Further comments are redundant. . .

Rating: 10/10 (2 July 2006)

nonetheless, I'll throw in my two cents.
"Gone With The Wind" is surely the best-known American movie ever made, but as is obvious from many other comments here, it is beloved the world over. No one film can claim the title of the "greatest movie ever made," but there are plenty of reasons for the enduring, almost mythical popularity of GWTW.
This was the finest hour for many of the principals involved, most notably producer David O. Selznick, whose baby it was and who was as ruthless as his heroine in getting exactly the movie he wanted. Every scene bears his stamp, with its exacting attention to period detail, costumes, music and lighting.
Focusing purely on the spectacular look of GWTW for a moment, it owes many of its special effects to the painstaking efforts of talented glass painters (as shown in the excellent documentary "The Making of a Legend.") William Cameron Menzies's production design and Lyle Wheeler's sets are so strong as to almost be secondary characters. Setting afire to many old MGM sets to simulate the burning of Atlanta was a master stroke. It's clear you're watching a real fire, not just CGI. And what about that scene's conclusionwith the railroad cars full of ammo going POW! POW! POW! and then the facade of the burning building falling in graceful slow motionjust as the wagon rattles past. (Film buffs know that burning building was once the gates used in "King Kong" (1933), and that stagehands pulled guywires to bring the facade down on cue. Doesn't matter. It's wonderful film-making.)
And I haven't even mentioned the depth and clarity of the Technicolor process, seldom used to such great advantage as it is here. Painstaking restoration work in recent years has revived the vivid colors captured by Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan. Over time the film had begun to look like a slideshow of faded picture postcards, but no more.
Finally, it's Hattie McDaniel's portrayal of the indomitable Mammy that seems to improve year after year. More so even than Olivia De Havilland's Melanie, Mammy is the moral compass of the film. Even before she becomes a free woman midway through the film, Mammy is dignity personified. She is also pragmatic and bursting with common sense. Only she can prevail upon the headstrong Scarlett in every area (except matters of the heart).
I've long been convinced the scene that won for Hattie McDaniel the Oscar she so well deserved is the staircase scene with Melanie, who she's summoned to console Rhett. Rhett has said earlier that Mammy is one of the few people "whose respect I'd like to have." By the film's end, he has it, and so do we.