Scarlett O'Hara should be kissed often and by somebody who knows how, like Rhett Butler

Rating: 10/10 (27 August 2019)

Unless you've been on Mars, you know about he romance between high-spirited heiress Scarlett O'Hara and the dynamic gun-runner Rhett Butler who sides with the Confederates for the money (of course). I dare anybody not to enjoy the super saga of that ding-dong daddy and a Southern belle. If Clark Gable had not accepted the role of Rhett Butler, this expensive production probably would not have been made. There are plenty of scenes to be had, but my favorite is Rhett's rescue of Scarlett while she's trying to maintain control of a wagon while a high-strung horsie tries to get away, and that's while Atlanta is burning to cinders (having been set on fire by Union troops under orders by General William Tecumseh Sherman). The relationship of Scarlett and Rhett lasts in the aftermath of the Civil War, including their tempestuous marriage and breakup. Rhett Butler loves Scarlett O'Hara, but she still has it bad for Ashley Wilkes, but he's in love with Melanie Hamilton (and they get married, by the way). It reminds this viewer of the rock hit by the J. Geils Band, "Love Stinks", where part of the lyrics go "you love her, she loves him, he loves somebody else, you just can't win". GONE WITH THE WIND is certainly the greatest example of storytelling ever conceived. Sidney Howard wrote the screenplay, based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell; she never wrote another one before her untimely death in 1949; it fell to Alexandra Ripley to gin up the sequel novel SCARLETT: THE OFFICIAL SEQUEL TO GONE WITH THE WIND, which itself was made as a miniseries. This movie is so beloved that for many years it escaped the "late late show" and the pay movie channels; it has since been shown on TNT and TCM. Did you know that a battlefield sequence had been filmed? That lovable producer David Selznick had the footage excised, because it was a love story, after all. Sidney Howard had uncredited assistance from the likes of Ben Hecht, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Oliver H.P. Garrett, John van Druten, Jo Swerlilng, and David Selznick himself. Did you also know that GONE WITH THE WIND was re-issued in 1967 in a 70mm widescreen presentation that lopped off the top and bottom of the film. One of the many Academy Award nominations was in the Special Effects category, for the spectacular visual effects accomplished by Jack Cosgrove and Lee Zavitz.If David Selznick never made another movie after GONE WITH THE WIND, this still would rank as his greatest achievement. He produced quite a few more until his last feature, A FAREWELL TO ARMS, was made in 1957. He was a terrific movie maker. Enough said.