American Masterpiece: Gone With The Wind

Rating: 10/10 (11 June 2006)

Gone With The Wind (1939): Starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia De Havilland, Hattie McDaniel, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Rutherford, George Reeves, Fred Cane, Oscar Polk, Butterfly McQueen, Everett Brown, Victor Jory, Howard C. Hickman, Alicia Rhett, Rand Brooks, Caroll Nye, Laura Hope Crews, Eddie Rochester Anderson, Harry Davenport, Leona Roberts, Jane Darwell, Ona Munson, Isabel Jewell, Jackie Moran, Cammie King.. ..Directors George Cukor, Sam Wood, Victor Fleming...Screenplay By Sidney Howard, Produced By David O. Selznick.
Based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel published in 1936, a novel long regarded by many to be the "Great American Novel", Gone With The Wind remains a larger-than-life, grandiose classic and the most expensive and talked about film of its day. Released in 1939, the "Wind" swept the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Actor (Clark Gable) Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first black woman to ever receive an Oscar) Best Screenplay Sidney Howard and a total of 10 Academy Awards, unheard of for a single film at the time. This is the one movie that provided everlasting fame for producer David O. Selznick. His tomb still reads: "Director of Gone With The Wind" and this zenith of American cinema masterpiece will be linked with his name, as well as the title of "great movie" for all time. At a little over 3 hours long, shot in the innovative new Technicolar and with a beautiful orchestral score by Max Steiner, it was unlike anything audiences had ever seen. Set in Georgia before, during and after the Civil War, the film is a glorified, romantic vision of the Old South and it sheds a sympathetic light over its people, never mind the issue of African-American slavery and political turmoil between North and South. Rather than focusing on large-scale historical issues, including the ante-bellum period, Civil War and Reconstruction, the film chronicles the drama of the life of the unforgettable Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) who journeys from spoiled, flirtatious Southern belle used to getting her way to resourceful, strong, independent and even jaded grown woman whose hard-up life has turned her into a complex, money-loving and semi-tragic, semi- triumphant figure. The object of her romantic pursuit ? The genteel, brooding intellectual aristocrat Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard)who cannot return her love due to his being in a strong, conventional marriage to a good wife. The REAL love of Scarlett's life ? The hot, adventurous, powerful maverick Rhett Butler (Clark Gable in his best film performance). Gable's Rhett Butler was unsurpassed, and he encompassed all the rogue qualities, machismo, strength, charm, frustration and passion of the literary hero from Mitchell's novel. An equal strong performance by Olivia De Havilland as Melanie Hamilton, Ashley's sweet, compassionate, altruistic wife, envied by Scarlett for being married to Ashley but who is a model of old-fashioned Christian virtue, a peaceful, secure and passive contrast to the willful, lusty and tempestuous Scarlett. Melanie and Scarlett endure the same plight but while Melanie does not let the evil of the world damage her sweet nature, Scarlett changes from innocent to world-weary woman.Throughout the film, Scarlett schemes and manipulates to attain her goals. She endures incredible hardships, overcoming the siege and burning of Atlanta by Northern General Sherman, the famine of a ruined plantation,Yankee occupation, hunger, defeat, death (of both her mother, father and two husbands). Because she breaks almost every social more of her time and is more assertive than a woman was in her day, she is able to provide for her family, for the defeated War veteran that Ashley becomes, delivers Melanies baby and wrestles with financial crisis. She is money-loving and materialistic, ambitious and willful, but because of her irrepressible spirit, she is always able to keep Tara, the beloved plantation built by her Irish father, protecting home and family from any threat to its existence. Even with all the panorama of dramatic events and multiple characters, the strength of the film lies in the tragic, antagonistic relationship between Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara, who are each other's counterparts. Rhett Butler finds not only passion with Scarlett, but his first true love and is her salvation and true key to happiness, but Scarlett's blind love for both Ashley and for money keeps her at a cold distance from him. When he's had enough, she finally realizes Ashley was merely a prolonged crush and she is willing to love Rhett. But by then Clark Gable utters the infamous words , "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" and walks away from her life. No matter. Scarlett is determined to get him back, after all, tomorrow is another day. The film is a feast for the eyes. Great cinematography by Ernest Haller, production design by William Cameron Menzies and gorgeous costumes by Walter Plunkett, whose career in costume design for movies was long. Who can forget Scarlett's beautiful green barbecue dress and sun hat, her velvet gown she makes out of the green drapes to visit Rhett in jail and the scandalous red gown she wears at Ashley's birthday party after being accused of adultery with him. Not only are Scarlett's gowns each a work of art, but the other actors' costumes are gorgeous and historically accurate. "The Wind's" powerful theme of hope and survival resonated with America and the rest of the world in 1939. America had gone through the Depression and was at the brink of World War II. Even Nazi-occupied countries found comfort in Scarlett's tale of survival (Nazis being the stand-in for Yankees). Fans of the novel, then and now, see a somewhat condensed version of the book but nevertheless remained faithful to the spirit of Mitchell's novel. This inspirational epic film ranks among Hollywood's most important and beloved movie classics and ought to be placed in a time capsule to represent one of the greatest films of the 20th century.