ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) 121m

ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) 121m
“Say, things happen awful fast around here”
-Bonnie Lee at 40 minutes in
NARRATIVE CONSIDERATIONS:
-The professional male group (to be revisited in Hawks’s westerns)
Assimilation into the group by female and male (first Bonnie, then Bat, as well as Judy)
-Pairings in flight as commentary on the group (Kid & Bat; Geoff & Les)
-Various genres within the aviator genre (musical/comedy/”romcom”/”bromance” etc.)
-Coping mechanisms in facing death
STYLISTIC CONSIDERATIONS:
-Constant moving/talking along with consistent action sequences (“Anyone can stand still and talk”) as accounting for Bonnie Lee’s observation above.
-Overlapping dialogue revisited
-The four-shot and generally cluttered frames at Dutchy’s, often with backgrounded characters commenting on the foregrounded character relationships, and vice versa. (Think backgrounded Bonnie as Geoff greets Judy in foreground) These ‘outliers’ hence comment on “the group.”
-The important narrative commentary provided by repeated actions/consistency of characters
Geoff’s perpetual seeking out of a match
Geoff’s rubbing of Dutchy’s head
“I’d never ask anything of a woman”
the double-headed coin
the deceased’s effects
twirling the propellor on the model plane on Geoff’s desk (both Bat and Judy)
1

Please read the reading which I uploaded. The scanned document. And citated from the article. When you citate, please use quotation.
Reading:
Belton’s “Hawks and Co.” Pp. 94-108
Reading: Wood’s “Self-Respect and Responsibility” Pp. 17-35

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL ESSAYS:
*MAKE CERTAIN TO SIGNIFICANTLY CITE SOURCES, with extra credit
consideration a distinct probability for citations from significant
other readings. Lack of, or scant
citations, will result in a far poorer grade, regardless of your writing
proficiency.
Include a cover sheet
containing an essay title, your name, course number and date.
Number your pages (bottom
center preferred).
Make certain to
avoid the following pitfalls:
1.
Do not write plot summaries. (Elements of the story or the plot of a film
should be used as specifically brief details to explain or discuss the ideas of
the film, and its relation/significance to our course topics.)
2.
Avoid vague and
unnecessary evaluative terms like “beautiful photography,” “superb acting,” or
“tight direction.”
3.
Always support general arguments with specific film examples
described as accurately as possible.
4.
Use the characters’ names–not
the actors’–when discussing the film but give the actor’s name in parentheses
on first use.
5.
Underline or italicize film titles. Do not place them “in quotes.”
6.
DO NOT indulge in loose and careless use of terms like symbolism or
foreshadowing; indeed, you would probably be better off avoiding them
altogether. So too, DO NOT use the phrases “throughout the film…” or “…gives
the feeling of…,” for they invariably get absurdly repetitive. Do not refer to the viewer or audience
or use expressions like “we see” or “you hear” as these also
become woefully, nauseatingly repetitious.
7.
Do not describe
the film using first person (I/we) or second person (you) pronouns. Comments like “we see Baby and Johnny
together for the first time . . .” would be better written as “Baby and Johnny
are together for the first time . . ..”
8.
Do not mix your
tenses and always keep your verbiage in the present tense! (i.e., “The character IS /
DOES / HAS” rather than was, did and had.)
9.
Properly,
indeed meticulously, PROOF & EDIT
your work before submitting. Grades drop
precipitously with each instance of poorly proofed errors.

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