Gone with the Wind

Rating:
Summary: Break out the Kleenex Because It's Time To Give A Damn!
Review: Gone With The Wind is more than a movie, it's an American pop icon, a true legend in film making and the winner of 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture. I'll spare you a plot summary because by now nearly everyone knows the story. Just bring Kleenex and be prepared to give a damn!
Unfortunately, this film was mastered on DVD by the old MGM, cost cutting regime in the days before Warner assumed control of the Selznick catalogue. Though the film has been transfered from restored Technicolor elements and the sound has been remixed to 5.1 surround, this is a disappointing visual experience overall when one considers what it might have been. Colors are well balanced but there is a considerable amount of film grain inherent in the print. Fine details shimmer throughout, there is considerable edge enhancement in many scenes and often contrast and shadow delineation suffer in extremely dark scenes. To be sure the sweeping and epic melodrama never fails to captivate. The transfer just happens to fall short of expectations. Also, there are no extras, presumably because Warner owns the rights to the Turner documentary, "The Making Of A Legend" and didn't want to loan it out to MGM when the original DVD transfer was being prepared. Very soon though, Warner Brothers needs to go back to the drawing board on this DVD, give us a remastered print, as well as the documentary, screen tests and other supplimentary material that an essential classic like Gone With The Wind so rightfully deserves. For it has been said that in the history of American cinema there have only been two movies made - Gone With The Wind and everything else! That's not an understatement.

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie - Bare DVD
Review: I'm always sure I've seen this move enough, but I got caught up in it again this past weekend. Too bad it's gotten the reputation as a chick flick, because I think its pretty universal. The war is a background to the human story that rises above mere soap opera. Gable is perfect as Rhett Butler, Vivian Leigh was brilliant as Scarlett and Olivia DeHavilland never strikes a false note. Leslie Howard on the other hand seems miscast and I always hope that he'll be replaced before I view it again.

The Gone With the Wind DVD is somewhat of a disappointment. With a very good making of documentary already produced, I was very disappointed that it didn't make its way onto this DVD. I suppose once they sell the tar out of this one, we'll get a special collectors edition that we can buy all over again. Next time I hope we can have some commentary by film scholars. There is so much to tell us about this great film. There is a Deluxe Box set available, but it has nothing but play pretties. I long for substance.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: The story drags in places, but close attention was paid to detail and historical accuracy. A must for students of history.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST There's ever been
Review: Deserves ten stars - easily. In all of its long, sordid, sorry, pathetic history, "HOGWASH HOLLYWOOD" has never come close to equalling this movie. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, works in this production. The cast, the pacing, the music, the scenery, the dialog, and the overall charm of the movie as a whole have never been equalled and will never be surpassed. Considering the drek and drivel that the cocaine-sniffing hacks in Hollywood are churning out these days, and considering the actors and actresses of today (who aren't even a pathetic patch on the likes of Gable, Leigh, and others of that era), it is a safe bet that GONE WITH THE WIND will stand unchallenged as the all-time classic of American cinema.

Rating:
Summary: Civil War Epic and Hollywood Giant
Review: Gone With The Wind is one of the most monumental films in movie history. It was a blockbuster before the term was coined and it still ranks among the most popular films of all time. The movie is a sweeping adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's novel about life in the Deep South before, during and after the Civil War. Filmed in brilliant color, the movie explodes off the screen and is filled with unforgettable performances. Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh create two of the most famous screen characters in Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara. Rhett is a dashing rogue whose allegiance is not to the South, but to lining his own pockets. Scarlett is the classic, self-absorbed Southern belle, who thinks that the world revolves around her. In the early Hollywood days, black actors were regulated to nothing more than bit performers, but Hattie McDaniel rises above the stereotypical housemaid role of Mammy to deliver a powerful performance. Olivia de Havilland has fragile beauty in role of the doomed Melaine and Leslie Howard is stodgy and proper as Scarlett's true love, Ashley Wilkes. The film has been criticized, and rightly so in some places, for glorifying the slavery days of the South. While the beginning of the film does deserve the criticism as it does promulgate stereotypes such as the character of Prissy and there are other sections that can be perceived as such, it is not a wholly sympathetic take on the South. The film is notable for the fact that Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award as she took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (sadly it would take another twenty-four years before another African-American would win when Sidney Poitier in 1963 and another fifty-one years before an African-American woman would win when Whoopie Goldberg won in 1990). Ms. Leigh won her first Best Actress Oscar and film dominated the 1939 Academy Awards winning a total of nine awards (one of was an honorary Oscar) including Best Picture and Best Director for Victor Fleming.

Rating:
Summary: The best film then, now, and forever!!!
Review: Gone With The Wind is the very definiton of an beautiful, epic film. Scarlett O'Hara is a 16-year-old belle living on a thousand acre plantaion in the year 1861 when the tale begins. Men of all ages are taken with her, but she loves only one. Ashley Wilkes the only young man in the county who can resist Scarlett's charms, is the man who Scarlett loves better then life itself. She does not understand why she loves him other then he is the most handsome man she has ever seen (in the book at least) and she can not understand him Ashley is a complete mystery to Scarlett's young, high-spirited heart. Meanwhile a darkly handsome man by the name of Rhett Butler notices Scarlett O'Hara's beauty and vivaciousness at a barbecue but falls in love with her when he finds out there's more to Scarlett's sweet face then meets the eye.

Rating:
Summary: ...THAT SWEPT THROUGH GEORGIA.
Review: Great Balls of Fire! Books, reams and such have been written about this greatly beloved film - so I'll take a stab at it to! First off, a little trivia: Scarlett was originally going to be named Pansy. (yeah. right.) TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY was the original working title of the novel. GONE WITH THE WIND comes from the poem NOM SUM QUALIS ERAM by the 18th century poet Ernest Dawson i.e.: "I have been faithful to thee Cynara in my fashion. I have forgot much, Cynara! Gone with the wind!". Most everyone knows that this ultra famous picture concerns a beautiful, - in this version anyway - willful, egotistically headstrong daughter of a wealthy plantation owner who uses her cunning charms - with varying degrees of success - to get what she wants during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. In the role of Scarlett, Vivien Leigh is magnificent. She conveys all the intricate qualities of this selfish, charming & fascinating Southern vixen which captivated the the imagination of thousands of the faithful readers of the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. Countless actresses - and unknowns - were considered/tested for the part: Hepburn, Crawford, Davis, Shearer, Joan Bennett, Susan Hayward, Frances Dee, Irene Dunne, Lana Turner, Margaret Tallichet Loretta Young, Miriam Hopkins, Jean Arthur, Paulette Goddard, Tallulah Bankhead, Margaret Sullavan - even Lucille Ball (!) immediately come to mind. Because he was without a doubt the "King of Hollywood", it is rather ironic that Clark Gable was right for the part of Rhett Butler. But right he was! This and his performance as Gay Langley in THE MISFITS were his two personal favourites. Imagine who Rhett MIGHT have been: Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper, Warner Baxter, Fredric March & Errol Flynn....o k a y....As Melanie Wilkes, Olivia de Havilland is near perfection and Hattie McDaniel brilliantly made the role of Mammy her own. No wonder she coveted the first Oscar awarded to a Black actress! The scene where Melanie and Mammy climb the stairs towards a half-mad-with-grief Rhett (after Bonnie's accidental death) is a magnificent lesson in screen acting. As a kid, I didn't understand why Ashley Wilkes spoke with an English accent, but his acting style was right for the part. Another standout was Ona Munson (Eve Arden was considered for the part) doing a sterling job portraying that soiled-dove-with-a-heart, Belle Watling: her carriage scene with Melanie is quite memorable. Joan Fontaine, Anne Shirley, Frances Dee, Ann Dvorak & Dorothy Jordan were considered for the part of Ms Wilkes. For Ashley? Melvyn Douglas, Joel McCrea, Jeffrey Lynn, Lew Ayres, Tyrone Power, Ray Milland were all considered. Billie Burke may have been cast as Aunt Pitty & Judy Garland may have gotten to play Carreen! Legend says that this filmed grossed $2O MILLION by May of 194O - which is astounding because of the average price of movie tickets then - 35c - (!). The film was nominated for 13 AA & won 8. Vivien Leigh was personally praised by author Mitchell (whom she resembled somewhat - look at photos of young "Peggy" Mitchell) as was Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel likewise. Mitchell thought Gable was fine as Rhett, but disapproved of Howard as Ashley Wilkes. Reviews for the film were for the most part highly laudatory & the general public was enthralled: Selznick's gamble on hiring a relatively unknown Leigh at first irritated - but later delighted American audiences. It was indeed a victorious gamble. Vivien Leigh herself never cared much for Scarlett. She knew it was a great part, but thought her character was a bit of an ass. Leigh's favourite part? Where Scarlett says that she has turned out "disappointing" - concerning her mother's expectations of her - while a bit on the tipsy side.

Rating:
Summary: You either get or you don't
Review: This movie is simply a great classic. Nothing like it before or since can be compared. I have the book and the movie and wouldn't take a million dollars for either. The characters are so alive, so real. You are part of the story because you are absorbed into it. I find it quite tedious that people want to bring modern politics into an issue that is beyond the capability of the modern mind to grasp. First off it's only a movie, secondly Mrs. Mitchell's work was reproduced from stories she had collected or grew up hearing from those old southern grand-dames who actually REMEMBERED what it was like before, during and after the war. We all know now that slavery was wrong, but it WAS a fact of history. When it is put in a film like GWTW somehow people think that was/is being glorified. This is simply not the case, the story is being told from only one perspective. Most people with two ounces of a brain can figure this out. The story is not about Mammy's struggle to understand why the white folks boss her around. The story is about a spoiled selfish girl who finally grows up when she realizes that everything that could ever be important or dear to her has passed by.

Rating:
Summary: A True Classic!
Review: Even this movie is 4 hours long, it is a true classic! This story begins with the flirty Scarlett who has men fawning over her but she loves only one man: Ashley Wilkes. She married Charles Hamiliton just to make Ashley jealous, but Ashley's only interested in Charles' sister, Melanie who married him. Later, as a widow, Scarlett meets Rhett Butler, who is really the "true love" of her life and she doesn't know it until it was too late at the end of the film.
All through the film, there was the Civil War, famine, slaves, dying and dead soldiers lying on the streets of Atlanta (that pans out across the screen as Scarlett was looking for the doctor to deliver Melanie's baby), babies being born, deaths, and Scarlett's obsession over Ashley. Oh yes, Scarlett's self-centered ways appeared throughout the film as she married 2nd husband who was one of her sisters' fiance (she lied her way to marry him for money), and hiring slavery in her own lumber business. She obviously didn't care for the first two men she married, and didn't realize that Rhett is the real love of her life until after he said "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" at the end. Rhett stayed in the marriage really for Bonnie, their daughter, until she died.
This is a very good film for everyone. You won't be disappointed! :)

Rating:
Summary: Sui Generis...
Review: Is Gone With the Wind the greatest movie EVER made? I can think of a half dozen films which exceed GWTW either in writing, the quality of the acting, or cinematic style. Without a doubt, however, sixty years after its premiere, Gone With the Wind remains the greatest romantic melodrama ever committed to celluloid. And I can think of no film in any genre which puts all the elements together as well as GWTW.

"If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the staqe," goes an old Broadway aphorism. Scarlet and Rhett are the template for dysfunctional romantic relationships in cinema. Throughout the film, they talk AT each other instead of WITH each other. Not until the end of the movie, as Rhett is packing to leave Scarlett, do they have an honest heart-to-heart conversation--and by then it's too late.

Both Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable deliver career defining performances here, and the supporting cast of Leslie Howard (a genuine war hero in the First World War, who perished in the Second) and Olivia de Havilland dispatch their roles admirably. Soaring above them all is Hattie McDaniel, carefully treading the line between comedy and drama, as Mammie. Max Steiner's score is justly a classic in 20th Century filmmaking.

It is true that this film should not be taken as history, for there are numerous innaccuracies. By 21st Century standards, the film is worse than politically incorrect: sugar-coating slavery, demonizing Northerners (Yankees), and engaging in racial stereotyping of the worst sort. What needs to be remembered is that the film actually toned down Margaret Mitchell's more overtly racist passages from the novel, partly because Clark Gable refused to use the "N" word. But it should also be remembered that Hattie McDaniel was barred from attending the premiere in Atlanta an account of her ethnicity. After seeing this film, one should also watch Roots to see a more realistic portrayal of slavery in America.

This DVD edition is the best the film has looked since it's premiere, easily outclassing all previous VHS and LaserDisk issues. The 3-strip Technicolor cinematography has to be seen to be believed--at times looking almost three-dimensional. The sound has been remastered in 6-channel surround, but the one-channel original is also quite satisfactory.