Gone with the Wind

It is always in people's nature to put down great things and to nit-pick or sometimes just be plain mean. No matter what anyone says, this is utterly fantastic: in story, in special effects, in casting (with perhaps the sad exception of Leslie Howard as "Ashley") and in captivation. Vivien Leigh is so powerful, passionate, magnificent and beautiful that you could watch it 1000 times on that ground alone. She brings something so convincing and human to the role of the selfish, spoilt Scarlett; the character is larger than life.

Leaving Vivien's astounding performance aside, this remains a sweeping unrivalled epic. Watch it. Esther's rating: 20/10

This movie was on my watch list since 1996 or 1997 when I read its review in a local newspaper. I though it must be a dull movie as it is very old and procrastinated to watch until Dec 2019.

And friends, I can't tell you how much I am impressed with this movie - wonderful story, superb acting, mesmerizing cinematography and direction. And they did it in 1939 - which is really hard to digest.

I am stupid enough to miss this glory for so many years.

When a film is consistently recognised through the wisdom of the crowd, over so many years, as being great and epic and, for the duration of that film to run close to four hours - it really does suggest something a bit special. That something a bit special is a timeless story set during some of the darkest times in American history but it isn't the setting that makes this special, it's the story, the story of a cruel, selfish and manipulative opportunist performing her craft to perfection, it's the story portrayed through one of the greatest cinematic performances the world of movies has ever seen. While the leading man and the supporting cast are outstanding, you walk away from this with only one person holding and controlling your thoughts, just like the character she plays, just as she does through the whole of the picture - the incredible and sublimely talented, the beautiful and vivacious, the tempestuous hurricane of a tornado that is Vivien Leigh. Setting the bar so high it remains unparalleled, even to this day.

At first you would think, the main theme of the film is the horrors of war and the idea that both sides suffer , but that is not the only case in "Gone with the Wind", the war is just a background... Scarlet lives almost her entire life in an illusion of love... She has a target she want to achieve and she thinks if she achieves it she will be happy, while missing the point on the way to that target... Something that I realised on a 2nd viewing is that Scarlet is a pretty selfish person with sociopaths behaviour. She can easily manipulate men and sometimes women in order to achieve her goal. She can kill a person and not feel that bad about it,she can exploit prisoners rather than hire free men. The goal is what pushes her forward and sometimes makes her do good things, but these deeds are never done out of big heart, they are usually done in self interest. You would think she ends up achieving everything she wanted, but she does not. Scarlet lives in a personal hell which partially she created herself and only when the last obstacle to her big love, the female friend that loves her is gone, she realises that all this time, she lived the illusion of love, she was hurting the people that loved her. Is scarlet a horrible person? Probably... Does she pay for her sins? She does more than anyone... Does she understand what true love is? Yes in the end she does... What makes this film so great, it's a tragedy like "War And Peace" with monumental character development ...Any scenes of war and racism fade compared to the tragedy of Scarlet which lives in personal hell...

The year 1939 was a busy year for the Hollywood industry. Large-scale, majestic epics were front and center that year. You should look up the list of films released in 1939. It was a very, busy year, with huge titles from the golden age. Lots and lots of entertainment for a pre-WW2 audience. The Wizard of Oz (1939), Stagecoach (1939), Son of Frankenstein (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) and this little film, are just some of the titles on that list. Everyone was competing for perfection in the film industry. The first two hurtles, being sound and color film, had been implemented into the technical side of the filmmaking process, to this point in film history. Technicolor had been utilized for, about, five years to this point and it was perfectly utilized in this film too. Technicolor always was a good film stock, rich with colors, that pop on the screen. Head cinematographer, Ernest Haller's camera, captures images, not seen before on film and blazes colors across the screen, in Gone With the Wind (1939).

I'm sure everyone knows the basic premise of the film. It boils down to a story about the life of woman, a daughter of a rich cotton plantation owner in 1860s, Georgia, who's life interweaves with the real life events of the American Civil War and the recovery and reconstruction years. It is a fictitious story utilizing events from the real world. Of course, most of us remember the picture on the movie posters of Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), locked in that emotional, romantic embrace, plus it's on the cover of every DVD and Blu-Ray out there these days, but the film is really about Scarlett and all the other characters come into her circle. And, the film needs to be about Scarlett in order to be successful, because it is her spoiled, selfish, smug demeanor that energizes the whole film. Everyone who comes into her circle feels her wrath, even Rhett. Rhett isn't really a very likeable character either and watching these two unlikeable characters square off, through various parts of this film, is something to see. These are the reasons, that make this film so good. A plot involving two unlikeable characters, who eventually, reach a certain amount of maturity, that they earn some respect from the audience, doesn't deter from the overall quality of the film, because it is such a unique character study, while chaos is happening all around them.

The film does contain many sub-plots, involving politically, socially, culturally and racially charged tones, which would be expected, considering the time this period piece takes place. Which, brings up another interesting point to this film. Even though this film is approaching 85 years old now in the 21st century, it is still considered a period piece. The interesting part is the filmmakers had a more recent memory of the events used in the film, being only 75 years before, as opposed to our view, which is roughly 150 years later. In fact, there probably were a couple of Civil War veterans still alive in 1939. Another amazing thing about this film is, they started shooting this thing in January, 1939 and released it just before Christmas that same year. That is impressive, considering the massive runtime of this film. It is the runtime of this film that really hurts it from being a perfect film.

The images the filmmakers (I would list names, but you should see the Crew List on this film), are able to show us on the screen, is incredible. The color you will have stuck in your head, for a week after viewing this film, will be the color of orange, red fire, that is seen throughout the movie and obviously, mostly comes from the burning of Atlanta. A technical achievement, that hadn't been seen in the movies yet. The special effects, art direction, costuming and lighting is fantastic. You still don't notice, even today, that most of this movie was just filmed, out in the Los Angeles countryside and on sound stages. So much is going on in this film, you don't notice it. The performances by the cast is perfect. This is an epic journey about redemption and maturing. A maturity that helps the characters and a nation begin to grow. This film would roll through the Oscars in 1940, including winning the Best Picture Oscar.

9.3 (A MyGrade) = 9 IMDB.