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The Great Waldo Pepper
Directed by	George Roy Hill
Written by	William Goldman, George Roy Hill
Starring	Robert Redford, Bo Svenson, Susan Sarandon
Release date(s)	1975
Running time	107 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) tells the story of a biplane pilot (Robert Redford) who missed out on the glory of combat in World War I after being assigned as a flight instructor instead. As the film opens, the war is over and Waldo has taken up barnstorming to make a living.

He soon tangles with a rival barnstormer, portrayed by actor Bo Svenson. The two cross paths again quickly, and eventually both wind up flying for the same employer, Dillhoefer (Philip Bruns), who owns a traveling air show. The story focuses on the exploits of the air show pilots both in the air and on the ground. In an effort to attract bigger crowds to his shows, Dillhoefer introduces several young ladies to the show including Mary Beth (Sarandon) and Patsy (Kelly Jean Peters). As the air show moves from town to town, and the crew practices new stunts, they experience problems, errors, crashes, and an incident while training for a wingwalking stunt (it is notable that Robert Redford performed his own wing-walking stunts in the film). After the incident, the air show is grounded by a Federal aviation inspector, a man from Waldo's past named Newt Geoffrey Lewis. Waldo ultimately loses his pilot's license (but this doesn't stop him from flying for very long).

Waldo hears about an opportunity to fly stunts for the movie industry in Hollywood, California. This is his chance to fulfill his lifelong quest for the glory that had escaped him. He eventually gets a chance to prove himself in a film depicting the dog fights from the Great War. Waldo's antagonist throughout the story, the German air ace Ernst Kessler, is based on the real ace and stunt flier Ernst Udet. Pilot Frank Tallman provided the magnificent flying sequences, using actual planes - not models.

This movie was filmed on location in Lockhart, Texas

Edward Herrmann as Ezra Styles

Bo Brundin as Ernst Kessler

Margot Kidder as Maude

• The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) at the Internet Movie Database

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