From the Collection: Hell’s Angels
Howard Hughes’s 1930s war epic Hell’s Angels has been added to the Criterion Collection.
A high-flying feat of adventure filmmaking and a testament to the audacious, spare-no-expense vision of Howard Hughes, this landmark aviation epic remains exhilarating both for its daredevil aerial sequences and its nervy pre-Code punch. With the onset of World War I, two British brothers recruited into the Royal Flying Corps (Ben Lyon and James Hall) find their bond tested by their differing attitudes toward the war and their love for the same woman (Jean Harlow in her bombshell breakthrough). The product of a notoriously long and dangerous production that resulted in the deaths of multiple crew members, Hell’s Angels broke new technical ground, making use of early sound and color technologies, and capturing some of the most thrilling dogfight scenes ever filmed.
Here’s What the Disc Includes:
- New 4K digital restoration of the Magnascope road-show version of the film, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New interview with Robert Legato, the visual-effects supervisor for the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, on the groundbreaking aerial visuals of Hell’s Angels
- New interview with critic Farran Smith Nehme about actor Jean Harlow
- Outtakes from the film, with commentary by Harlow biographer David Stenn
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- New cover by Sam Hadley
- PLUS: An essay by author and journalist Fred Kaplan
Hell’s Angels had been a movie that I had wanted to see since I first learned about the film in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays the eccentric Hughes. A lot of the first half of The Aviator focuses on Hughes making Hell’s Angels, from the chaotic production to the premiere, and it’s the most compelling part of Scorsese’s film. Scorsese showed the madness of Hughes’ genius and the passion he had to get the perfect shot and make a movie unlike anything anyone had seen at that point.
My brain cannot process how Hughes made this film. This is an epic war film that features some of the most jaw-dropping aerial battle sequences I’ve ever seen in a movie. How Hughes was able to pull this off is an impressive feat of directing and a showcase of his genius. Hell’s Angels is also a great historical piece of cinema as a seminal film bridging the gap between silent films and talkies. It’s a great melodrama and war film with a strong turn from Gene Harlow. Hell’s Angels was on my must-watch list for over 20 years, and it did not disappoint.
The Criterion release doesn’t offer too much in terms of special features, but it is a beautiful restoration of a classic war film that holds up incredibly well after nearly 100 years.
You can find Hell’s Angels on the Criterion Collection website or wherever you find Criterion DVDs.
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From the Collection is an analysis of non-new-release movies, whether seen on DVD, streaming, or in a theater. It includes a brief history of the film, a review of the film, and content about the experience of seeing the film and/or the contents of the film’s DVD.
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