The Great Waldo Pepper

This is a well shot film (the light in the Prarie scenes are beautiful) about why people love flying and how it gets into their bones to the point where they will take great risks with their lives as well as other people's!

Redford looks heroic and every bit the Ladies Man especially in uniform.

The aerial sequences are terrific with some really risky stunts and shots. Made in 1975, there are no CGI effects - everything is real and raw.

I felt the film to be a little slow at times but it's a film for grown ups so we can take that speed, can't we?

Scott A. Frisina's review on the main page is as good a synopsis as anyone can give - that's how it is - read it then see this excellent film.

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 .

Anybody who likes old airplanes, stunt flying or just plain adventure and an interesting story should like this early Robert Redford film.

Redford plays the "The Great Waldo Pepper" as he barnstorms from place to place in the early 1900s. You see some wonderful bi-planes and the interesting characters who flew them. The most flamboyant person in this story is "Axel Olsson," played by Bo Svenson. He and Redford are intense competitors and the competition between the two is fun to witness, especially with humor thrown into the mix.

This film is noted for sporting a very young and beautiful Susan Sarandon who makes a very memorable exit from the film! Except for an excessive amount of usages of the Lord's name in vain, this would have been an excellent family film. Other actors whose names you might recognize in here are Edward Herrman, Georffrey Lewis and Margot Kidder.

. 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

This movie is made by some of the same players that made Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Writer, Director and Actor). Unfortunately, it doesn't have nearly the acclaim. Perhaps because the ultimate tone of the movie is darker, the movie still captures that fun that permeates Butch Cassidy.

In terms of the aerial stunts and flying sequences, not only does the hold up to the modern movies like 'Flyboys', it is in fact, much better. Visually just as complete, you also know these are the real deal.

The script is brilliant. At the end of this film, one is forced to wonder why this level of movie so rarely is ever seen today.

You can read the other reviews for plot points, and details. Suffice to say that if you are a fan of movies with planes, actions, love, tragedy cool war history lover, or Hollywood of the early thirties, you'll eat this movie up.

Now lets get a DVD of this that is worthy!