Wings (1927) made film history by becoming the only silent film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. The movie is also historic because it featured the first same-sex kiss in a mainstream Hollywood movie. If it is not the first, it is one of the earliest known films to show a same-sex kiss.
Jack Preston is a keen auto mechanic, building and modifying cars, David Armstrong comes from a wealthy family. They are both in love with the same woman, Sylvia. Her heart belongs to David but she doesn’t let Jack know and plays along with his infatuation.
With the story happening in the First World War, both become fighter pilots and their rivalry eventually transforms into a close friendship.
The climax of the film arrives with a dying David being comforted by Jack. Despite all that’s happened between them, their deep friendship and affection for each other is clearly shown in this scene. Not just in a kiss, but in the way the two male characters talk and act towards each other in their last few moments together.
That’s the storyline. But neither, as writer Kevin Sessums writes, “shows as much love for her … as they do for each other.”
