Editing To Fly! (section)

== Themes and style ==
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| quote = ''To Fly'' is [...] about the uncontaminated America that we all long to see and have so much trouble finding. [It] edit[ed] out the deteriorations of which we are daily more conscious at ground level. [...] The weather is always perfect. We never get to see a rundown city, a huge and outmoded industrial complex or a countryside [...] ruined forever. [It] is what the historians call "nature's nation".
| author = —[[John Russell (art critic)|John Russell]]
| source = ''[[The New York Times]]'' (1980)<ref name=":7" />
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''To Fly!'' is described as a [[hegemonic]] film on how the imagination of the American people pioneered aviation,<ref name=":16" />{{Rp|224}} illustrated with scenes of aircraft flying over various American landscapes.<ref name=":25" /> Film critic Daniel Eagan said most of the views depicted in its opening sequence are "stately, processional, celebrating the American landscape while remaining distant from it". From there, the film explores the US, triggering "some patriotic empathy."<ref name=":32" /> It was also viewed as a [[Nationalism|nationalist]] film, linking the American quest for [[national identity]] to the development of aviation through [[metanarrative]]s like the linear, westward journey of Americans. Like other early IMAX films, its omniscient [[visual rhetoric]] is most distinct in the space sequence.{{Efn-la|Attributed to multiple references:<ref name=":16" />{{Rp|224}}<ref name="Voyages">{{Cite book |editor-last=Ruoff |editor-first=Jeffrey|last=Griffiths|first=Alison |title=Virtual Voyages: Cinema and Travel|chapter=Time Traveling IMAX Style: Tales From the Giant Screen |date=January 24, 2006 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8223-3713-3 |location=[[Durham, North Carolina]] |publication-date=January 3, 2006 |pages=14, 241, 245, 252 |oclc=1139359751}}</ref><ref name=":45">{{Cite news|last=Gelmis|first=Joseph|date=February 19, 1982|title='To Fly': breathtaking|page=II/5|work=[[Newsday]]|location=[[Melville, New York]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91308348/|access-date=December 28, 2021|via=[[Newspapers.com]] {{Open access}}|archive-date=December 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211228162906/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91308348/newsday/|url-status=live}}</ref>}} The film generally shies away from the [[Industrial Revolution in the United States|Industrial Revolution's effects on the US]] in favor of displaying untouched nature.<ref name=":7" /> The Smithsonian said that ''To Fly!''{{'s}} theme is: "Flight, in all its forms, is part of the Human condition, part of our Destiny".<ref name=":2" /> This refers to [[manifest destiny]], a mythic cultural belief that propelled the westward expansion.<ref name=":10" />

Collins said ''To Fly!''{{'s}} style makes it "a break from the learning going on in the rest of the museum",<ref name=":1" /> and NASM board members said it is an amplification of visitors' fascination of flying after seeing the museum's exhibits.<ref name=":44">{{Cite news|date=July 1976|title=Theater Features Novel Film|page=2|work=The [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]] Torch|location=[[Washington, D.C.]]|url=https://siarchives.si.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/torch/Torch%201976/SIA_000371_1976_07_V2.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=December 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412120911/https://siarchives.si.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/torch/Torch%201976/SIA_000371_1976_07_V2.pdf|archive-date=April 12, 2019|via=[[Smithsonian Institution Archives]]}}</ref><ref name=":14" /> Film author Alison Griffiths agreed, saying that as an add-on to a museum admission, whereas the exhibits give visitors information and interest, the film gives them a sense of wonder for aviation in an effect akin to [[synesthesia]]. This is achieved through its immersive cinematography, which provides viewers with vicarious participation.<ref name=":16" />{{Rp|226}} Steve McKerrow of ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'' opined certain scenes reference classic films: the train screen-hitting scene is similar to the one from ''[[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'' (1903); the hot air balloon scenes are reminiscent of ''[[Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film)|Around the World in 80 Days]]'' (1956); and the barnstorming scene is seemingly set in the same field as the ''[[North by Northwest]]'' (1959) [[crop duster]] chase scene.<ref name=":23" /> As a [[travelogue film]] of the US, ''To Fly!'' was also compared to the closing sequence of ''This Is Cinerama''.<ref name=":32" /> The aerial shots of various lands also signify aviation's usage in cartography, [[reconnaissance]], resource exploration, [[land-use planning]], and navigation.<ref name=":2" />