The Spirit of St. Louis

I must have seen this 5 or 6 times at least, but I paid to see it one more time. Great older movie, don't make them like that anymore.

I saw this movie when I was a child. That prompted me to become a life fan of Charles Lindberg. As far as I am concerned, one the worlds greatest explorers.

I decided to get this film because I got curious about Lindbergh's translatlantic flight and I couldn't find the details of the journey anywhere on the internet. so I figured I'd give this a shot.I was not disappointed. If anyone wants to know the nuts and bolts about the flight, this is an excellent and detailed exposition, and generally very accurate, as I later found out.The first half of the movie goes into great detail about how the flight was planned, and how the plane -- "The Spirit of St. Louis" -- was named and made to order in San Diego, all of this is in flashback from the night before Lindbergh leaves. Then, when he finally takes off, the film does a wonderful montage accompanied by Franz Waxman's soaring divided strings that recapitulates all the characters from earlier in the film. Just beautifully done.The second half of the film is the flight itself, which has some tense moments, but boredom is alleviated by a few flashbacks on Lindbergh's earlier life. Finally, he lands in Paris, is mobbed, and the film ends somewhat abruptly.I was surpised by the film on many levels. The acting, the set design, the score, the edits, were all first class (I did not know it was a Billy Wilder film.) Not surprising for a Billy Wilder film was the emphasis on being a good person (a "mensch" as described in some of his other films), somewhat surprising was the emphasis -- especially at the end -- on faith, togetherness, and working together for a common goal. Just a wonderful evocation of Americanism from a bygone day, and a film that actually manages to communicate the importance of Lindbergh's accomplishment. Wilder also had a hand in the script, with many clever plants and payoffs and witty cross references. Highly Recommended.

Charles Lindbergh was one of the great flyers, and this excellent film tells the story well. The May 1927 flight of the "Spirit of St. Louis" across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris was an epic achievement by a great pilot and a great flight team. In real life Charles Lindbergh was known to be a somewhat distant personality, while actor James Stewart's irrepressibly warm personality cannot be suppressed in his Lindbergh role despite Stewart's stellar acting skills. No matter. Stewart is a magnificent Charles Lindbergh, and carries off the role in a thoughtful, even wistful way that makes this a spellbinding film worthy of repeated viewings.The film is told as Lindbergh first seeks financial backers, and then a suitable airplane for his dream of flying the New York-Paris flight. This linear story is embellished with flashbacks that tell the story of how Lindbergh became a pilot, and indeed a redoubtable one. This is important because in 1927, when Lindbergh made the flight, it is probably not too much to say that this achievement was near the cutting edge of the state-of-the-art for flight engineering. This enables the viewer to appreciate the difficulties faced by Lindbergh and his aeronautical engineering team, first in designing an airplane that was suitable for flight of this duration, and secondly, Lindbergh's challenge of navigating the plane thousands of miles, much of it across the Atlantic Ocean with no navigation checkpoints, solely by compass and dead-reckoning. Truly an incredible feat; not made easier by the fact that Lindbergh had to stay awake for the entire multi-day flight.Lindbergh's landing in Paris is no doubt one of the most dramatic moments in history and this film does a fine job of allowing the viewer to appreciate why. A great film. RJB.

We have watched this film so many times we finally wore out our copy. We purchased as a replacement. It's perfect! It's a great film about early air flight.

A good Jimmy Stewart movie, base on historical events.

muy bien , perfecto, gracias.

La venta y entrega se hicieron bien y sin complicaciones muy recomendable

Although this movie is more than 50 years old it is still a good movie. In my opinion James Stewart is the right actor to perform Charles Lindbergh. Despite the fact that the running time are more than two hours the movie is never boring. There are sequences of the early life ( pilot with the US air mail, crash in a snow storm, later on the search for people spending the money, the fear that someone could cross the Atlantic ocean before him ( Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli ) and finally Ryan Aeronautical Company in San Diego, California, where the aircraft was constructed in less than ninety days ( without computer design, nowadays hard to believe ) ). The flight over the Atlantic ocean is also lightened up with sequences from earlier times .Great movie about a great event in aviation

For Billy Wilder's 1957 film THE SPIRIT OF ST.LOUIS, Jimmy Stewart was widely considered to be too old to play aviator Charles Lindbergh, but he looks younger in this than he did in the western NIGHT PASSAGE, released in the same year, and the movie remains a big favourite of mine amongst his (very varied) output. It was a big departure for Billy Wilder too, bridging the gap between the dark humours of THE BIG CARNIVAL aka ACE IN THE HOLE and STALAG 17, and the later comedies that began with SOME LIKE IT HOT. It contains few of his trademarks and is perhaps a shade overlong, but nonetheless is an engrossing experience.And SPIRIT is yet another film in which music plays a significant part and, in this case, it practically becomes another character in the story, especially in the long flying sequences devoid of dialogue. One particularly moving scene deserves a brief mention here and it occurs when Lindbergh is preparing for his flight. A huge crowd has gathered, and when he calls for assistance in the shape of a mirror, a woman emerges from the throng and offers her make-up mirror. She tells him that not only has she been waiting out on Roosevelt field all night to see him off, but that she has also travelled all the way from Philadelphia for the privelege. When Lindbergh asks her why she should have come all that way, she replies "I had to! You needed the mirror!" Later, as part of a montage sequence, we see her travelling home by train, and as she looks in the bag for the mirror, she remembers who she has given it to, and her face turns slowly up to the sky. The point is highlighted and turned into a pivot by Franz Waxman's wonderful score. Such moments are quintessentially cinema, and all the rarer for that.The colour photography is great - Hitch's favourite cameraman Robert Burks, who had recently won an Academy Award for TO CATCH A THIEF, shares credit with J.Peverall Marley. The screenplay is co-written by Wilder and the talented Wendell Mayes. A final mention too for the score, the opening bars of the main-title being strongly reminiscent of Waxman's own OBJECTIVE,BURMA! As Lindy approaches Ireland, a high-spirited Irish jig accompanies this sequence, before a beautiful segue (continuous in the movie) into a very "English" sound for the Devon coastline and Plymouth.This review is for the Warner Home Video release, which is presented in the original cinema ratio and, best of all, in 5.1 Dolby Stereo, a unique experience for anyone with an ear for that unforgettable music. What is more, the disc plays perfectly on my old Sanyo Region 2 player, a feature I have discovered with a number of other Warner Region 1 DVDs.