Gone with the Wind (1939)

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.

Director:

Victor Fleming

Writers:

Margaret Mitchell (novel), Sidney Howard (screenplay),

Stars:

Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil, Vivien Leigh

Top 250 #157 | Won 8 Oscars. Another 10 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
Fred Crane	...	Stuart Tarleton
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

Storyline

Scarlett is a woman who can deal with a nation at war, Atlanta burning, the Union Army carrying off everything from her beloved Tara, the carpetbaggers who arrive after the war. Scarlett is beautiful. She has vitality. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie. Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, the day the Civil War begins. Rhett Butler. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie.

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Plot Keywords:

love | plantation | civil war | widow | barbecue | 

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Taglines:

Winner of Ten Academy Awards [reissue]

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 January 1940 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lo que el viento se llevó

Filming Locations:

Agoura Hills, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,977,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,192,593 (USA) (26 June 1998)

Gross:

$198,655,278 (USA) (13 November 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Selznick International Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

238 min 223 min (1969 re-release) 234 min (1985 re-release) 224 min (1994 re-release) 233 min (1989 re-release) 226 min (copyright length)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the scene where Scarlett searches for Dr. Meade, making her way among 1,600 suffering and dying Confederate soldiers, to cut costs and still comply with a union rule that dictated the use of a certain percentage of extras in the cast, 800 dummies were scattered among 800 extras.

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Goofs

When Rhett enters the room where Bonnie is playing and tells her about taking her away to London, Bonnie's lips move in sync with Rhett's dialog as he talks to her.

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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: War! Isn't it exciting, Scarlett? You know those fool Yankees 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 ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

George Reeves is credited as playing the part of Brent Tarleton, and Fred Crane is billed as Stuart Tarleton. This is incorrect: Crane played Brent, and Reeves played Stuart.

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Connections

Referenced in Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Maryland, My Maryland"
(1861) (uncredited)
Music based the traditional German Christmas carol "O Tannennbam"
In the score at the bazaar in Atlanta and at the train depot

User Reviews

Astounding Film - GWTW is the Definition of a Classic!

The setting is a Georgia plantation. The year is 1861, and sixteen-year-old Scarlett O'Hara is infatuated with the blond, drowsy-eyed Ashley Wilkes - the problem is, Ashley plans to marry another woman. Little matter that every other man in the county is courting Scarlett and that a charming scoundrel named Rhett Butler is staring at her with questionable intent - she cares only for Ashley.

Suddenly, the Civil War brakes out, changing the fates and fortunes of all. Scarlett, clever, manipulative, and charming, proves an adept survivor - but what will she have to do to survive? And will she ever learn whom it is that she really loves?

GWTW is one of the most meticulously cast films ever; with the possible exception of Leslie Howard as Ashley (in his forties, rather old to be playing a man half that age), every role was perfectly assigned. After you watch Vivien Leigh you will be unable to imagine anyone else playing Scarlett, and Hattie McDaniel's strong, unforgettable performance as "Mammy" netted her an academy award (the first for an African-American actor).

GWTW's backdrop is the gruesome Civil War, and in the end this film is the story a woman and a civilization (the Old South) going through a war that will not leave either of them unchanged.

The cinematography is beautiful, memorable. Gone With the Wind was shot entirely in gorgeous technicolor; the scene of the fire in Atlanta required the use of all eight technicolor cameras in existence at the time.

The pragmatic may think Gone with the Wind overly dramatic; the restless may find it too long; the action-stimulated, too subtle. None of this, however, detracts from the fact that GWTW retains a lasting appeal as one of the crowning cinematic achievements of the 20th century. Those who see its ending as depressing - tragic, even - perhaps miss the point - which Scarlett O'Hara makes in her very last instant with us, tear-stained eyes uplifted in a sudden, curious burst of hope beneath all the turmoil; that .. . "After all, tomorrow is another day." 10/10