The Great Waldo Pepper
| The Great Waldo Pepper | |
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Theatrical release poster by Gary Meyer
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| Directed by | George Roy Hill |
| Produced by | George Roy Hill |
| Written by | George Roy Hill William Goldman |
| Starring |
Robert Redford Bo Svenson Margot Kidder Bo Brundin Susan Sarandon |
| Music by | Henry Mancini |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
| Edited by | William H. Reynolds |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million |
| Box office | $20,642,922 |
The Great Waldo Pepper is a 1975 American drama film directed, produced, and co-written by George Roy Hill. Set during 1926–1931, the film stars Robert Redford as a disaffected World War I veteran pilot who missed the opportunity to fly in combat and his sense of postwar dislocation in 1920s America. The cast also includes Margot Kidder, Bo Svenson, Edward Herrmann and Susan Sarandon. The Great Waldo Pepper basically depicts barnstorming activity in the 1920s and the accidents that led to aviation regulations by the Air Commerce Act.
World War I veteran Waldo Pepper (fictitiously 1895-1931, played by Robert Redford) feels he has missed out on the glory of aerial combat after being made a flight instructor. After the war, Waldo had taken up barnstorming to make a living. He soon tangles with rival barnstormer (and fellow war veteran) Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson).
Antagonistic at first, Waldo and Axel become partners and try out various stunts. One of these stunts, a car-to-aircraft transfer, goes wrong and Waldo is nearly killed after Axel is unable to climb high enough to clear a barn, slamming Waldo into it. Waldo then goes home to Kansas to be with on-again, off-again girlfriend Maude (Kidder) and her family. Maude, however, is not happy to see Waldo at first; because every time she does, Waldo is injured in some way. Eventually, however, they make up and become lovers once again. Meanwhile, Maude's brother Ezra (Ed Herrmann), a long-time friend of Waldo's since boyhood, promises to build Waldo a high-performance monoplane as soon as he is well enough to fly it. Waldo's goal is to become the first pilot in history to successfully perform an outside loop, and Ezra feels Waldo can do it with the monoplane.
In the meantime, Waldo rejoins Axel. The two eventually get a job flying for a traveling flying circus owned by Doc Dillhoefer (Philip Bruns). However, Dillhoefer's Flying Circus is in a slump, as there is very little attendance at the shows. So in an effort to attract bigger crowds, Dillhoefer hires Mary Beth (Susan Sarandon) to act as the show's new sexual attraction, in which she would climb out on the wing of an aircraft in flight wearing shredded clothes, thus allowing the wind to blow them off. But while performing this new stunt for the first time, Mary Beth freezes up on the wing, afraid to return to the cockpit. As Waldo (who did a "plane-to-plane transfer" in flight to climb aboard Mary Beth's aircraft) extends his hand to help Mary Beth back into the cockpit, she slips and falls off the wing to her death. As a result of Mary Beth's death, Waldo, Axel, and Dillhoefer are temporarily grounded by an inspector of the newly formed Air Commerce division of the federal government, Newt Potts (Geoffrey Lewis), a man from Waldo's war past.
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