Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. Scarlett was based on the novel by Alexandra Ripley, itself a sequel to Mitchell's book. [52] Of the other principal cast members, both Hoellering and Flinn found Leslie Howard to be "convincing" as the weak-willed Ashley, with Flinn identifying Olivia de Havilland as a "standout" as Melanie;[52][53] Nugent was also especially taken with de Havilland's performance, describing it as a "gracious, dignified, tender gem of characterization". "[52], While the film was praised for its fidelity to the novel,[51] this aspect was also singled out as the main factor in contributing to the lengthy running time. [129] In 1990, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp depicting Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh embracing in a scene from the film. [38] MGM immediately re-released the film in the spring of 1942,[19] and again in 1947 and 1954. [130] In 2003, Leigh and Gable (as Scarlett and Rhett) were ranked number 95 on VH1's list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time". After a deal was struck with MGM, Selznick held discussions with Norma Shearer—who was MGM's top female star at the time—but she withdrew herself from consideration. And, in the background, the black slaves are mostly dutiful and content, clearly incapable of an independent existence." [90] Kauffmann also finds interesting parallels with The Godfather, which had just replaced Gone with the Wind as the highest-grosser at the time: both were produced from "ultra-American" best-selling novels, both live within codes of honor that are romanticized, and both in essence offer cultural fabrication or revisionism. Soundtrack Credits . [132], George [Cukor] finally told me all about it. "But despite the number of writers and changes, the final script was remarkably close to Howard's version. Drama. [3][4], Before publication of the novel, several Hollywood executives and studios declined to create a film based on it, including Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Pandro Berman at RKO Pictures, and David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures. [10][19] It eventually opened in Japan in September 1952 and became the highest-grossing foreign film there. – Nominated, This page was last edited on 15 April 2021, at 11:29. Gone with the Wind is a novel by Margaret Mitchell that was first published in 1936. 9 slot on Amazon's movie and T.V. [64], In the 21st century, criticism of the film's depictions of race and slavery led to its availability being curtailed. View production, box office, & company info. [116], HBO Max returned the film to its service later that month, with a new introduction by Jacqueline Stewart. "[118], One of the most notorious and widely condemned scenes in Gone with the Wind depicts what is now legally defined as "marital rape". The leading roles are played by Vivien Leigh (Scarlett), Clark Gable (Rhett), Leslie Howard (Ashley), and Olivia de Havilland (Melanie). Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Scarlett learns that her secret crush Ashley Wilkes is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. [62], Opinion in the black community was generally divided upon release, with the film being called by some a "weapon of terror against black America" and an insult to black audiences, and demonstrations were held in various cities. Use the HTML below. Warner Bros.—who had contracted Steiner in 1936—agreed to lend him to Selznick. After reaching saturation as a roadshow, MGM revised its terms to a 50 percent cut and halved the prices, before it finally entered general release in 1941 at "popular" prices. A manipulative woman and a roguish man conduct a turbulent romance during the American Civil War and Reconstruction periods. The effort cost $100,000 and proved useless for the main objective of casting the role, but created "priceless" publicity. What does gone with the wind expression mean? At the Capitol Theatre in New York alone, it averaged eleven thousand admissions per day in late December,[37] and within four years of its release had sold an estimated sixty million tickets across the United States—sales equivalent to just under half the population at the time. In 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, Scarlett O'Hara lives at Tara, her family's cotton plantation in Georgia, with her parents and two sisters and their many slaves. Margaret Mitchell's greatest contribution to literature was her "Gone With the Wind," which she began writing in 1926 and published in 1936. WarnerMedia had pulled the movie two weeks ago, … [9][nb 3] Selznick and Cukor had already disagreed over the pace of filming and the script,[9][22] but other explanations put Cukor's departure down to Gable's discomfort at working with him. [90][91] Schickel also believes the film fails as popular art, in that it has limited rewatch value—a sentiment that Kauffmann also concurs with, stating that having watched it twice he hopes "never to see it again: twice is twice as much as any lifetime needs". Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie. Frank, Ashley, Rhett, and several other accomplices make a night raid on a shanty town after Scarlett is attacked while driving through it alone, resulting in Frank's death. Time left 2d 10h left. Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his children against prejudice. 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. "[28], About 300,000 people came out in Atlanta for the film's premiere at the Loew's Grand Theatre on December 15, 1939. Following the death of Olivia de Havilland—who played Melanie Hamilton—in July 2020 at the age of 104, the only surviving credited cast member from the film is Mickey Kuhn, who played Ashley and Melanie's son, Beau. Frank S. Nugent for The New York Times best summed up the general sentiment by acknowledging that while it was the most ambitious film production made up to that point, it probably was not the greatest film ever made, but he nevertheless found it to be an "interesting story beautifully told". While perpetuating some Lost Cause myths, the film makes concessions with regard to others. Controversy over 'Gone With The Wind' has spurred debate about the fate of many of America's "greatest" films and other art in the national reckoning … As to construction, this is about eighty per cent my own, and the rest divided between Jo Swerling and Sidney Howard, with Hecht having contributed materially to the construction of one sequence. What’s the story? After the attack on Scarlett in the shanty town, a group of men including Scarlett's husband Frank, Rhett Butler, and Ashley raid the town; in the novel they belong to the Ku Klux Klan, representing the common trope of protecting the white woman's virtue, but the filmmakers consciously neutralize the presence of the Klan in the film by simply referring to it as a "political meeting". Gone With the Wind, in this light, becomes a way for me to study and understand the ways white people spin fables from an obstructed view of the past and present. Gone With the Wind removed from HBO Max, will return with 'historical context' The move comes after 12 Years a Slave screenwriter John Ridley urged them to do so in an op-ed. Leigh's American agent was the London representative of the Myron Selznick talent agency (headed by David Selznick's brother, one of the owners of Selznick International), and she had requested in February that her name be submitted for consideration as Scarlett. Selznick began a nationwide casting call that interviewed 1,400 unknowns. The Guardian believed that if "the story had been cut short and tidied up at the point marked by the interval, and if the personal drama had been made subservient to a cinematic treatment of the central theme—the collapse and devastation of the Old South—then Gone With the Wind might have been a really great film". This is a documentary that revisits the making of Gone with the Wind with Archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage. [42][43], In 2013, a 4K digital restoration was released in the United Kingdom to coincide with Vivien Leigh's centenary. [40] There were further re-releases in 1971, 1974 and 1989; for the fiftieth anniversary reissue in 1989, it was given a complete audio and video restoration. With Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil. In fact, following HBO Max's decision to remove "Gone With the Wind," the movie is currently occupying the No. Eight months later, as the city is besieged by the Union Army in the Atlanta Campaign, Melanie gives birth with Scarlett's aid, and Rhett helps them flee the city. [73][74], When it was re-released in 1947, it earned an impressive $5 million rental in the United States and Canada, and was one of the top ten releases of the year. One day at Frank's mill, Scarlett and Ashley are seen embracing by Ashley's sister, India. What does gone with the wind expression mean? Sometimes I think it's the greatest picture ever made. Gone with the Wind the novel, despite its repugnant racism, is actually a sophisticated and surprisingly modern take on gender politics that features a complex female protagonist. [124], Gone with the Wind and its production have been explicitly referenced, satirized, dramatized and analyzed on numerous occasions across a range of media, from contemporaneous works such as Second Fiddle—a 1939 film spoofing the "search for Scarlett"—to current television shows, such as The Simpsons. One such viewpoint is reflected in a brief scene in which Mammy fends off a leering freedman: a politician can be heard offering forty acres and a mule to the emancipated slaves in exchange for their votes. From United States. Another “Gone With the Wind," the classic novel and movie about the old South, is suddenly getting a very frosty reception. [27] For the burning of Atlanta, new false facades were built in front of the Selznick backlot's many old abandoned sets, and Selznick himself operated the controls for the explosives that burned them down. Set in the American South against the backdrop of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era, the film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner. Selznick refused to let us eat lunch, arguing that food would slow us up. The film was produced by David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures and directed by Victor Fleming. Title: By the summer of 1938 the Selznicks were negotiating with Alexander Korda, to whom Leigh was under contract, for her services later that year. [19] Turner Entertainment acquired the MGM film library in 1986, but the deal did not include the television rights to Gone with the Wind, which were still held by CBS. C $31.24. But if it's only a great picture, I'll still be satisfied. [69][70], Even though it earned its investors roughly twice as much as the previous record-holder, The Birth of a Nation,[71][72] the box-office performances of the two films were likely much closer. [106], Thomas Cripps reasons that in some respects, the film undercuts racial stereotypes;[107] in particular, the film created greater engagement between Hollywood and black audiences,[107] with dozens of films making small gestures in recognition of the emerging trend. [38][71] Successful re-releases in 1954 and 1961 enabled it to retain its position as the industry's top earner, despite strong challenges from more recent films such as Ben-Hur,[75] but it was finally overtaken by The Sound of Music in 1966. [40], Upon its release, consumer magazines and newspapers generally gave Gone with the Wind excellent reviews;[9] however, while its production values, technical achievements, and scale of ambition were universally recognized, some reviewers of the time found the film to be too long and dramatically unconvincing. [53] John C. Flinn wrote for Variety that Selznick had "left too much in", and that as entertainment, the film would have benefited if repetitious scenes and dialog from the latter part of the story had been trimmed. Unlike most historical epics, “GWTW” has a genuine sweep, a convincing feel for the passage of time. Only Leslie Howard and Victor Fleming chose not to attend: Howard had returned to England due to the outbreak of World War II, and Fleming had fallen out with Selznick and declined to attend any of the premieres. Hecht wrote, "After each scene had been performed and discussed, I sat down at the typewriter and wrote it out. A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue. He went on to characterize it as a "nostalgic plea for sympathy for a still living cause of Southern reaction". Sidney Howard's script was derived from Margaret Mitchell's first and only published, best-selling Civil War and Reconstruction Period novel of 1,037 pages that first appeared in 1936, but was mostly written in the late 1920s. The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg, in which many of the men of Scarlett's town are killed. The casting was widely praised, and many reviewers found Leigh especially suited to her role as Scarlett. She has vitality. [8][9][10] Four actresses, including Jean Arthur and Joan Bennett, were still under consideration by December 1938; however, only two finalists, Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh, were tested in Technicolor, both on December 20. Summary Read a Plot Overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter Summary and Analysis. [103][125][126] The Scarlett O'Hara War (a 1980 television dramatization of the casting of Scarlett),[127] Moonlight and Magnolias (a 2007 play by Ron Hutchinson that dramatizes Ben Hecht's five-day re-write of the script),[128] and "Went with the Wind!" Rhett kisses Scarlett against her will and rapes her. [101][102], Gone with the Wind has been criticized as having perpetuated Civil War myths and black stereotypes. [86], The film remains immensely popular with audiences into the 21st century, having been voted the most popular film in two nationwide polls of Americans undertaken by Harris Interactive in 2008, and again in 2014. Gone With The Wind is a bildungsroman, a coming of age story, that follows Scarlett’s maturation from a Southern belle to an accomplished businesswoman. [123], Molly Haskell has argued that, nevertheless, women are mostly uncritical of the scene, and that by and large it is consistent with what women have in mind if they fantasize about being raped. As such, war, and its effects, is a major theme throughout the novel. The barbecue is disrupted by news of the declaration of war, and the men rush to enlist. The story of T.E. [16][17], Of the original screenplay writer, Sidney Howard, film historian Joanne Yeck writes, "reducing the intricacies of Gone with the Wind's epic dimensions was a herculean task ... and Howard's first submission was far too long, and would have required at least six hours of film; ... [producer] Selznick wanted Howard to remain on the set to make revisions ... but Howard refused to leave New England [and] as a result, revisions were handled by a host of local writers". After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in. From United States. [13] Selznick's brother arranged for them to meet for the first time on the night of December 10, 1938, when the burning of Atlanta was filmed. When adjusted for monetary inflation, it is still the highest-grossing film in history. – #31, "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." With the defeat of the Confederacy, Ashley also returns but finds he is of little help at Tara. In July 1936—a month after it was published—Selznick bought the rights for $50,000. So George just told David he would not work any longer if the script was not better and he wanted the Howard script back. When the title appeared on the screen the audience cheered, and after it had finished it received a standing ovation. An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses. When Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie. 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