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Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: When I first saw this movie, I thought it was great! (And I still think so). Then I just recently got done with the book. (Also great!). But what I wouldn't understand is why they didn't put Scarlett having Wade Hamilton (her child from her first husband, Charles Hamilton), and Ella Kennedy (her child from her second husband, Frank Kennedy) in the movie. I guess they wanted to portray how Scarlett really didn't care for her first 2 husbands, otherwise everyone would have thought she really cared. But still they should have put her first 2 children in there. They are still in the 2nd book (Scarlett) and because they weren't in the first movie, they couldn't be in the 2nd. Other than that, I thought it was a great movie. I loved how Rhett loved Scarlett so much he would do anything for her, but Scarlett was too stupid to appreciate it till the end. And she was too ashamed to call for Rhett when she needed him for fear that he would not come to her. But I guess they wrote it that way for excitement. Oh well, I still consider this to be my favorite, all time, love story!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Great American Classic
Review: What more can you say about one of America's most celebrated films? Plenty. Taken simply as a romance with the Civil War as a backdrop for the life and times of Scarlet O'Hara (Vivian Leigh) it's superb entertainment. And that after all is what this film is about. Critics of its not being historically accurate, miss this point entirely. After more than 60 years, Gone With the Wind remains one of the most compelling narratives in film history. The script, worked on by just about everyone in Hollywood, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ben Hecht, has some of the best dialogue ever written. The splendid cast (with the possible exception of Lesley Howard as Ashley Wilkes) acts up a storm with Leigh a stunner in this her American film debut. Clark Gable's Rhett Butler is appropriately roguish and charming at the same time, and it's easy to see why the public (and producer David O. Selznick) couldn't see anyone else in this role. Olivia de Haviland shines as Melanie creating one of the film's most memorable characters. In the hands of a less competent actress, she would have been too good to be believed, but de Haviland created a real three- dimensional character: we can't help but admire her strength. Hattie McDaniel gives a strong characterization as Mammy, the no-nonsense servant to generations of the O'Hara clan. McDaniel's role was awarded an Oscar for best supporting actress (she was up against de Haviland) and she is remembered as the first African-American to be so honored. The film is filled with wonderful supporting performances by some of the best actors of the day including Jane Darwell, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, and Ona Munson. For a film that is almost four hours long, it goes by quite quickly. The production is first rate and the video restoration is superb, looking as fresh as when it was first released in 1939. As pure entertainment, it's hard to do better than GWTW; it's easy to see how this classic has become a part of the American psyche.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The worest movie of all time Personally it stinks on ice !
Review: Gone with the wind bla bla ok reveal mean for one thing I hate blood for another thing it has major vilonce this movie should diserve only one award ,The worest movie that ever was made in this whole entire universe Sound of Music is way better bottom line is this movie ain't no ten awards !

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gone With The Wind
Review: You know, call me old fashioned but when I sit down to watch a movie I expect to be sitting their for an hour-and-a-half, a maximum would be two hours. But this movie ranks as probably the LONGEST movie I have ever watched. I sat down at 6:00 PM and rose at 10:00 PM obviously sore and a little sleepy. The movie is extremely good , however. It would have recieved five stars had it not been so long. By the way, J'adore les singes.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Just doesn't measure up to the book.
Review: When I saw this movie after having recently finshed the book, I was frankly dissapointed. Gone With the wind (the movie)just doesn't capture the essence of the book. I'm not critisizing the acting-that part's fine, but so much is left out of the film. For example, the key fact that Scarlett had two other children. The children brought out a lot in many of the characters, something that was not the case in the film. I can't just put down this film in particular; I understand how hard it is to adapt a novel to the screen, but it is a rather dissapointing contrast to the wonderful book. If you are planning on seeing this movie, READ THE BOOK FIRST. It would spoil it to see the film without having read the book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stranger as the years go by, but always a classic
Review: For sheer sweep, GWTW has never been surpassed, and perhaps has been equalled only by the David Lean films of the Sixties. It's always a classic and never ever palls, in large part thanks to its extremely good sense of humor (Charles Hamilton's death from the measles and pneumonia, "but still a hero"; Prissy's bizarre behavior when she's supposed to fetch Dr. Meade) and the strong performances. Its politics seem more and more bizarre--and dated--as the years go by: the depictions of the gracious life at Tara and Twelve Oaks (with the belles sleeping in their pantalettes at the Wilkes barbecue, gently fanned by pickaninnies) begin to seem not only fantastic but almost hateful in their willful blindness to the cruelties of slavery.

But that doesn't mean the film isn't charming, and also really something to see. Who hasn't gasped when Scarlett returns to tara and fins her father insane and her mother dead? Who hasn't cheered when Scarlett shoots the evil Yankee deserter? Who hasn't secretly echoed those cheers when Bonnie Blue gets her well-deserved end while jumping the fence? The performances vary wildly, with Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland and Butterfly McQueen and (most of all) Hattie McDaniel deeply affecting, and with Clark Gable, Ona Munson, and Leslie Howard making the most implausible Southerners you've ever seen in your life. (Howard's accent seems quite comical: "Are you truly heppy, Melanie?") Leigh gives the most memorable performance, although she seems oddly least beleivable when she's being her most vixenish and coquettish, even though those are the best remembered moments (you keep wondering why none of her beaux other than Rhett can't see through her). She's deeply fine, though, when she's called upon to be tough or tragic: my favorite of her scenes are the little side moments, such as when she hires the press gang to work in the Kennedy lumber mill, when she seems to inhabit the role fully.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Grand Epic!
Review: There are some films movielovers everywhere have to watch ( I myself have a small list of films on amazon). On that list goes "Citizen Kane", "Casablanca", "The Godfather", " Psycho", and without any doubt "Gone With The Wind". For years, after claiming to be a filmlover, I never saw this movie and felt ever so stupid for not seeing it. How can you say you love movies and not see "Gone With The Wind"? It just can't be possible! So, I finally said to myself, it's time to see this movie. It, now in my opinion, is one of the greatest films I've ever seen! Directed by Victor Fleming and based on the book by Margaret Mitchell this film has everything going for it. I can't commemt on the screenplay by Sidney Howard, I don't know if he stayed true to the book, since I've never read the book. Hey, I just saw the movie not too long ago, give me time! lol. What I can commemt on is the acting. It gave Gable and Leigh roles they have been forever remembered for, Rhett Butler and Scarlett O' Hara. Leslie Hoard ( Ashley), Olivia de Havilland (Melanie) and Hattie McDaniel (Mammy) are all wonderful themselves in their respective roles. One of the "test" all movies must go through to be considered "classic's" are do they still seem fresh and new to the viewer as time passes by. Does "The Godfather" still hold your attention after over 25 years? Do you still find yourself hoping that things between Scarlett and Rhett will work out in the end? That they can somehow meet at some level? If so, I feel a movie has proven it is a classic. And GWTW does that. It's a movie that is warm, tender, amusing, and overall just enjoyable! I have nothing but great and wonderful things to say about this movie, but I'm sure a review just using wonderful adjectives to describe a movie will be boring. So, in order to save myself from such a thing I will just say everyone HAS to see this movie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An American Classic!
Review: This is one of the best films of all time, if not the best. This film is able to hold the viewers' attention for the four hours it lights up the screen. Clark Gable is great as Rhett Butler and the breathtakingly beautiful Vivien Leigh is fabulous as Scarlett O'Hara. This is the ultimate Civil War saga that features fantastic performances from the pretty Olivia De Havilland as Melanie Hamilton, Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes and Hattie McDaniel as Mammy. This is a must have for classic film fans as well as for fans of Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia DeHavilland and Leslie Howard. Buy this film, you won't be disappointed. With a great music score, wonderful scenery and beautiful costumes, this film is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic, cream-of-the-crop epic and chick flick
Review: Like most every self-respecting Southern woman I know, I read the book growing up. My mother warned me while I was reading it that Scarlett was as "mean as a snake"--but I found her as fascinating as she was flawed. I couldn't understand her attraction to Ashley when a real man like Rhett was around, but when she swore to burn Tara to the ground rather than let the Yankees have it. . .now THAT I could understand. Scarlett had not been bred for the harsh realities of post-Civil-War life in the deep South, but I always saw her as a poker player who was just trying to make the best of the hand she was dealt.

Had the film tried to be completely faithful to the book, they would have had to release it as a series with sequels to get all the details and develop the characters with as much depth as Margaret Mitchell did. But that wasn't how it was done back then. In the late 1930s, during the Great Depression, the producers took a big chance getting this one movie made--they had to give MGM an arm, a leg, and a kidney to get Clark Gable for the role of Rhett (and he did NOT want to do it). Sequels would probably not have been an option or even a consideration under the conditions they were working. But the movie can stand alone--thanks to the gifts and work of Gable, Vivien Leigh, and especially Olivia De Havilland--who gave Melanie a backbone of steel behind that "Southern Lady" exterior.

I have watched this at least once every five years since I was a teenager. With each phase of my own life, I see something different in the performances each time. I never caught the innuendo in the dialogue and those smoldering looks between Gable and Leigh until I was in my 20s. By the time I was 30, I'd read that she could barely tolerate him, because he was drinking on the set and his breath stunk--and marvel at how none of that came through in her work.

What's never changed is that I always cry during Rhett's scenes after Scarlett's miscarriage and when their little girl has her accident, as well as the final scenes between Scarlett and Melanie. As in the love scenes between Scarlett and Rhett, there is a subtext to the dialogue that goes far beyond what's being said. You might not catch it until you've experienced a few heartaches and battles yourself, as these two women did.

I've neither seen nor read the sequel "Scarlett." And I don't plan to. Margaret Mitchell was asked repeatedly, "well, what happens next?" And she always said, "I don't know." Neither do I. Where she ended it is where it ends for me, too. See it for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

This one is an American classic. Buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Even if you hate the Civil War & epic movies ... see it!
Review: This is one of the few absolutely must-see films I can imagine for any American filmgoer. It's important not just for what it offers you but because it is so important a piece of Americana that not to know it leaves a hole in your own cultural background. Frankly, my dear, it helps to know what everyone else is talking about!

Ironically, when I first saw the film, at age ten, I was fresh from reading the book ... and I was disappointed, because the book was, frankly, better. (Margaret Mitchell had 1,037 pages to tell her story; David Selznick had a little less than 4 hours -- it makes a difference!) But having seen the film again and again and read a lot about the making of it in the ensuing years, it is clear to me now that the makers have made about as perfect a film as it was possible to make ... given the technical restraints of 1939 (many of which they blasted to new heights) and the length of the story they had to tell.

The musical score, production design, costumes and technical wizardry are no less than perfect. Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland are no less than extraordinary. And Clark Gable's performance is possibly the very best acting that I have ever seen on film. Gable is SO good that it is hard to remember that he is acting. He simply inhabits the role in a way that should be the envy of all actors everywhere. It is criminal that he was not awarded the Academy's Best Actor prize for this part. (I'm sure most people don't realize that -- but he lost to Robert Donat in GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS. Highway robbery, in my opinion.)

There are, absolutely, some letdowns in the film -- but many of them are indigenous to their source material, Miss Mitchell's gripping novel. The first half is simply more tense than the second, which spans a number of years and includes Scarlett's marriage to Rhett, her growing evolution as a businesswoman and the birth of their daughter Bonnie. I think the way the screenwriters handle these transitions is masterful. They have managed to include just about every important transition in Scarlett's life, and still keep the pace moving.

It doesn't have to be your favorite film ... or your favorite book ... or your favorite subject. It is still supremely watchable and remarkable. It will keep your attention and will probably help you understand what all the fuss is about. I urge you to see it, no matter what. Sometimes classics are simply classics because teachers talk about them too much. No one really wants to read them, or God forbid, waste time seeing a film about them. This is a classic because the story touched so many, and because the filmmakers respected Margaret Mitchell's story and as much as possible, simply left it alone. It is not worth seeing to raise your intellect. It is worth seeing to grab your heart. That's why so many of us still see it ... again and again and again.


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