Please don't spend money on this.

hyped garbage

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I've long been impressed with the variety of films in which Robert Redford starred during his prime years. He took chances tackling roles that few others would accept, and there was always a sense of quality in his films.That being said, it almost seems as if this film didn't quite know what it wanted to be. A sort of light-hearted look at stunt pilots? Well, that's in there. A serious look at the psyche of aerial daredevils? Well, that's in there, too. The first half of the film and the last half of the film seem almost like different stories. The most interesting part of the film is the relationship that develops between Waldo Pepper (Redford) and a German flying ace from World War I; but again, what exactly is the point. Oh, and yes, some of the flying is quite stunning. I couldn't help but think how differently this film would be made today with all the computerized special effects. However, from my perspective, it's quite a depressing film...including the ending.There's certainly nothing wrong with the acting here. Robert Redford is flyer Waldo Pepper, and is very believable in the role. Bo Svenson, no favorite of mine, is quite good here as another stunt flyer. Bo Brundin is interesting as the clearly moody German air ace. I never cared much for Susan Sarandon, but she does well here as the slightly ditzy girlfriend of one or both of the American stunt pilots. Geoffrey Lewis, a reliable character actor, does well here, as he pretty much always did. Edward Herrmann has a somewhat small role, and is almost unidentifiable; this seems before he was typecast in later roles.I have quite a few favorite Robert Redford films, but this is not one I want to watch again. Once in 1975 and once in 2015 is plenty for me. Of course, if you are into aeronautics, you might warm up to this film more than I did.

Now that flying seems such a mundane, everyday way of getting people from A to B, it is strange to recall that there was a time, not so long ago, when it seemed far more magical. In the twenties and thirties aviation represented what space travel came to represent during my childhood in the sixties and seventies- mankind's most thrilling new adventure. The aviator-poet John Magee was able to write in his sonnet "High Flight" that while flying he had "slipped the surly bonds of Earth" and "put out my hand, and touched the face of God"."The Great Waldo Pepper" is a film which, like the more recent "The Aviator", captures some of the excitement of those days. It is set in the world of the "barnstormers", troupes of pilots who would perform stunts to entertain the crowds. This was a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s, and many of the barnstormers were former fighter pilots from the First World War; the troupes became known as "flying circuses", after the squadron commanded by Manfred von Richthofen, Germany's greatest ace. At first their stunts were relatively simple ones, but as time went on the crowds became more demanding and the pilots were expected to perform increasingly dangerous manoeuvres, sometimes verging on the suicidal. The proprietor of the "flying circus" featured in the film puts it simply. "I'm not selling good flying. I'm selling sudden death." The film charts the exploits of the title character and his two great rivals, Axel Olsson (an American but presumably originally from Scandinavia, to judge from his accent) and Ernst Kessler (a German loosely based upon another real-life flying ace, Ernst Udet). Pepper's rivalry with these two men stems from the fact that they both had distinguished combat records during the war, whereas he served in the American forces but was employed as an instructor and never saw active service. (His rivalry with Olsson, however, does not prevent them from becoming close friends).At the beginning of the 1920s flying was an almost entirely unregulated activity, but during the decade it became more commercialised as the first airlines and air mail services were launched and tighter regulations were introduced in the interests of public safety. After a young woman is killed in a dangerous stunt that goes wrong, Pepper loses his pilot's licence and is forced to abandon barnstorming. He is, however, unwilling to give up flying altogether, and travels to Hollywood where he becomes a stunt pilot under an assumed name. He learns that Kessler and he are both working on the same film, a wartime aviation drama, and that they are due to re-enact a famous dogfight between British and German planes. Somehow, they manage to turn their film sequence into a real-life duel.The film was directed by George Roy Hill and starred Robert Redford, who had previously worked with Hill in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting". (Unlike those two films, however, this one does not co-star Paul Newman). One of Redford's greatest assets as an actor was his amiable, boyish charm, and that is much in evidence in this film, especially during the more comic first half. He plays Pepper as charming and debonair, with an insouciant, devil-may-care attitude, in contrast to the more level-headed Olsson and the gloomy, saturnine Kessler. Kessler has fallen on hard times after Germany's defeat; his pessimistic attitude is due to the fact that he was a hero in wartime but has become a nobody in peacetime. (Something similar happened to the real Udet, who went on to join the Nazis and ended up committing suicide). His character comes more to the fore in the second half of the film which is notably darker than the light-hearted early scenes.There are excellent performances from Redford and from Bo Brundin as Kessler. (Olsson is played by Bo Svenson; are there any other English-language films where two major male characters are played by actors named Bo?) The main attraction of the film, however, is not the acting but the magnificent flying sequences, all of which were performed using real aircraft, not models or special effects. (It is said that the actors performed all their own stunts, including wing walking, which must have given the film's insurers some nervous moments). It is these exhilarating scenes which give the film its excitement and much of its emotional power, making it a fitting tribute to the pioneers of aviation. 7/10

How can this film barely have more than a single page of comments? Redford in his youthful heyday, following the success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Susan Sarandon as the female lead, and yet, apparently, so few have ever seen this that less than two pages covers comments. Major urging: see this film.Extremely well written and directed, even better acting, all stunts by human beings and not computers, and beautifully photographed. The only weakness is that due to audience availability, this film is hard to find on DVD, even at Blockbuster. Similar to The Hill, absolutely the best acting performance by Sean Connery, but try and see it. Major hint to those who have missed Waldo Pepper: never, ever, under any circumstances whatsoever, attempt the double loop, especially in a plane. Today, July 28, 2007, we had two crashes at the Wisconsin and Ohio Air Shows. Death isn't just in the movies when doing stunts in a plane.

First I must say that this beautiful movie handles the wide screen format extremely well, to watch it on TV comes near to an act of profanation. The lines, the colors , the surfaces, the sun that always seems to be low above the horizon ... The Great Waldo Pepper really is a work of cinematic art.Secondly I would really like to know how the idea for this script developed. It looks like the aviation business is a metaphor for the movie industry. I would not be surprised had director and co-scriptwriter George Roy Hill put many personal feelings and experiences into it. Aviation stands for freedom. But even in the title scene the constant fear of being forcefully grounded becomes evident – the main character, aviator Waldo Pepper, talks an overawed boy into getting a canister of gas for him with the promise of a free tour above the landing strip. Cute, at first sight, but also curiously grim. It immediately started me wondering how the boy could manage to carry the full canister over the required long distance.The wish to be free and be able to fly off sets ever more demanding conditions. People get bored with acrobatics, they want to see blood. The artists comply, because they are ambitious but also because they know that it is the only way that allows them to continue. Time moves on and it becomes evident that commercial air service will put an end to the adventurous phase of aviation. Hollywood seems to be the only way out. Acrobats are needed as stunt-men there. The grindhouse routine of the dream factory is not to their liking, but what else can they do? On a set Waldo Pepper meets a famous German flyer he idolizes. Much to his surprise this Erich von Stroheim character is deeply in debt. „In the air, I see heroism, chivalry and a spirit of comraderie", rasps the German, „but on the ground ..." He just limply shrugs. The final quixotic showdown between Pepper and the German is a natural and very good ending of this surprisingly „deep" and rather pessimistic movie that offers far more than nostalgia.