In my ever present (at least in the back of my mind) effort to see more films made in the 1970s, today I chose The Great Waldo Pepper (1975).  For whatever reason, it is one of late star Robert Redford’s lesser-known movies.  However, if you are an aviation fan, you might be familiar with its reputation for death-defying aerial stunts.  I was pleased to see that it is a period piece, focusing on an often overlooked aspect of America’s past.  What I am talking about is the barnstorming era of daredevil pilots, many of whom flew during World War I, who thrilled audiences in the 1920s with their midair hijinks.  There is a fatalistic tone to this story, too, one that is worrisome for a practicing Catholic who understands the value of life.

Speaking of life, that fatalistic tone is present from the start of The Great Waldo Pepper, with a wall of fallen pilots who took their lives into their hands and paid the ultimate price.  My apologies for spoiling things so soon, but this is foreshadowing.  The flyer on whom we focus is the title character (Robert Redford), who floats through the skies of Nebraska in 1926, landing wherever he can garner a crowd.  Once there, he charges spectators a few dollars for a brief ride, while a local kid, Scooter (Patrick W. Henderson), shuttles gasoline for Waldo.  Scooter’s reward is a free trip, and Waldo is invited to dinner with the boy’s family.  While at supper, he regales them with a tale of his battle with the infamous German ace, Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin), during the war.  The next day as Waldo is in flight over more farmland when he notices competition trying the same stunt as him.  This is Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson).  Touching down nearby, out of earshot of those gathered, Waldo protests that Nebraska is his territory.  Axel ignores the complaints and prepares to take off.  However, before he gets underway, Waldo loosens the landing gear, which fall away once Axel is aloft.  Waldo then charges everyone to witness the crash and escapes before it happens.  Fortunately, Axel survives and he catches up with Waldo in a nearby diner as he is having a date with a mutual acquaintance, Mary Beth McIlheney (Susan Sarandon).  Waldo is telling the story as he wove to Scooter’s family.  The problem is that Scooter served as well, and knows that Waldo is using the feats of a dead man.  To be sure, Waldo did fly for the American Army during the conflict, but his skills never got to be put to use in combat.  Apropos of his prevarication, Ernst is now performing for Doc Dillhoefer’s (Philip Bruns) flying circus.  Waldo goes to see the show and he is joined there by his friend and inventor, Ezra Stiles (Edward Herrmann).  While Waldo’s attention is on the sky, Ezra is talking about a new plane, of the fixed wing mono variety.  Waldo believes the contraption to be crazy, and instead approaches Doc to be a part of the team.  Doc is frank: his business is death, or at least the possibility of it, and audiences are getting too used to such stunts.  In other words, Waldo has to come up with a new gimmick.  This means something riskier, and again, this Catholic cannot emphasize enough the foolhardiness of such endeavors.  The person Waldo turns to for help is Axel.  With some extra assistance from Mary Beth, they come up with an act wherein Mary Beth drives a car and Waldo climbs, all while Axel is at the controls of the plane and the vehicles are moving.  On their last test run, Waldo finally grasps the rope but smashes into a barn roof.  He lives, but is forced to convalesce on Ezra’s farm.  While there, Waldo is reunited with Maude Stiles (Margot Kidder), Ezra’s sister, with whom the injured pilot has an on-and-off relationship.  The stay affords Waldo the opportunity to see Ezra’s craft.  Upon laying eyes on it, Waldo declares that he could do an outside loop in it, an as-yet unaccomplished flying trick.  Since the plane is not ready, Waldo returns to working with Axel once he is healthy.  This time, they do wing-walking, which is exactly what it sounds like if it sounds like somebody climbing onto the wing mid-air.  Still, even this is not enough to attract crowds.  To spice things up, they try putting Mary Beth out there, who is willing to do so for her name to get top billing.  Sadly, she freezes up on her first run, leading to Waldo try a harrowing rescue that fails, with her falling to her death.  In the aftermath, Axel, Doc, and Waldo are visited by Newt Potts (Geoffrey Lewis), who represents the newly formed Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA).  The governing body’s job is to regulate the industry so that accidents like Mary Beth’s no longer happen.  Because Newt had been Waldo’s squadron commander, the latter expects leniency.  Instead, Newt grounds Axel and Waldo pending an investigation.  This means that Waldo cannot attempt the outside loop, and it is Ezra instead in the cockpit.  Ezra almost completes the stunt, but crashes and dies in the process.  Angered by the gawkers at the carnage, Waldo gets into a plane, terrorizes the onlookers, and tears through the tents before slamming into a field.  Though he survives, Newt comes to Ezra’s place to tell Waldo that he is permanently grounded.  To make ends meet, Waldo heads to California where he becomes a stuntman in the fledgling movie industry.  Yet, the allure of flying proves too much when Axel tells him of a new picture being shot about the famous Ernst dogfight.  The German pilot is on set as a technical advisor, but he proves a kindred spirit with Waldo.  Thus, on the day they plan to film the ultimate clash, the two veterans have their own competition.  With Axel and Newt watching on the ground, they use their vehicles to damage each other’s planes.  The suggestion is that they are going to crash as a result of their antics, but the credits roll before we see that happen.

While Ernst’s fate is a little less clear at The Great Waldo Pepper’s conclusion, we see Waldo’s picture on the same wall as it the beginning, suggesting that he did not land safely.  It is a fitting, though sobering, end for the pilot.  Early on, when Axel tells Mary Beth about Waldo’s lies, the eponymous character muses that it should have been him who died going against Ernst during World War I.  Again, foreshadowing.  What Waldo has is survivor’s guilt, and it is not uncommon for such people to engage in risky behavior that could result in death.  Some do it through thrill seeking, others abuse various substances.  Whatever the so-called medicine, the goal in those moments is to try and forget their emotional trauma.  The obvious answer for such ailments is God, and this Catholic has no compunction in avowing this truth.  At the same time, that might be too obvious for some.  After all, how does one tell someone used to life-and-death at the controls of an airplane that something supposedly immaterial like the Creator of the Universe is the only one able to heal his wounds?  What is necessary for anyone who desires such Divine assistance is an open heart and soul to how God wants to move you.  Too many have their minds made up about things, including God, to allow for a miracle to happen.  That does not mean it is impossible, for nothing is impossible with God.  It is that people like Waldo make it harder.  After he is grounded, Newt offers him a position with the CAA, which would keep Waldo in aviation if not in the air.  It is a fate that Waldo is unwilling to accept, though it could be where God is calling him.  Since I cannot advise him, my invitation to you is to not always fight such developments when they come up in your life.  God might be asking you to do something greater.

I am here to tell you that The Great Waldo Pepper is better than critics said of it.  Their critique mainly centered on incongruity between the plot and the airplane stunts.  I saw in it the story of a man who cannot overcome his demons, and that makes for as good a movie as any for a Catholic to discuss.