The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
Grade: 83
"The Great Waldo Pepper" stars Robert Redford as the title character. The film takes place during the late 1920s. Redford is a former World War I pilot, and is still flying, selling rides to people in the Midwestern farm country. Any extra money goes to Ezra Stiles, a plane designer working on a monoplane that can perform a flying stunt called the "outside loop."
Soon he has competition from Axel Olsson, another WWI veteran pilot moving in on his territory. Pepper politely tells Olsson to leave Nebraska, and when he refuses, Pepper sabotages his landing gear. Olsson has to land his biplane in the lake, to the cheers of the hick onlookers who think that the landing was a stunt.
Pepper hits on a young woman (Mary Beth, played by Susan Sarandon) in a movie theater. Soon he is telling her his favorite story, of his encounter with Ernst Kessler in WWI. (Kessler, who appears later in the film, is clearly modeled after Germany's Red Baron).
Bad luck has it that Sarandon is Olsson's girlfriend. Olsson, apparently a good sport about Redford wrecking his plane, shows up and deflates Pepper's story. Pepper has never even met Kessler.
With the novelty of airplane in decline, Pepper and Olsson can no longer make a living on their own. They become partners, and try to join Dillhoefer's flying circus, but first must learns some stunts to perform. This leads to Redford, hanging from a ladder extended from a plane, crashing into a barn. He survives, but must mend at the house of his sometime girlfriend Margo Kidder.
Pepper recovers and rejoins the circus, which is struggling financially. Mary Beth becomes a wing-walker to get publicity for the circus. She "freezes", unable to leave the wing. In a daring stunt, Redford leaps from one moving plane to another to attempt a rescue, however, Sarandon falls to her death. Redford is "grounded" by the Civil Aviation Authority, headed by old friend Newt, pending the outcome of an investigation.
Stiles completes the monoplane. Since Redford can't fly it, Stiles attempts to complete an outside loop at the Muncie fair. This results in Stiles death. Redford becomes angry at a crowd ogling the accident, and buzzes the crowd with a plane, which then crashes. Redford is thereafter banned for life from flying.
Redford goes to Hollywood, to work with Olsson who is there as a stunt double. A film is being made there based on Kessler's famous WWI battle. Redford works as a pilot on the film, under an assumed name, and finally gets to battle Kessler, if only on a Hollywood set.
"The Great Waldo Pepper" effectively combines comedy and drama. The movie is thickly plotted and intelligently scripted. It is critically underrated. The only important weakness comes during the last twenty minutes, as the pace slows and too much time is spent developing the relationship between Pepper and Kessler.
http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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