The Conquest of the Air

Because I've always had an interest in aviation, this film I found on TCM was a nice addition to the long list of things I've watched so far on the channel. Even though I recorded this all the way back in 2015, it took me until yesterday to finally watch it. I wish I did so earlier, because it might be the first example of a flight documentary. The film is strange in that it's told in the style of a documentary, meaning there's no storyline, but it has actual actors such as Laurence Olivier. The movie goes over man's attempts to fly throughout history, from ancient times to the (then) present day in the 1930s. As long as there have been humans, there has been a desire to fly. Animals like birds can do it pretty effortlessly, so why can't we? Many people throughout history have tried to answer this question, with one italian scientist in the 1600s stating that it's physically impossible for humans to fly because it would require arm strength 10 thousand times greater than what we have. A century earlier, the genius Leonardo da Vinci was trying to experiment with various types of flying machines that people wouldn't see for centuries to come. He drew the designs for the first practical helicopter, as well as something called an ornithopter; a machine that flies by flapping its wings. However, none of these machines actually worked because da Vinci was unfortunately stuck in the primitive 1500s, and they were too advanced for their time. About two centuries later, we see how france is the first country to officially allow men to fly, as hot air balloons are invented in the late 1700s. In the american civil war, balloons are used by both sides as high altitude scouting vehicles to survey the battlefield. In the 1800s, aviation becomes even more advanced, since balloons are eventually connected to engines, allowing them to propel themselves more easily. Late in the 1800s, a german named Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose name would later be interchangeable with airships, designed a new type of airship that had a metal frame inside and was filled with helium or hydrogen. Hydrogen was the more dangerous choice as it is highly flammable, something that was highlighted during the horrific crash of the german airship Hindenburg in 1937. Going into the early 1900s, the Wright Brothers make history by flying the first powered machine for not even 30 seconds. A few years later in europe, a frenchman named Louis Bleriot becomes the first person to cross the english channel in a powered aircraft. Unfortunately, the development of peacetime aircraft would have to be put on hold for 4 years as the first world war swept across europe. World war 1 still contributed to aircraft design, as war stimulates technological progress out of desperation. After the war, peacetime aviation continues and many more records are set. Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly from the US to europe in 1927, and odd new flying machines are experimented with. A machine called an autogyro uses a traditional propeller but has an unpowered rotor on top of it to provide lift. This allows it to take to the air using incredibly short runways. The first practical helicopters appear, with germany stealing the lead using their twin rotor focke wulf 61. Giant airliners that land and take off on the ocean (called flying boats) carry loads of people and their luggage to faraway lands that were once the destination points of bold explorers. By the 30s, people had conquered the air and fly just because they want to, but we must never forget how difficult it was to get to that point. I thought Conquest of the Air was a good enough film, as it shows how long it took humankind to come up with a practical way to get in the skies. It's also worth mentioning that TCM showed a restored version that features the infamous footage of the Hindenburg crashing as it comes in to land at new jersey, which didn't happen yet as of the original version. Just strange to think that a blimp with nazi symbols on its fins actually tried to land in america, but it (almost) happened.

To clarify some questions raised by other user comments, I quote from the liner notes to a CD collection called "Classic British Film Music," which includes a suite from the score Arthur Bliss composed for the original version of the film:

"CONQUEST OF THE AIR was planned as an epic chronicle of mankind's romance with flight from the early legend of Icarus to speedy aerial circumnavigations of the modern age. This history was to be retold as a series of lavishly mounted tableaux vivants featuring, among others, Hay Petrie as a corpulent Tiberius Caesar ... and Laurence Olivier in fine voice as the grandiloquent balloonist Vincent Lunardi. However the film was not immediately released--appearing belatedly in 1940 in a much truncated form--running for only seventy-one minutes—and with many of its original sequences either missing or drastically curtailed—but with additional scenes added impress the extent of Britain's growing military airpower. During the wholesale dismantling of the original footage, no account was taken of Bliss's music, which was copped up along with the film stock" .... (Liner notes by David Wishart)

So keep in mind when viewing the film as it now survives that this is a very poor "remix" of something we will almost certainly never see, and that might have been very fine.

NOTE: While the release date on IMDb says it's 1936, there is a problem with this date. The film version I saw went up to 1938. Perhaps more material was added and I watched a re-release. Or, what's more likely is that the 1936 date is an error.

"Conquest of the Air" is a strange film in that there is a lot to admire and a lot to dislike. On the plus side, it's a nice and rather comprehensive review of the history of flight--with a strong emphasis on the botched attempts to fly from the middle ages up to about 1800. There also is a nice bit about ballooning and dirigibles. So, historically speaking, it's a nice educational overview. HOWEVER, while I admire the film in recreating so many nice tableaux, the narration is dreadfully boring and the film often comes off as an awful educational film--the sort they used to bore kids with in the good old days. Surely this could have been made in a more interesting fashion--this coming from a guy who LOVES airplanes and historical films. In addition, there were some curious omissions--such as the deaths of many of the famous people (such as Wilbur Wright during one of his flights). Worth seeing if you adore planes and balloons but not for the easily bored.

By the way, I think if the film had featured less aviators and spent more time on the most important the overall film would have been more interesting and far less episodic.

Dry but interesting British docudrama on the history of flight. There's some real footage of people and events for the more recent episodes. The older stuff is shown through dramatic reenactments, some of which are kind of fun. The plane stuff might appeal to aviation buffs but I liked the older stuff. My favorites are the earliest scenes which show a bunch of morons in ancient times jumping off of buildings trying to fly and failing, including Simon the magician. These scenes would be greatly improved if they featured the Goofy holler ("Yaaaaaaa-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooey!"). The cast is fine for what they have to do. The most notable actor in the film is Laurence Olivier and he's only in it briefly. It's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. The narration almost put me to sleep a few times. I think if you're the kind of person who likes the old documentary shorts (I do) then you'll probably find this interesting as it feels like a longer version of one of those.

The most interesting parts of this film are the docudrama installments at the beginning. At the same time, the reenactment of medieval and renaissance pioneers leaping off the tops of buildings to their inevitable splattering needs only a calliope or an MST3K accompaniment to be completely ridiculous. But the content is very interesting for anyone who loves aviation. It could be more entertaining, though.

The date for this film is puzzling. It is listed as being 1936, but contains footage of the Hindenburg disaster and the loss of Wiley Post and Amelia Earhart, distinctly mentioning the year 1938. Was there an updated re-release as the need to inform the British public about air power on the verge of WWII?