Gone with the Wind [DVD] [1939]

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If you’d like to file an allegation of infringement, you’ll need to follow the process described in our Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy. Selznick’s epic Academy Award-winning masterpiece swept away audiences and defined what a Hollywood blockbuster should be: fearless filmmaking with a grand scope, intimate drama and enduring romance… all in stunning Technicolor.

Several of the other extras marvel at the production design, the film's lavish sets, and the ambitious matte paintings largely responsible for conveying the scale of this Civil War epic, yet they're not explored in any considerable depth either. The lead character of Becky Sharp (sorry, I mean Scarlett O'Hara) is one of literature's and cinema's great, great egoists.This segment also touches on the shifting balances of power throughout Hollywood as a whole, including the arrival of such Method actors as Brando, the power of the producer making way for directors craving more creative control, and the reluctant embrace of darker themes and more graphic violence. The incomplete script, logistical headaches for mounting a project of this scale, and how Gone with the Wind might impact the rest of the Selznick slate are also addressed. As someone who has yet to read the Margaret Mitchell novel, I appreciate that Behlmar takes the time to highlight some of the differences between this adaptation and the printed page: characters that are fused together, material that has been softened to suit the filmgoing audiences of 1939, and other subplots and objectionable moments that are excised entirely.

Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) often uses men to get what she wants, but is unable to get the one man she truly desires, Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard). Rhett is all too aware that Scarlett will bring him nothing but heartache and frustration, and yet he's unable to turn away. It's also noted how deeply Leigh was able to draw from her own troubles for her other standout role, Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Its sparkling dialogue, the intriguingly complex relationship between Scarlett and Rhett, a sprawlingly epic scope, a flair that transcends the maudlin or traditionally melodramatic, and its visual spectacle made the film the most colossal success of its era, and Gone with the Wind has yet to be rivaled in the seven decades that have since passed. The immaculate costume design is that much more impressive in high definition, and such moments as the streets of Atlanta blanketed by hundreds upon hundreds of wounded soldiers make even more of impact with its imagery now so clear and distinct. I can't argue that the final act of the film doesn't seem somewhat anticlimactic, but it's strictly by comparison, and the strength of the performances and the emotional intensity pervasive throughout these moments largely define Gone with the Wind for me.