Gone With the Wind (1939 film)
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Gone with the Wind
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1989.
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"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
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Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film, adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name. The film was produced by David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures and directed by Victor Fleming.
Plot
The film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, from her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, to her marriage to Rhett Butler which all takes during the Civil War.
Why It's Gone with the Wind (In a Good Way)
- During its time it was released, it was the biggest, most expensive, most technologically advanced, longest, most awarded, and the most profitable of all American films. While it may not necessarily hold those titles anymore, it remains the standard to which an older generation of filmgoers compares everything that followed. It marks a dividing point in American film, from a past of silent epics to a future of weekly blockbusters.
- For the most part, the film’s story of defeat, survival, and rebirth is still very compelling and captivating to audiences, despite various that admittedly haven't aged that well.
- Based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, having a film adaptation would mean structural difficulties and various changes were made which ultimately helped the film age better than the book it was based on.
- Many characters, such as Scarlett's child from her first husband and her relatives in Charleston and Savannah, as well as a lot of material about the O’Hara family before Tara were removed, although most viewers wouldn't miss them.
- The film adaptation thankfully removes a usage of the n-word and references to the Ku Klux Klan.
- The black slaves Sam and Mammy serve a good purpose, and are hilarious side characters (Prissy is a different story). Mammy was basically a mother figure to Scarlett and never afraid to tell it like it is. And Sam saved Scarlett’s life in that shanty town she was in. Hattie McDaniel’s reasoning for playing Mammy was that she would rather play a slave and get paid like an actress than work for real as a slave.
- The film takes a more nuanced approach to slavery than the original book, and nearly avoids naming the enemy North entirely. Although Rhett's mild curse and loose morals still remain intact
- Great casting for the most part from David O. Selznick.
- Vivien Leigh knocks it out of the park as Scarlett O’Hara. Embodying Scarlett’s wide-ranging emotional journey from carefree brat to poverty-stricken farmer to fashionable businesswoman, visibly attaining wisdom and maturity along the way, Leigh delivers a magnificent, fully committed performance.
- Opinion polls insisted that Clark Gable was to play Rhett Butler
- Excellent chemistry between any combination of the actors. Leslie Howard, Olivia De Haviland, and Hattie McDaniel are all perfect in their roles.
- Olivia de Haviland was previously typecast as Errol Flynn’s girlfriend, and so the relatively unrewarding role of Melanie Wilkes was easy for her to embrace.
- Even detractors of the overall film, tend to praise McDaniel's role as Mammy, as the actor's role is not only complex, it emphasizes the character's wisdom and level-headedness. She even made history as the first African-American to not only be nominated for, but win an Academy Award.
- With the burning of Atlanta being the first footage shot for the film, it marked the scope of producer Selznick’s ambition, as the RKO backlot was sacrificed for the event, and all seven Technocolor in existence at the time, were there to record the scene. There were even stunt doubles used for Rhett and Scarlett fleeing through the fire.
- Despite the extremely-large-in-scope film being started without a script, cast, or a secure director, things still somehow managed to work out smoothly enough amidst everything. With Technocolor being a new and experimental process, the color palette was an unsure thought, but most of the finished film has surprisingly muted colors, similar to the story's elegiac mood.
Bad Qualities
- In a case similar to D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation 24 years back, even though this film marks an essential landmark in film-making history, the film has a lot of racist aspects that seriously date the film (though not as much as the novel it's based on). Although, the film's a period piece set in the American Civil War and is therefore supposed to be partially offensive, it still doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of neglected issues:
- Even though the Civil War is supposed to be about the end of slavery yet, there are no issues raised of the slaves in the movie. They seem to be fine working in the house with no requests of freedom towards their owners.
- Slavery being the cause of the Civil War is swept under the rug.
- Prissy, one of the black slaves, is a very annoying comic relief who really drags the film down with her terrible humor, screechy voice, and the fact that she lied about knowing how to raise a child, then revealed she knew nothing about it.
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