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 examines his sense of postwar dislocation in 1920s America.

The Great Waldo Pepper depicts barnstorming during the 1920s and the accidents that led to aviation regulations by the Air Commerce Act.

1926: World War I veteran Waldo Pepper feels he has missed out on the glory of aerial combat after being made a flight instructor.

Soon after, at the Muncie Fair, another tragedy occurs with the Dillhoefer Circus when Ezra (flying in place of the grounded Waldo) attempts the outside loop in the monoplane.

Waldo Pepper was inspired by a combination of real-life barnstormers, such as Ormer Locklear (1891-1920), Speed Holman (1898-1931), and Earl Daugherty (1887-1928), whose photos appear in the opening credits.

[3] A daring aviator, military veteran and budding film star, Locklear is reputed to be the main inspiration for the character of Pepper.

Aerial sequences were filmed at Zuehl Airfield near San Antonio, which is not too far from Fort Sam Houston, where the pioneering silent aviation classic Wings was shot in 1926-27.

[citation needed] Hill, who flew as a U.S. Marine Corps cargo pilot in World War II, made sure stars Bo Svenson and Robert Redford did each sequence with no parachutes or safety harnesses.

[citation needed] The aerial sequences staged by Frank Tallman included the climactic fight between Waldo Pepper and Kessler.

[9] The Great Waldo Pepper opened to mixed to good reviews, with the biggest praise going to the film's aerial sequences.

Its moods don't quite mesh and its aerial sequences are so vivid— sometimes literally breathtaking— that they upstage the human drama, but the total effect is healthily romantic.

"[10] Leonard Maltin noted that the film disappointed at the box office, and, although compared to earlier efforts such as The Sting (1973), it was director George Roy Hill's "more personal" account that "... wavers uncomfortably between slapstick and drama.

In 2021, a Smithsonian Magazine article wrote that barnstorming "is tangled up with real aviation history, dubious tall tales, nostalgia, and old movies such as The Great Waldo Pepper.