The One And Only

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2004)

It's the yardstick by which all other film epics are judged, and after 65 years "Gone With The Wind" still remains Hollywood's most fully realized super production, a brilliant one-of-a-kind meeting of perfect casting, great acting, superb direction (by a number of hands), magnificently photographed Technicolor tableau and possibly the most romantic music score ever composed for a movie. Sidney Howard's screen adaptation expertly distilled Margaret Mitchell's rambling, compulsively readable novel into a concise 3 hour, 40 minute running time that amazingly captured all of the novel's dramatic high points. "Gone with The Wind" is obviously the reel version of the American Civil War as opposed to the real thing but as entertainment it is an unparalleled achievement in cinematic storytelling. Since its release in 1939 very few films of its kind have matched it in sweep and spectacle.
"Gone with The Wind" does show its age : its special effects look downright quaint to 21st century eyes but in its inexorable depiction of a particular American War and Peace it is unforgettable.