Gone With The Wind-1939
Director Victor Fleming/George Cukor
Starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland
Top 100 Films #15
Scott’s Review #201
Reviewed December 4, 2014
Grade: A
Gone with the Wind is the grand masterpiece of the sweeping epic drama.
The film is based on Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel. Set in the South (Georgia) during the Civil War era, it centers on the life of Scarlett O’Hara, a southern belle of cotton plantation Tara, and how she must struggle to keep her plantation alive after the South loses the war.
Initially, Scarlett cares little about the war, instead enjoying her spoiled, narcissistic lifestyle, and romances with many men in the town, all vying for her attention. She revels in one sunny picnic and ball after another with all eyes on her.
As war decimates the South, however, Scarlett must take over the plantation and survive the ravages of war.
Mixed in with the war theme is a romance between Scarlett and Rhett, one of cinema’s most recognized and enduring couples. Having gone through three directors (Victor Fleming, George Cukor, and Sam Wood), the film is as extravagant and precise in its style, attention to detail, and set design as films come.
At close to four hours in length, Gone with the Wind is a lavish production that can take an entire afternoon or evening to watch and is divided into two halves- interestingly the first half directed by Cukor, and the second primarily directed by Fleming.
It is a film that can be viewed and analyzed over and over again and the set pieces and flawless perfectionism alone marveled at. The first half is superior to the second, but that is like comparing prime rib to filet mignon- it’s a preference for goodies.
The first half is brighter, cheery, and fantastic. The wonderful Tara and neighboring plantation Twin Oaks host southern balls and parties and are filled with romance, gossip, and beautiful costumes. War is coming, but it is a delightful time of merriment.
The Southerners embrace going to war they assume will last for two weeks and they will be victorious. They party and they celebrate.
The second half has a much darker tone.
By the beginning of the second half, Atlanta has burned, thousands of men have died, Tara is decimated, Scarlett’s mother died, and her father went batty.
The rebuilding of the south is explored, the troubled Rhett and Scarlett marriage commences, their daughter dies, and the world-famous line uttered by Rhett to Scarlett, “Frankly my dear…. I don’t give a damn”.
Having been now directed by a different person (Fleming), the first and second halves almost seem like two separate films.
Vivien Leigh plays a wonderful role. In 1939 women were rarely strong characters in the film, so for that reason Gone with the Wind is groundbreaking for female characters.
Scarlett is selfish, yes, but she rises above, is strong, saves her plantation, and succeeds as a successful businesswoman- almost unheard of in cinema for 1939. Her undying love for Ashley Wilkes, but unable to obtain him (he is married to his cousin Melanie) gives her a sympathetic vulnerability.
Clark Gable, already a huge star and the people’s choice to play Rhett, is charismatic and handsome. The fact that he and Leigh did not get along makes their fights and sexual tension electric. They love each other but also hate each other and this is transmitted on screen.
Rhett is his own man- he defines himself as not a Northerner, but not a Southerner either. He is a vagabond and spends many nights at the local brothel in the company of Belle Watling. The character of Rhett is independent and strong.
The supporting characters are colorful, lively, and humorous. Aunt Pittypat with her dramatic worrying and smelling salts and Prissy with her insistence on expert child-birthing when in reality she knows nothing, are moments meant to lighten the mood.
Mammie, a mother figure to Scarlett, is a moral, kind, yet tough character. Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) is an even sweeter character in her caring and selflessness.
Lesser characters such as Dr. Meade, Suellen, Carreen, India, and Frank Kennedy all serve their purpose and are no throwaway characters.
Bothersome is that over the years Gone with the Wind has been unfairly “feminized” once it began airing as an alternative to the annual Super Bowl, the assumption being that only women would enjoy it, which is silly.
I do not find this film to be a female film and frankly, some of the battle scenes are quite masculine, with epic fires and guns galore. Is Gone with the Wind now considered a racist film?
Perhaps so, and time has made the political incorrectness much more glaring- this point can be debated endlessly. Ashley participates in a hooded Klan organization and is a hero of the film!
Certainly, the slaves are portrayed as happy, kindly, and comfortable with their place in life throughout the film, vastly different from what surely transpired. However, Hattie McDaniel (Mammie) won the first-ever Oscar for a black actress so that was monumental progress and influence.
Using seemingly thousands of extras, the war-torn Atlanta scene where the camera rises up and up and up panning down on hundreds of wounded and dead Union soldiers as Scarlett defeatedly walks among them is still heartbreaking to watch and is a reminder of the power and destruction that war is.
Gone with the Wind is an epic masterpiece from long ago that still holds up amazingly well. The sets, the rich characters, and the costumes can be admired and still inspire today.
Oscar Nominations: 8 wins-Outstanding Production (won), Best Director-Victor Fleming (won), Best Actor-Clark Cable, Best Actress-Vivien Leigh (won), Best Supporting Actress-Hattie McDaniel (won), Olivia de Havilland, Best Screenplay (won), Best Original Score, Best Sound Recording, Best Art Direction (won), Best Cinematography, Color (won), Best Film Editing (won), Best Special Effects