an IMAX film
[Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1930] -- two legendary French aviation
pioneers, Jean Mermoz (Val Kilmer) and Antoine de St. Exupéry (Tom Hulce) --
head of the Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, the first to ever fly mail
between South American cities and France. Mermoz, a daredevil pilot, is a
charismatic, astonishingly handsome, French cultural icon -- the future hero
of the Atlantic. St. Exupéry, witty, eccentric, intellectual, is a famous
writer who will later gain even greater fame as the author of the literary
classic, Le Petit Prince.
Having heard of Henri Guillaumet's (Craig Sheffer) flying exploits and
needing another young pilot to cover the Santiago de Chile/Buenos Aires
route, the two famous airmen recruit Henri to fly for them. Henri has two
passions in life: flying and his devoted and trusting wife, Noëlle
(Elizabeth McGovern). The night before Henri's first mail delivery, Mermoz
tells him that the route he will be flying is a treacherous run across the
Andes Cordillera range, where the mountains peak at 21,000 feet.
"If you drop, you'll never be found again," he says, "remember the local
saying: 'the Andes don't give men back.'" Flying the Cordillera, Henri runs
into weather problems from the start. On one flight, as St. Exupéry is
waiting for him to deliver the European mail in Buenos Aires, his bi-plane
is badly damaged by a fierce hail storm. He is forced to turn back to
Santiago. Taking Aéropostale's motto "the mail is more important than life"
literally, he takes off again the next morning in a patched-up plane,
against worse weather conditions.
Crossing the monumental range with lightning ripping through the clouds,
Henri makes a brave attempt at getting through. Bashed by the storm, the
plane plummets, and Henri is forced to crash-land on a frozen mountain lake,
lost in the Andes, miles from civilization.
When a search plane passes by without seeing him, Henri buries the mail in
the snow with a marker so it can be located later, and starts his walk
through the desolate, frozen landscape of the Cordillera. Driven by his love
for his wife, Henri treks for days, in a quasi delirium, his body ravaged by
the cold and exhaustion. He is finally found, half dead by a group of
Argentine Gauchos who contact St. Exupéry and the rescue team.
Ten days later, Henri is back on duty for Aéropostale...flying over the
Andes.
The film is an inspiring true story of three legendary
and pioneering French aviators who made the first historic and extremely
dangerous airmail flights across the treacherous mountain ranges of the
Andes.
The French company Aéropostale was one of the first to fly the mail
from continent to continent. During the 1920s and 1930s, French mail planes
regularly traversed some of the world's most forbidding terrain. In
the process pilots were killed on an average of one per month. Because
of the risks involved, the company turned to talented and idealistic young
pilots whose dedication to duty knew no bounds. These pilots are remembered
as some of the most heroic adventurers of all time.
Antoine de St. Exupéry |
Jean Mermoz |
Henri Guillaumet |
The chief pilot of Aéropostale's operations in South America was Antoine de
St. Exupéry, who had developed his love of flying while serving as a French
combat pilot during World War I. He incorporated his extraordinary
experiences with Aéropostale into his literary classics, among them Wind,
Sand and Stars, Night Flight and The Little Prince (which
still sells 135,000 copies a year in America alone). "Saint Ex.," as
the other pilots called him, disappeared over the South of France while
flying a reconnaissance mission in 1944. He is remembered as the poet of
aviation as well as a courageous and pioneering pilot.
Jean Mermoz, chief pilot for Aéropostale in South America, opened the
scheduled route from Buenos Aires to Santiago de Chile with Henri Guillaumet
less than a year before Guillaumet's historical crash. Mermoz was one of the
most celebrated aviators of his time - handsome and dashing, making a career
of lofty adventures. A natural in the spotlight, with a tendency toward the
grandiose, Mermoz was the first to cross the South Atlantic in May 1930. As
Mermoz said: "Death in a bed is real misfortune, but in a plane, flying the
blue sky, it becomes perfectly acceptable." He disappeared the way he
wanted, flying over the Atlantic Ocean.
Salvage crews right the Potez 25 after Guillaumet's crash
in 1930
On June 13, 1930, while flying the mail over the Andes Mountains, the most
treacherous route of the time, Henri Guillaumet went down, crash-landing
his Potez 25 biplane on a frozen lake. Alive and alone in the snow-covered
mountain range, Guillaumet was faced with two choices: wait to be
discovered or walk. For six days, he walked through the Andes until, near
death, he was discovered by a group of Argentine Gauchos. "The Hero of the
Cordillera," his rescue was celebrated around the world as one of the
greatest survival stories of all time. Henri Guillaumet ultimately made 343
flights over the Andes for Aéropostale.
Guillaumet flying his Potez 25 over the Andes Mountains,
c. 1930.
Painting by Paul Lengellé
The Potez 25 biplane used on the Aéropostale's South American routes could
climb to 19,000 feet and was almost indestructible. It had a top speed of
136 mph and a range of 310 miles. Henri Guillaumet's Potez that crash-landed
in the Andes during a snowstorm was recovered almost intact a few months
later. The Potez 25 became the most widely used plane of its day, and some
4,000 were eventually built.
The first pilot to make it through the Andes was a Chilean named Cortinez. A
French woman pilot Adrienne Bolland soon followed him. Flying across the
Andes was considered one of the most daring adventures, until Jean Mermoz
opened the regular scheduled air mail route from Buenos Aires to Santiago de
Chile for Aéropostale.
Wings of Courage is now available on VHS\DVD from
most of the video sources.
The film is 40 minutes in length and originally appeared in IMAX
theatres in 1995.
It was released for video in 1998, and is available for $19.95.
