Director: Victor Fleming
Top Billed Actors: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Won 8 Oscars:
Outstanding Production - Selznick International Pictures
Best Director - Victor Fleming
Best Actress - Vivien Leigh
Best Supporting Actress - Hattie McDaniel
Best Screenplay - Sidney Howard
Best Art Direction - Lyle R. Wheeler
Best Cinematography, Color - Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan
Best Film Editing - Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom
Nominated for 5 more:
Best Actor - Clark Gable
Best Supporting Actress - Olivia de Havilland
Best Original Score - Max Steiner
Best Sound Recording - Thomas T. Moulton
Best Special Effects - John R. Cosgrove, Fred Albin, and Arthur Johns
Plot: An opportunistic Southern belle never goes hungry again while everyone around her dies.
Top Billed Actors: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Won 8 Oscars:
Outstanding Production - Selznick International Pictures
Best Director - Victor Fleming
Best Actress - Vivien Leigh
Best Supporting Actress - Hattie McDaniel
Best Screenplay - Sidney Howard
Best Art Direction - Lyle R. Wheeler
Best Cinematography, Color - Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan
Best Film Editing - Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom
Nominated for 5 more:
Best Actor - Clark Gable
Best Supporting Actress - Olivia de Havilland
Best Original Score - Max Steiner
Best Sound Recording - Thomas T. Moulton
Best Special Effects - John R. Cosgrove, Fred Albin, and Arthur Johns
Plot: An opportunistic Southern belle never goes hungry again while everyone around her dies.
Here it is. The film I was anxious to revisit after all of these years. The Best Picture winner for one of the most highly regarded years in cinema history. Gone with the Wind (1939) has a slew of superlatives so let's run through just a few. It became the highest-grossing film at that time and, when adjusted for inflation, is considered the highest-grossing film of all time. It's also broke Academy Awards records galore by winning eight merit awards, the highest amount until Gigi (1958) won nine. Its thirteen nominations was also a record until All About Eve (1950) garnered fourteen. In addition to its eight competitive wins, an additional two awards were presented to the film, an Honorary one to William Cameron Menzies "for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production" and a Technical Achievement Award to Don Musgrave and Selznick International Pictures "for pioneering in the use of coordinated equipment in the production." Being the first Best Picture winner in color was a big deal for the Academy and it laid it on thick with not only these two awards, but an additional Honorary Award to the Technicolor Company. A color picture wouldn't win Best Picture again until An American in Paris (1951). Running through some notable AFI lists, it ranks #6 on the AFI Top 100 revised list from 2007, three quotes from the movies appear on the 100 Movie Quotes list, and Max Steiner's score appears at #2 on the 100 Years of Film Scores list. It was also one of the first twenty-five films selected for the National Film Registry. There are more achievements I could go through, but this film is ripe for discussion so let's move on to why this appears so often on these lists.
Starting with the performances, I won't beat around the bush - I think Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara is an all-timer, perhaps one of my top 5 favorite performances from an actress. Her character is the central piece of every scene in the film. When she's not on screen, the dialogue eventually turns to her. It's Scarlett this and Scarlett that and Leigh makes the picture. Her character is a tough nut to crack. On the one hand, her beauty and passion makes her difficult to reject. On the other, her ability to pounce on opportunity at the expense of others gives her a stone-cold edge that is usually softened up if you wait long enough. She's the type of person that will go to great lengths to protect you from looters when traveling across the state but then she'll lie to her sister's love interest in order to capitalize on a financial opportunity. She marries out of spite and finances but there's always some reason in her mind that allows her to sleep at night...until she can't. She's the rare female anti-hero. Leigh's passion pours through her character and she nails every scene, whether she is sobbing into Clark Gable's shoulder or slapping her servant across the face. This is the longest performance to win the Best Actress and there isn't one emotion that Leigh has to convey. Gable is also great as the financially stable but socially loose Rhett Butler. The production of the film was held up for two years in order to acquire Gable's contract for the role. It's almost as if the character was written with him in mind as everything he does works, but he's kind of just playing himself. Perhaps this is why he didn't win the Oscar to make it a clean sweep of the major Awards as he doesn't really go out of his comfort zone. The only odd thing he does that was out of the ordinary for him at the time was a scene in which he cries. Other than that, it's Gable playing Gable, which everyone still adores. In consideration for the length of this review, I'll be brief on the remaining aspects of the film that make it legendary. Steiner's score drives the tone of many scenes and Tara's Theme is among my all-time favorite pieces of film music. The costumes are simply incredible, especially Leigh's dresses. Note how she starts with the white dress and ends with the black but memorable ones that occur in the meat of the story include the green curtain and the red dress at Ashley's birthday party. The cinematography also stuns with a few memorable shots like the character introductions of Scarlett and Rhett (dramatic push-ins), the iconic crane shot that shows the wounded soldiers at the train depot, and the copious amounts of close-ups of Leigh's beautiful and troubled face. I also adore Olivia de Havilland's performance as well. She's the only kind-hearted character through and through so de Havilland feels like a warm blanket whenever the situation becomes dire.
I think it's apparent how much I adore this film. However, I am cognizant and sympathetic to its controversial depiction of the Old South. The negationism of the representation of slaves is all too apparent and a few prominent roles that are played by Black actors is also troubling. The word "slave" is, to my knowledge, not even uttered in the film. The idyllic Old South with happy servants and "house workers" glosses over the main issue of the Civil War and might help perpetuate that Lost Cause ideology (that the Confederates' fight was justified and the reasoning was about "more than slavery"). With all of this being said, my personal take is that these people who believed in the Confederacy enough to volunteer to fight for it are the ones portrayed to begin with. There are only a few Union soldiers shown in the film so we are taking a constant barrage of the Confederates' perspectives and, while I myself know that the real conditions for slaves are in no way represented in this film, this romantic setting is how these people thought of that setting. It's a "back in my day" situation that extends to a rose-tinted outlook of their way of life gone with the wind and the story reflects that. And while I think more could have been done to show more realistic conditions within the story, the production crew, helmed by David O. Selznick, were ignorant to do so, especially in a society that was still dominated by whites. Even in 1939, Hattie McDaniel, the first Black person to win (or even be nominated for) an Academy Award, was segregated at the ceremony and wasn't allowed to attend the premiere due to Jim Crow laws in Georgia. To add to the controversy in the narrative, the marital rape scene is another cringe-inducing sequence. After a night of drinking, Gable carries Leigh upstairs against her will. In the morning, Leigh is humming happily and it proposes that she got what she was asking for, which just feels icky.
Overall, Vivien Leigh graces us with an all-time performance amidst the backdrop of a controversial and inauthentic setting. The Steiner score, the costuming and set design, the majestic color cinematography, the memorable quotes, and the epic scale all contribute to the film's propensity to dazzle to this day.
My Score: 9/10
Guest Reviewer: Andrew Dunfee
With the 1939 Awards, I brought in a guest reviewer to give a second opinion on the highlights of one of the greatest years in cinema history. He watched and reviewed six of these Best Picture nominees and is also making his choice for what should have won Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards.
The overwhelming popularity and lasting presence of Gone with the Wind has always perplexed me and that remains the case after this most recent viewing.
Of course, there are aspects of this film that are undeniable in their quality and importance. Vivien Leigh’s performance as Scarlett O’Hara is exceptional. Though her character is immature, greedy, and selfish there is a magnetism about her that makes it impossible not to look her way when she’s on screen. Some may consider her lack a growth throughout the film a flaw but I can appreciate when stories are true to what’s often the case with the human condition and that’s that most people never truly change their ways.
This movie is also one of the great technical achievements of its time. The production design and costumes, for better or worse, makes you feel like you’re in the Antebellum South. The sequences during the war are astonishing in how they’re staged and shot. The scenes in which the South is falling are filmed with constant movement, and at different angles that makes you feel like you’re in the middle of the chaos. The sequence of Scarlett walking through the ravages of the war in an attempt to reach the doctor in particular is transcendent.
But still, there are too many negatives to overlook, both in the filmmaking and in the many controversies of the subject matter. The film certainly has the feel of a classic epic, but it does not justify a nearly four-hour running time. There are many sequences, such as the period immediately following the war and much of the last act, that are a slog to get through and could have easily been condensed. And still with that four-hour run time, many of the characters are poorly drawn and are not well rounded. This is most evident with Ashley Wilkes, the man who Scarlett pines after for the majority of the film. He is presented as a dull drip which makes it impossible to believe a woman as energetic and passionate as Scarlett would desire him to no end.
There are other aspects of the film to quibble with, but the misleading racism is what most people rightly take issue with. From the opening scroll the film presents the Old South as an idyllic paradise. The war is framed as a just cause that the Southerners did not ask to take part in but are excited to defend what’s right. Even the beautiful sequence mentioned earlier of the hundreds of wounded Southerners is capped off with a triumphant shot of a tattered, but still waving Confederate flag.
One could say that it’s not the responsibility of a movie to be completely honest in its depictions of true-life events or characters. This is often the case when people take issue with how they’re presented in a story based on real events. What makes Gone with the Wind so exceptional in its falsehoods is that it successfully achieves its goals of making the audience sympathetic to the South’s cause. Few pieces of American culture have more directly caused a group of loser traitors, who were quickly defeated in a time period of a few years over 150 years ago, to still be respected across the country today. This was my grandmother’s favorite film and she never stepped foot in the South. There are thousands of Confederate flags flying across Ohio and West Virginia, neither of which were part of the Confederacy. It’s the subtlety and credibility with which the racism is presented that makes this film so dangerous compared with more overtly racist pictures such as The Birth of a Nation which have faded over time. Of course, you can’t pin the persistence of the glorification of the Old South on one film, but when it’s the highest grossing film of all-time, the impact cannot be overstated.
Again, it can be argued that this is all independent from its quality as a film and in many ways its cultural resonance and staying power after all of these years is proof of its excellence. But when something is made with evil intentions and those intentions are achieved that has to be taken into account when considering its legacy.
Starting with the performances, I won't beat around the bush - I think Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara is an all-timer, perhaps one of my top 5 favorite performances from an actress. Her character is the central piece of every scene in the film. When she's not on screen, the dialogue eventually turns to her. It's Scarlett this and Scarlett that and Leigh makes the picture. Her character is a tough nut to crack. On the one hand, her beauty and passion makes her difficult to reject. On the other, her ability to pounce on opportunity at the expense of others gives her a stone-cold edge that is usually softened up if you wait long enough. She's the type of person that will go to great lengths to protect you from looters when traveling across the state but then she'll lie to her sister's love interest in order to capitalize on a financial opportunity. She marries out of spite and finances but there's always some reason in her mind that allows her to sleep at night...until she can't. She's the rare female anti-hero. Leigh's passion pours through her character and she nails every scene, whether she is sobbing into Clark Gable's shoulder or slapping her servant across the face. This is the longest performance to win the Best Actress and there isn't one emotion that Leigh has to convey. Gable is also great as the financially stable but socially loose Rhett Butler. The production of the film was held up for two years in order to acquire Gable's contract for the role. It's almost as if the character was written with him in mind as everything he does works, but he's kind of just playing himself. Perhaps this is why he didn't win the Oscar to make it a clean sweep of the major Awards as he doesn't really go out of his comfort zone. The only odd thing he does that was out of the ordinary for him at the time was a scene in which he cries. Other than that, it's Gable playing Gable, which everyone still adores. In consideration for the length of this review, I'll be brief on the remaining aspects of the film that make it legendary. Steiner's score drives the tone of many scenes and Tara's Theme is among my all-time favorite pieces of film music. The costumes are simply incredible, especially Leigh's dresses. Note how she starts with the white dress and ends with the black but memorable ones that occur in the meat of the story include the green curtain and the red dress at Ashley's birthday party. The cinematography also stuns with a few memorable shots like the character introductions of Scarlett and Rhett (dramatic push-ins), the iconic crane shot that shows the wounded soldiers at the train depot, and the copious amounts of close-ups of Leigh's beautiful and troubled face. I also adore Olivia de Havilland's performance as well. She's the only kind-hearted character through and through so de Havilland feels like a warm blanket whenever the situation becomes dire.
I think it's apparent how much I adore this film. However, I am cognizant and sympathetic to its controversial depiction of the Old South. The negationism of the representation of slaves is all too apparent and a few prominent roles that are played by Black actors is also troubling. The word "slave" is, to my knowledge, not even uttered in the film. The idyllic Old South with happy servants and "house workers" glosses over the main issue of the Civil War and might help perpetuate that Lost Cause ideology (that the Confederates' fight was justified and the reasoning was about "more than slavery"). With all of this being said, my personal take is that these people who believed in the Confederacy enough to volunteer to fight for it are the ones portrayed to begin with. There are only a few Union soldiers shown in the film so we are taking a constant barrage of the Confederates' perspectives and, while I myself know that the real conditions for slaves are in no way represented in this film, this romantic setting is how these people thought of that setting. It's a "back in my day" situation that extends to a rose-tinted outlook of their way of life gone with the wind and the story reflects that. And while I think more could have been done to show more realistic conditions within the story, the production crew, helmed by David O. Selznick, were ignorant to do so, especially in a society that was still dominated by whites. Even in 1939, Hattie McDaniel, the first Black person to win (or even be nominated for) an Academy Award, was segregated at the ceremony and wasn't allowed to attend the premiere due to Jim Crow laws in Georgia. To add to the controversy in the narrative, the marital rape scene is another cringe-inducing sequence. After a night of drinking, Gable carries Leigh upstairs against her will. In the morning, Leigh is humming happily and it proposes that she got what she was asking for, which just feels icky.
Overall, Vivien Leigh graces us with an all-time performance amidst the backdrop of a controversial and inauthentic setting. The Steiner score, the costuming and set design, the majestic color cinematography, the memorable quotes, and the epic scale all contribute to the film's propensity to dazzle to this day.
My Score: 9/10
Guest Reviewer: Andrew Dunfee
With the 1939 Awards, I brought in a guest reviewer to give a second opinion on the highlights of one of the greatest years in cinema history. He watched and reviewed six of these Best Picture nominees and is also making his choice for what should have won Best Picture at the 12th Academy Awards.
The overwhelming popularity and lasting presence of Gone with the Wind has always perplexed me and that remains the case after this most recent viewing.
Of course, there are aspects of this film that are undeniable in their quality and importance. Vivien Leigh’s performance as Scarlett O’Hara is exceptional. Though her character is immature, greedy, and selfish there is a magnetism about her that makes it impossible not to look her way when she’s on screen. Some may consider her lack a growth throughout the film a flaw but I can appreciate when stories are true to what’s often the case with the human condition and that’s that most people never truly change their ways.
This movie is also one of the great technical achievements of its time. The production design and costumes, for better or worse, makes you feel like you’re in the Antebellum South. The sequences during the war are astonishing in how they’re staged and shot. The scenes in which the South is falling are filmed with constant movement, and at different angles that makes you feel like you’re in the middle of the chaos. The sequence of Scarlett walking through the ravages of the war in an attempt to reach the doctor in particular is transcendent.
But still, there are too many negatives to overlook, both in the filmmaking and in the many controversies of the subject matter. The film certainly has the feel of a classic epic, but it does not justify a nearly four-hour running time. There are many sequences, such as the period immediately following the war and much of the last act, that are a slog to get through and could have easily been condensed. And still with that four-hour run time, many of the characters are poorly drawn and are not well rounded. This is most evident with Ashley Wilkes, the man who Scarlett pines after for the majority of the film. He is presented as a dull drip which makes it impossible to believe a woman as energetic and passionate as Scarlett would desire him to no end.
There are other aspects of the film to quibble with, but the misleading racism is what most people rightly take issue with. From the opening scroll the film presents the Old South as an idyllic paradise. The war is framed as a just cause that the Southerners did not ask to take part in but are excited to defend what’s right. Even the beautiful sequence mentioned earlier of the hundreds of wounded Southerners is capped off with a triumphant shot of a tattered, but still waving Confederate flag.
One could say that it’s not the responsibility of a movie to be completely honest in its depictions of true-life events or characters. This is often the case when people take issue with how they’re presented in a story based on real events. What makes Gone with the Wind so exceptional in its falsehoods is that it successfully achieves its goals of making the audience sympathetic to the South’s cause. Few pieces of American culture have more directly caused a group of loser traitors, who were quickly defeated in a time period of a few years over 150 years ago, to still be respected across the country today. This was my grandmother’s favorite film and she never stepped foot in the South. There are thousands of Confederate flags flying across Ohio and West Virginia, neither of which were part of the Confederacy. It’s the subtlety and credibility with which the racism is presented that makes this film so dangerous compared with more overtly racist pictures such as The Birth of a Nation which have faded over time. Of course, you can’t pin the persistence of the glorification of the Old South on one film, but when it’s the highest grossing film of all-time, the impact cannot be overstated.
Again, it can be argued that this is all independent from its quality as a film and in many ways its cultural resonance and staying power after all of these years is proof of its excellence. But when something is made with evil intentions and those intentions are achieved that has to be taken into account when considering its legacy.