Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

JohnHowardReid A Leland Hayward/Billy Wilder Production. Copyright 1957 by Warner Bros Pictures. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 21 February 1957. U.S. release: 20 April 1957. U.K. release: 11 August 1957. Australian release: 31 October 1957. 12,138 feet. 134 dreary minutes.SYNOPSIS: The story is Charles A. Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. As an airmail pilot Lindbergh (Stewart) becomes aware of the possibility of a successful journey across the Atlantic. He struggles to find backers for his project. He finally gets a group of St Louis business men to promote the trip and a single-engine monoplane is built and then named by the backers, "The Spirit of St Louis". NOTES: Negative cost: $6 million. Initial worldwide rentals gross: just over $4 million. Almost all of this money was earned in the domestic market, making it one of the top 25 box-office attractions in the U.S.A./Canada for 1957. The film lost at least $2 million dollars world-wide when you include advertising and release costs.Louis Lichtenfield was nominated for an Academy Award for his Visual Effects, losing to the only other nominee, The Enemy Below.Filmed on location at Santa Monica Airport, Long Island, Manhattan, Guyancourt, near Versailles, and (aerial scenes) along the Great Circle flight-line, August 1955-March 1956.VIEWERS' GUIDE: A sure-fire deterrent for kids who might be tempted to misbehave. "Johnny, you start just one more fight with little Virgil and I'll make you watch The Spirit of St Louis all the way through."COMMENT: It's a sad but inevitable fact of life that yesterday's super-heroes are today's forgotten men and women. Idols usually do not span generations. There are many reasons for this, but I guess the principal ones are that the new generation is naturally suspicious of the values of the old and - at the other end of the scale - that historical accomplishments have no elements of suspense. We know Lindy is going to successfully overcome all sorts of obstacles to get his plane ready and then accomplish the mission. So I'm not surprised the picture failed at the box-office. I'm not saddened either, because in a way it deserved its fate. The picture is made in a very craftsmanlike fashion - and on a spectacular budget too - but for the most part it's very stolidly and unimaginatively put together. The take-off sequence is inventively and suspensefully cut, but why wasn't the whole film? It could have come in at a third the length and given us as much information, but three times the thrillsWhile Wilder is to be commended for not throwing in a spurious love interest, the net result is to focus all the film's attention on James Stewart. If you're a Stewart fan, fine. He's in just about every frame. All the other players have miniscule roles.Director Wilder fans, however, are advised to avoid this plodding Spirit. There is precious little wit and no incisive social comment here.OTHER VIEWS: With eight box-office hits in a row behind him, it seemed unlikely that-James Stewart would give Warner Brothers what Jack L. Warner a few years later called "the most disastrous failure we ever had". - Allen Eyles in James Stewart.

Applause Meter Director Billy Wilder was a Jew who immigrated to the USA from Germany in the 1930s and in consequence escaped probable incineration in Nazi ovens. That Wilder would, in 1957, make a film honoring a man notorious for his fascist sympathies---well the fact of that is to me incomphrensible. Lindbergh was also a proponent of eugenics, the murder of individuals or categories of individuals adjudicated unfit to live. And this man wasn't called "Lucky Lindy" for nothing; others had died attempting the same Atlantic crossing he succeeded in accomplishing. Why? Well he was jut lucky. No god-like qualifications required. There were actors that purportedly turned down the role of Lindbergh for the very reasons mentioned above. The man's politics and values were repugnant. Not obviously so for Jimmy Stewart, a staunch political conservative who had a lifelong obsession with aviation. The 47- year-old Stewart looking every year of his age lobbied and won the role of the 20-something Charles Lindbergh. The film is just another Hollywood glorification, a whitewash of a historical figure, more fiction than fact. Stewart is the stock Jimmy Stewart readily recognizable as the simple, unpretentious, plainspoken "All American" guy he portrayed in all his films. Nothing like the real Lindbergh who by all accounts was a man ruled by hubris, an arrogant man with an unshakeable confidence in his own abilities and beliefs. Stewart gives us a determined Lindbergh, yet one humble and self-effacing, far removed from who Lindbergh actually was. Aside from the significant ugly back-story to this production, it is just plain and simple, a big bore. The script lacks any nuance of character; it is full of the tropes associated with grit and heroism. Are we supposed to be amused by the monologues Stewart has with an uncredited character, the fly who does a very convincing job portraying an unexpected cockpit stole away getting a free ride to Paris? There needs to be another demarcation to "grade" films like "The Spirit of St. Louis." A little icon of a bomb should be available for stinkers like this.

GUENOT PHILIPPE I already saw this film two decades ago. Well, I am glad to have seen it again. But I only realize now how much this film is boring. I almost fell asleep during the viewing; and, you certainly won't believe in this: I almost felt asleep at the same time Jimmy Stewart during his incredible flight, during the very same sequence. Watching this Billy Wilder's feature is sometimes so boring...As the fabulous flight he describes so well although.And I was also surprised to realize that there was no female character in this movie. And I don't understand why. It's not a man's film, as were some Bob Aldrich's films, a manhood movie, where the absence of women could be easily explained. In this movie, I don't understand. I was really surprised. But that doesn't bother me. Just surprised. A - even short - relationship between Stewart and a woman would not have spoiled the film. On the contrary, it could have given it some more interest. 135 minutes without women just describing the first Atlantic crossing flight...That's the most incredible, maybe more than the Lindberg's flight itself.I won't argue about the accuracy concerning the actual details that may be shown or not. I am not a historian.

DKosty123 On this day of James Stewarts Birthday, I revisited this movie. After watching this, I have to admit it is still an excellent film. Whenever aviation history is taught, this should be required viewing. There are 2 major reasons for this.Billy Wilder's script sticks with the story here. There are pleasant little flashbacks but every one of them are built into making the main story stronger. This script and story get perfect treatment and Wilder proves how great a writer he was. This is not an easy thing with this script. It could have been too long, too heavy handed, too overboard.James Stewart proves how talented he is. He carries this entire over 2 hour film. Yes, there is a support cast, but in this case Stewart does such a great job that it is hard to imagine anyone else carrying the film like he does. This is one of Stewarts great performances. It is so good you can actually believe he is Lindbergh for over 2 Hours.A very fitting Birthday film indeed for Stewart, his candles are all lit on the cake for this movie.