Gone with the Wind (1939)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Victor Fleming

Writers:

Margaret Mitchell (novel)
Sidney Howard (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 January 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War

Tagline:

Now in 70mm. wide screen and full stereophonic sound! [reissue]

Plot:

American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Civil War | Poverty | Epic | Party

Awards:

Won 8 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Thomas Mitchell	...	Gerald O'Hara
Barbara O'Neil	...	Ellen O'Hara - His Wife (as Barbara O'Neill)
Vivien Leigh	...	Scarlett - Their Daughter
Evelyn Keyes	...	Suellen - Their Daughter
Ann Rutherford	...	Carreen - Their Daughter
George Reeves	...	Brent Tarleton - Scarlett's Beau
Fred Crane	...	Stuart Tarleton - Scarlett's Beau
Hattie McDaniel	...	Mammy - House Servant
Oscar Polk	...	Pork - House Servant
Butterfly McQueen	...	Prissy - House Servant
Victor Jory	...	Jonas Wilkerson - Field Overseer
Everett Brown	...	Big Sam - Field Foreman
Howard C. Hickman	...	John Wilkes (as Howard Hickman)
Alicia Rhett	...	India - His Daughter
Leslie Howard	...	Ashley - His Son

Runtime:

USA:238 min (restored DVD version) | Sweden:223 min (1969 re-release) | Sweden:234 min (1985 re-release) | UK:224 min (1994 re-release) | UK:233 min (1989 re-release) | 226 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-11 (2004) | Brazil:Livre | West Germany:12 (f) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Belgium:KT | Canada:G (British Columbia/Nova Scotia/Québec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Chile:TE | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:PG | Norway:16 | Peru:PT | South Korea:12 | Sweden:11 (re-release) (1985) | Sweden:15 (original rating) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #5729) (original rating) | USA:G (re-rating) (1971)

Filming Locations:

Agoura Hills, California, USA

Company:

Selznick International Pictures

Trivia:

David O. Selznick asked Alfred Hitchcock for help with the scene in which the women wait for the men from the raid on Shantytown and Melanie reads "David Copperfield". Hitchcock delivered a precise treatment, complete with descriptions of shots and camera angles. Hitchcock wanted to show Rhett, Ashley, etc. outside the house, dodging the Union soldiers. He also wanted an exchange of meaningful glances between Melanie and Rhett inside the house. Virtually nothing of this treatment was used.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The credits read "Brent Tarleton.....George Reeves, Stuart Tarleton.....Fred Crane," but that's backwards. Selznick was informed of the error but decided it would be too costly to correct it, as prints had already been struck. It's easy to remember which is which. George Reeves tells Scarlett that she'll dance with both of them: "First Brent, then me, then Brent, then me." So that means Crane played Brent and Reeves played Stuart.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Brent Tarleton: What do we care if we *were* expelled from college, Scarlett? The war is gonna start any day now, so we'd have left college anyhow.
Stuart Tarleton: Oh, isn't it exciting, Scarlett? You know those fool Yanks may actually *want* a war?
Brent Tarleton: We'll show 'em!
Scarlett: Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war; this war talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream. Besides... there isn't going to be any war.
Brent Tarleton: Not going to be any war?
Stuart Tarleton: Why, honey, of course there's gonna be a war.
Scarlett: If either of you boys says "war" just once again, I'll go in the house and slam the door.
Brent Tarleton: But Scarlett...
Stuart Tarleton: Don't you *want* us to have a war?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in National Lampoon's Movie Madness (1982)

Soundtrack:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

The Greatest Film of its Time, and All Time

I believe that when one views a film, one should consider the context in which it was made.

Barely 10 years after talking pictures were first created; less than that after the first full-length color feature film was created; near the end of the greatest depression this country ever experienced, and in which pretty much the only entertainment available to most was radio or the movies; David O Selznik decided to turn the biggest pot-boiler blockbuster novel into a movie.

And what a movie. Stunning color, the most popular mail actor of his time, perfect music score, incredible action scenes, story line only 70 years removed from when it happened, and on, and on. Can you imagine what a store-clerk or a farmer, or a teacher experienced in that world, seeing Gone With the Wind? What was there to compare with? 1939 was a watershed year for great movies, and this one was the greatest produced. Try watching this movie as if there were no TV, no DVD's, only a few radio stations, spending maybe the second to the last quarter you owned, never having seen such a movie before, and you get what I mean. Masterful for its time, and still timeless today.