werner Voss and a flight of aircraft led by British ace James McCudden.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[7] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[N 3]  Due to the attention to period details and the use of actual aircraft in the flying scenes, The Great Waldo Pepper is considered one of "great" aviation films, receiving a "four-star" rating by film and aviation historians Jack Hardwick and Ed Schnepf.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[8]  Released in a number of home media formats, there are no extra features in the latest DVD.