The Best Movie Of Each Year From 1925-2025

Honourable Mentions: Metropolis, Napoleon, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

1927 was a monumental year for silent cinema, with Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Abel Gance's Napoleon two of the most formative and defining pieces of filmmaking from that era. Masterpieces as those two films are, however, William A. Wellman's Wings is so monumental in influence and technical daring that it's impossible to ignore.

Wellman, who was himself an aviator during the First World War, orchestrated some of the most iconic shots ever put to screen in Wings, with its story of two rival pilots overcoming their feud while the great Clara Bow attempts to win the affections of one still utterly engrossing and balletic almost 100 years on from its release.