The Sky Pilot

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Movie
Original title The Sky Pilot
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1921
length 77 minutes
Rod
Director King Vidor
script Faith Green ,
John McDermott
production Cathrine Curtis
camera L. William O'Connell ,
Gus Patterson
occupation

The Sky Pilot is an American silent film - Western by King Vidor from the year 1921. The plot is based on an eponymous, 1900 published novel by Canadian writer and priest Ralph Connor (1860-1937).

action

A young clergyman arrives for his first job in a small village far from the big cities in a cold climate. The village community is made up to a large extent of rough cowboys who think little of the church and give the young man the nickname "Sky Pilot". When the Sky Pilot holds his first service at the local pub and sermons on the miraculous multiplication of the bread , foreman Bill Hendricks questions the multiplication and makes fun of the young clergyman. Hendricks refuses to leave the service despite requests, so that the Sky Pilot steps in and gets into a fight with Hendricks. The pastor can win the fight, but is expelled from the village by the other cowboys and abandoned in the wilderness.

Hendricks has developed sympathy for the Sky Pilots through the courageous fight and lends a hand. If he wants to gain the respect of the village community as a pastor, he must first understand their way of life and take on physical work himself, says Hendricks. He ensures that the Sky Pilot is also employed as an assistant at his employer, the rich cattle baron Ashley. The pastor gradually gets used to life on the ranch and gains the respect of the other workers. He also meets the young and spirited Gwen from the neighboring ranch, whom Hendricks has been keeping an eye on for a long time. Gwen and her father, the old timer, have been on bad terms about the church since the death of Gwen's mother, which is why they also have an aversion to the Sky Pilot.

The seedy gang leader Duke has meanwhile persuaded the old timer to take part in a raid on the Ashley cattle herd. Gwen gets wind of the attack and tries to warn. She ends up in the middle of the planned attack and is almost trampled to death by the herd of cattle, but the Sky Pilot steps in courageously and saves her life - before she had already saved his life when he was shot in by the duke's revolver with his horse the raging river. However, Gwen can no longer walk as a result of her injury. In the hour of need, her father turns to the church again, also because the Sky Pilot does a touching pastoral care of the desperate Gwen.

Out of thanks and appreciation, Hendricks and the other cowboys decide to build a church for the Sky Pilot in the village. Before his first service in the church, however, he is shot by Duke and his gang, so that he cannot get to the church in time. In addition, the church is torched, whereupon Hendricks and the other villagers set fire to the saloon, in which the shady figures of the place gather. When the Sky Pilot and Gwen arrive late in the village, he sees the burning church and saves his Bible from the building. Due to the smoke, however, he collapses right in front of the church, which is about to collapse. As a result of this exceptional situation, Gwen surprisingly learns to walk again and can thus save his life. In the end, the Sky pilot married Gwen and Bill Hendricks together.

background

Director King Vidor and leading actress Colleen Moore in the snow during filming

Ralph Connor tried to express his missionary ideas through his novels like The Sky Pilot . He saw himself primarily as a priest, but also as a servant of his region and his country Canada . In the 1890s he did missionary work in remote regions in Alberta and practiced a practically inclined faith in these hostile areas with often impoverished people. At the same time he was a supporter of the abstinence movement , which is particularly evident at the end of the film, when the local pub goes up in flames.

The Sky Pilot was filmed from September to November 1920. It was the first film that director King Vidor made with his own film studio Vidor Village (which should only exist for a few years). He wanted to shoot a “clean” and humanistic western that the whole family could watch without any problems. The shooting took place in Truckee , California , where a sudden snowfall severely delayed the shooting. The summer scenes were supposed to be filmed there, but ultimately many of the scenes that played in the winter snowstorm were created in Truckee. When the winter scenes were supposed to be recorded two months later in November and the crew drove to Truckee a second time, the snow did not fall as much as needed and King Vidor ordered a mass of salt to act as a visual substitute for the snow. In addition to Truckee, the Canadian towns of Wainwright and Banff were also shooting locations for the film, in the latter town Ralph Connor was also a pastor. In the end, the planned budget was significantly exceeded during the shooting.

The producer of the film was the well-to-do actress Catherine Curtis , from 1919 one of the first female film producers in the film industry. In the 1930s and 1940s, she attracted attention primarily through the publication of anti-Semitic and right-wing extremist texts.

restoration

At the Berlinale 2020 on the occasion of the retrospective of King Vidor, a restored version of the film was presented as a 2K - DCP .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dummitt, Chris. 2013. "The 'Taint of Self': Reflections on Ralph Connor, His Fans, and the Problem of Morality in Recent Canadian Historiography." Histoire sociale / Social History 46 (1): 72.
  2. ↑ Jeff Codori: Colleen Moore: A Biography of the Silent Film Star . McFarland, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7864-4969-9 ( google.de [accessed March 4, 2020]).
  3. ^ Catherine Curtis: Glens Falls Film Pioneer. In: The New York History Blog. December 31, 2019, accessed March 4, 2020 (American English).
  4. ^ The Sky Pilot (1921) at the Berlinale. Retrieved March 4, 2020 .