Mar 16, 2001 10:14 PM
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Gone With the Wind has been my favorite film for maybe twenty five years. There've been a couple dozen films that've made more money, but nothing can touch the scope of this incredible epic.
GWTW was supposed to be a flop. Directors came and went, stars fought and whined throughout filming, and insiders predicted no Yankees would go see it.
The greatest battles were those which determined the style in which the movie was filmed. George Cukor, known as an ''actresses' director,'' clearly focused on Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Haviland (Scarlett and Melanie, respectively). Their scenes were extended, and more attention was paid to details for them. Clark Gable and Lesley Howard (Rhett and Ashley) found that intolerable and threatened to quit the picture if Cukor wasn't fired. He was replaced with Victor Fleming, a ''man's man/actors' director.'' The film shows some choppiness, striking but understandable, given the opposing styles of direction.
Few films can boast the huge crowd scenes GWTW can. The ballroom scenes, the field hospital, and the reading of the injured list are incomparable. The shots of wide-open spaces are lovely, with just enough technicolor to make them stand out. Every flower is noticeable, and each is beautiful, chosen specially for the film.
The acting is from another time, so some current viewers mayn't see it as being good, but for the time it was the best cinema had to offer. Even today, if the viewer has the capability to see things from an older perspective it's wonderful. Vivian Leigh won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Scarlett, the spoiled Southern belle who gains material wealth from the defeat of her culture but loses her true love for the lust of another. Clark Gable didn't win the Oscar, but he was nominated, and I believe this was his career high. Lesley Howard as the miserable-but-honorable Ashley Wilkes was exceptional; even his Scarlett Pimpernel performance wasn't as fine as this. (Howard was killed in a plane crash over England fighting the Germans after the film wrapped but before the premiere in Atlanta.) Olivia de Haviland (Melanie) fought for and lost the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress to Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy with such strength. (McDaniel was the first African-American to win an Academy Award; de Haviland had some choice racist remarks to say about that....) Finally, no review of GWTW would be complete without mention of Butterfly McQueen's incredibly funny role as Prissy, from whom came the cult remark, ''I don' know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies, Miz Sca'lett!'' She pulled off what must have been a difficult role with grace and skill.
The musical score is lovely, all perfectly set to the action on the screen. ''Tara's Theme'' is probably the best known song in the score, but the others are just as wonderful. Whether it's a battle, a death, or a pretty day in the field, this music will bring joy to your soul.
Ultimately, no other film made has ever romanticised the prre-Civil War South as Gone With the Wind did. No other movie will ever bring such pride to a nation (as they saw it) as this one, and no other picture will ever so completely shape the way people saw what never really was.
Don't just rent this movie! Buy it! Buy the big nice collector's set; you owe it to film history.