Wings Of Courage

The 40-minute film was written by Annaud with Alain Godard. It was the first dramatic film shot in the IMAX format.

Wings of Courage
IMAX theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jean-Jacques Annaud
Written by	Alain Godard Jean-Jacques Annaud
Produced by	Jean-Jacques Annaud Richard Briggs Antoine Compin Charis Horton
Starring	Craig Sheffer Tom Hulce Elizabeth McGovern Val Kilmer
Cinematography	Robert Fraisse
Edited by	Louise Rubacky
Music by	Gabriel Yared
Production company	Iwerks Entertainment
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates	April 21, 1995 (1995-04-21) (United States) September 18, 1996 (1996-09-18) (France)
Running time	40 minutes (United States) 50 minutes (France)
Countries	France United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$15,054,636

Wings of Courage is an account of the real-life story of early airmail operations in South America.

In 1930 South America, a small group of French pilots led by aviation pioneer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Tom Hulce) struggle to prove they can offer a reliable airmail service over the Andes. When one of the young airmail pilots, Henri Guillaumet (Craig Sheffer), crashes on such a flight in the Andes, a search is started. Henri has to try and get back to civilization on foot. Back home, his wife Noelle (Elizabeth McGovern) and colleagues start to fear the worst.

Wings of Courage was the first IMAX 3-D short film created to be projected on the world's largest screens, with a process that uses a wider film gauge, more intense light and a brighter screen (covered with five coats of silver). The 3-D glasses were also a new type, liquid crystal lenses that are controlled by radio waves with each lens blinking 48 times a second, in sync with the projected image. The film was shot on location over 50 days in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada with an additional 10 days of photography in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

For Roger Ebert', Wings of Courage is "... a technical, rather than an artistic achievement." In the review in The New York Times, Caryn James had a similar evaluation: "'Wings of Courage' is a swooping, old-fashioned adventure tale that uses flashy newfangled technology. The first fiction movie made for IMAX 3-D (the format that makes everyone wear oversized, goofy-looking goggles), this 40-minute film plays to the strengths of its 3-D technique. It's a winning ploy. Film critic Leonard Maltin considered Wings of Courage, "Beautiful scenery aside, this is a lumbering, boring true-life adventure ... Dramatically speaking, it's about as lively as a 1930s Monogram programmer.

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