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"Wings of Courage"
The first dramatic motion picture filmed in IMAX 3D, 1995 |
Read more at
in70mm.com
The 70mm Newsletter
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| Written by: Sony
Pictures Classics, 1995 & Thomas Hauerslev, 2023 |
Date:
29.06.2026 |
 "Wings
of Courage", the first film from a
major motion picture director filmed in IMAX 3D (but also available for
distribution for IMAX / OMNIMAX and 8/70
theatres worldwide), stars Craig Sheffer, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth McGovern and
Val Kilmer.
"Wings of Courage"
was directed and produced by Academy Award winning filmmaker,
Jean-Jacques Annaud,
who co-wrote the script with Alain Godard. The film tells the dramatic story
of three legendary French aviators and the first historic airmail flights in
the Andes. It combines a tale of high adventure and excitement with
cutting-edge technology, and is the fulfilment of one of Annaud’s long-held
dreams.
“I have always had a fascination for
people who were the first to do something, those who invent or innovate,
and I have always wanted to do a movie about these particular pioneers,
the people who invented the new technology -- meaning those crazy young
men in the flying machines,” the French director says.
"Wings of Courage"
used four IMAX cameras: the Solido, a single 3D camera that runs two film
strips simultaneously; the IMAX 3D rig, consisting of two IMAX cameras
mounted on a frame and run in sync electronically; the National Film Board
of Canada (NFB) rig, so named because it was developed and built for
TRANSITIONS, the first IMAX 3D film (shown at EXPO 1986 in Vancouver); and a
2D IMAX camera, used primarily for distant vistas. All four cameras,
particularly the double-camera 3D rigs, are very heavy and cumbersome. In
fact, each rig had to be specially flown in by helicopter.
FILM FACTS
Crew: Producer/Director: JEAN-JACQUES ANNAUD. Screenplay: ALAIN GODARD &
JEAN-JACQUES ANNAUD. Executive Producer: ANTOINE COMPIN. Executive Producer:
CHARIS HORTON. Co-Producer: RICHARD BRIGGS. Production Manager: ROBERT GRAY.
Production Designer: IAN THOMAS. Director of Photography: ROBERT FRAISSE.
Music: GABRIEL YARED. Editor: LOUISE RUBACKY. Costume Designer: AGGIE
RODGERS. Make-Up: STEPHAN DUPUIS. Stereographer: ERNIE MCNABB. 1st Assistant
Director: RICHARD COLEMAN. Solido Camera Operator: ALLEN SMITH. Camera
Operator: ROGER VERNON. Gaffer: BRUNO BITTNER. Key Grip: RICK ALLEN. Casting
Director (Los Angeles): MARY-JO SLATER. Casting Director (Vancouver): STUART
AIKINS. Unit Publicist: LARRY KAPLAN
Cast: Craig Sheffer (A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT), Tom Hulce (AMADEUS,
THE INNER CIRCLE), Elizabeth McGovern (ORDINARY PEOPLE, RAGTIME) & Val
Kilmer (THE DOORS, BATMAN FOREVER)
Locations: Exteriors shot in the Canadian Rockies, British Columbia,
Canada. Interiors shot in studios in Vancouver, Canada. Distributor:
Sony Pictures Classics. Length: 40 minutes. Format: Filmed in
IMAX 3D, exhibition in all IMAX 3D and IMAX / OMNIMAX theatres worldwide.
World Premiere: SONY IMAX theatre at Sony Theatres, Lincoln Square, in
New York featuring for the first time the audio magic of PSE Sound (Personal
Sound Environment). Copenhagen Premiere:
Tycho Brahe Planetarium &
OMNIMAX Theatre, 13.09.1996 (Copenhagen Film Festival 1996). Regular
public premiere: 21.10.1996 in DDP 6-track digital sound. MPAA Rating
(US): G: General Audiences
• Go to PDF "Wings of Courage" Sony Classics
production info
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More in 70mm reading:
in70mm.com's page about IMAX & Omnimax
Omnimax in Copenhagen.
Tycho Brahe Planetarium
in70mm.com News
Peripheral Vision, Scopes,
Dimensions and Panoramas
in70mm.com's Library
Presented on the big screen in 7OMM
7OMM and Cinema Across the World
Now showing in 70mm in a
theatre near you!
70mm Retro - Festivals and
Screenings
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Director Jean-Jacques Annaud explains working with
IMAX
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 Thomas
Hauerslev and
Jean-Jacques Annaud at the GIFF 70 festival,
Gentofte Kino, Denmark, 28. January 2023. Picture: Charlotte Hauerslev
IN70MM.COM, 2023
Q: “Wings of Courage” was
the first of your films shown in 70mm in Denmark: It was shown in
the local Omnimax cinema in '96. Tell me a little bit about the making of that film, please.
A: You know what, I went to Toronto, to see the people at
IMAX,
because they said "No, no, no. We cannot. It is impossible to shoot
actors with our system". Because it was very noisy. It was very
cumbersome – I was using - not only the Solido, but I was using two
other cameras. A contraption I would say with two cameras, mirrors, and
all that. The mirrors, as you know ... if it rains you can almost not
shoot, because you have a drop [of water] on one image and not on the
other. When you have dust, it is the same. So, it was very complicated,
but I said to those people, I said: "I know that I can do it. It is
spectacular. It is an extraordinary system, believe me", and they didn’t
trust me. But very fortunately at Columbia/SONY they trusted me. They let me do
it, but what I had to do was of course, to dub everything. Afterwards,
I called my actors back. We had the [IMAX] cameras going like this skfjdkslfdlsjfdksfjdksfjdkslfjdklsjfdskl. I had three of them all the
time! And the other problem was that I had only two minutes [of 65mm
film] in my can.
I remember, I was saying "Roll Camera" and I was hearing a
"Click" and then yaonk, yaonk and faster and faster [JJA simulates the
IMAX camera going faster and faster], and then I said, "Can I say
Action?" "Not yet Sir". It had to be at the
right speed! But you know what is interesting in this, very recently I
was invited to the Imax CEO forum at Scottsdale in Arizona and they
really wanted me, because they said: "You changed the perception of
Imax, because it was of THAT early movie. Not only it was a way to
reintroduce 3D, but it had also helped Imax expand from their documentary
specialty". They were absolutely convinced that their format was
made for documentaries. They did excellent documentaries by the way, and
they revived documentary films, which disappeared in those days. So, now
I have this very warm relationship with Imax for that reason, and most of my
recent movies has been shown in Imax Theatres.
• Go to A Conversation with
Jean-Jacques Annaud
SONY PICTURES CLASSICS, 1995
Q: As the first feature film
director to work in the IMAX® 3D format how would you describe the
experience?
A: There is no question that shooting
"Wings of Courage"
was a huge challenge to everyone involved and that includes the actors.
Because it takes so long to set up every shot with the IMAX camera and since
the camera holds only 3 minutes of film at any one time, there was a huge
amount of pressure on the actors to perform perfectly whenever we were ready
to shoot. Furthermore, due to the extremely difficult weather conditions in
the Andes, Murphy’s Law was fully operational throughout the filming of
"Wings of Courage":
everything that could go wrong, did. Of course, I am ready to do it all
again.
Q: What are the cinematic advantages of IMAX 3D as opposed to 35mm movies
from the point of view of the film maker and the audience?
A: Traditional films, just like theater, painting and photography, offer
their “representation” within a definitive framework. The use of a giant
screen has changed this fundamental idea as the spectator is so close to the
screen that he cannot discern the edges anymore. With IMAX 2D he is no
longer in front of an image, but inside that image. With IMAX 3D he is no
longer inside an image but inside a space. He is on the set with the
characters in the action. The incredible sharpness of the photographic
resolution, the stereoscopic vision, the three dimensionality of watching a
movie in IMAX 3D make the boundaries between reality and illusion disappear.
IMAX 3D is, therefore, a more efficient tool, a more formidable weapon,
placed at the disposal of the illusionists we filmmakers are.
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Synopsis - A True Story
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 "PREMIERE
The first dramatic film in Omnimax format from Oscar winner Jean-Jaques Annaud".
Premiere 21. October 1996 in Omnimax 2D at the Tycho Brahe
Planetarium and Omnimax Teater, Copenhagen, DK. Newspaper advertising from
Editor's collection.
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1930 --
two legendary French aviation pioneers Jean Mermoz (VAL KILMER) and Antoine
de St. Exupery (TOM HULCE), head the Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, the
first ever to fly mail between South American cities and France. Mermoz, a
daredevil pilot, is a charismatic, astonishingly handsome, French cultural
icon -- the future hero of the Atlantic South. St. Exupery, witty,
eccentric, intellectual, is a famous writer who will later gain even greater
fame as the author of the literary classic, Le Petit Prince.
Having heard of Henri Guillaumet’s (CRAIG SHEFFER) flying exploits and
needing another young pilot to cover the Santiago de Chile/Buenos Aires
route, the two famous airmen recruit Henri to fly for them. Henri has two
passions in life: flying and his beautiful wife Noëlle (ELIZABETH MCGOVERN).
The night before Henri’s first mail delivery, Mermoz tells him that the
route he will be flying is a treacherous run across the Andes Cordillera
range, where the mountains peak at 21,000 feet.
“If you drop, you’ll never be found again,” he says, “remember the local
saying: ‘the Andes don’t give men back.’” Flying the Cordillera, Henri runs
into weather problems from the start. On one flight, as St. Exupery is
waiting for him to deliver the European mail in Buenos Aires, his biplane is
badly damaged by a fierce hail storm. He is forced to turn back to Santiago.
Taking Aeropostale’s motto “the mail is more important than life” literally,
he takes off again the next morning in a patched-up plane, against worse
weather conditions.
Crossing the monumental range with lightning ripping through the clouds,
Henri makes a brave attempt at getting through. Bashed by the storm, the
plane plummets, and Henri is forced to crash-land on a frozen mountain lake,
lost in the Andes, miles from civilization.
When a search plane passes by without seeing him, Henri buries the mail in
the snow with a marker so it can be located later, and starts his walk
through the desolate frozen landscape of the Cordillera. For five days and
five nights, Henri courageously carries on his trek, struggling through
waist-deep snow and freezing temperatures. The desire to rest by succumbing
to death is strong, but proves no match for his love of Noëlle and devotion
to duty. Henri keeps walking. At last, he is finally found by a group of
Argentine Gauchos who contact St. Exupery and the rescue team.
Ten days later, Henri is back on duty for Aeropostale...flying the mail over
the Andes.
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• Go to
"Wings of Courage" The first dramatic motion
picture filmed in IMAX 3D, 1995 |
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