Gone with the Wind (film)

• Release Date: 1939
• Director(s): George Cukor; Victor Fleming
• Writer(s): Sidney Howard
• Principal Actors and Roles: Clark Gable (Rhett Butler); Clark Gable (Rhett Butler); Leslie Howard (Ashley Weeks); Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O'Hara ); Olivia De Havilland (Melanie Hamilton); Fred Crane (Stuart Tarleton); Evelyn Keyes (Suellen O'Hara); Hattie McDaniel (Mammy); Butterfly McQueen (Prissy); Thomas Mitchell (Gerald O'Hara); Ona Munson (Belle Watling); Oscar Polk (Pork); George Reeves (Brent Tarleton); Ann Rutherford (Carreen O'Hara)
• Book / Story Film Based On: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Gone With the Wind is a 1939 epic romance based on Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling 1936 novel of the same title. The novel ran 1,037 pages in length, and the movie matched its scope with a running time of three-and-one-half hours, including an intermission.

The film’s focus is a wealthy Southern family just before and during the Civil War, and through Reconstruction. Its depictions of slavery and life on slave-holding plantations in the antebellum American South are controversial, as is a scene of marital rape. Some of the shots in the movie are so good, so filled with dramatic power, that it is actually possible to view it as a well-done relic and hallmark of movie history. The grand sweep of its story, the outstanding performances by the principal players, and the sheer power of the storytelling have made it an iconic film.

At heart it is a tangled love story that revolves around an indomitable heroine played unforgettably by Vivien Leigh. Viewed simply as an epic romance filled with unforgettable characters, GWTW, as it is often called, is unmatched movie-making.

Plot

The epic-length story of Gone with the Wind is told in two parts. Part One opens with the heroine, Scarlett O’Hara, flirting with two young beaux at Tara, her family’s cotton plantation in Georgia, on the eve of the American Civil War.

The young men tell her that Ashley Wilkes, a neighbor whom Scarlett secretly loves, is going to announce his engagement to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, at a barbecue the next day. Scarlett is dismayed at the prospect and plots to turn Ashley’s head her way. But first, she joins her father for a walk on the land of Tara, a scene that establishes her love for the land and the sense of duty it will inspire in her.

At the party Scarlett privately declares her love to Ashley, but he rejects her, explaining that he and Melanie are right for one another. Ashley leaves the room, but another guest, Rhett Butler, has overheard her. He promises to keep her secret.

The barbecue is interrupted by news of the onset of war with the North. Scarlett watches as Ashley kisses Melanie goodbye, and in a fit of pique she agrees to marry Melanie’s younger brother Charles, whom Scarlett does not love. They wed before the men leave to fight. However, Charles dies of measles before he ever sees combat. Now a widow, Scarlett goes to the Hamilton home in Atlanta. While there she again encounters Rhett.

As the war turns against the Confederacy, Ashley returns to Atlanta on furlough. Scarlett again declares her love, and Ashley again refuses her, but only after he has kissed her passionately.

Months later, when Atlanta is besieged, Melanie goes into premature labor. Scarlett delivers the baby without help. She encounters Rhett again and begs him to get them out of the city—she wants to go home, to Tara. He collects Scarlett, Melanie, the baby, and Scarlett’s slave Prissy in a horse and wagon, driving against the towering flames of the burning city as they escape.

Once they are safely out of Atlanta, however, Rhett leaves to join the army in its doomed fight. Scarlett drives them to Tara, where she finds the house looted and the fields in disuse. Her mother has just died, and her father is suffering from dementia. Destitute and nearly starving, Scarlett vows to do whatever is required to enable herself and her household to survive, declaring against a blazing sunset, "As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!"

In Part 2 Scarlett endures numerous hardships and setbacks as she unflinchingly does whatever she must to revive the farm. Ashley returns after the defeat of the Confederacy, and Scarlett makes one more bid for his love, which he reciprocates, but then says he cannot leave Melanie.

Through twists and turns Scarlett holds onto Tara, is married and widowed again, and eventually marries Rhett. They have a baby girl, Bonnie Blue. But the marriage breaks down, and attempts at reconciliation fail. Tragedy strikes when Bonnie Blue dies after a fall from her pony.

Melanie also dies due to complications from a pregnancy, and Scarlett tries to comfort Ashley, causing Rhett to leave the scene. Scarlett realizes that Ashley only ever loved Melanie, and she runs after Rhett. Back at Tara, though, Rhett is preparing to leave for good. Scarlett tries to convince him to stay, but he refuses, delivering the film’s best-known line when she asks what she will do. Rhett replies, "Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn." He leaves her weeping on the staircase, but her indomitable spirit once again emerges, and she declares, "After all, tomorrow is another day."

Significance

In inflation-adjusted dollars, Gone with the Wind is the top-grossing film of all time. With a tremendous musical score, outstanding cinematography, and sharp Technicolor scenes, GWTW was a blockbuster when it came out, and it has retained that distinction with each of the ten major theatrical revivals that have followed.

It set a record for Academy Award nominations and wins at the time. It won in eight of the thirteen competitive categories in which it was nominated, and it received two honorary Oscars as well. The wins were for best picture, best actress, best director, best screenplay, best cinematography, best editing, best interior decoration, and historically, the best supporting actress award went to Hattie McDaniel for her role as Mammy, the first time an African American won or was nominated.

Posterity has been kind to the film as well. In two Harris Interactive polls taken in the United States in 2008 and again in 2014, it was both times named the most popular film of all time. In the American Film Institute’s "100 Years . . ." series, it ranks fourth among "100 Movies" and second among "Passions." Rhett Butler’s closing line is ranked first among "Movie Quotes," and two other memorable lines are also on the list. Its music is second among "100 Scores," the film is forty-third among "100 Cheers," and it is fourth among the AFI’s "Top 10 Epic Films." In 1989 it was among the first twenty-five movies selected for preservation in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1939) Best Art Direction ()
• Academy Award (1939) Best Cinematography (Color)
• Academy Award (1939) Best Film Editing ()
• Academy Award (1939) Best Picture
• Academy Award (1939) Best Director: Victor Fleming
• Academy Award (1939) Best Actress: Vivien Leigh
• Academy Award (1939) Best Supporting Actress: Hattie McDaniel
• Academy Award (1939) Best Screenplay (Adapted): Sidney Howard

Nominated

• Academy Award (1939) Best Original Score ()
• Academy Award (1939) Best Sound Recording ()
• Academy Award (1939) Best Special Effects ()
• Academy Award (1939) Best Actor: Clark Gable, Clark Gable
• Academy Award (1939) Best Supporting Actress: Olivia De Havilland

Bibliography

Barsam, Richard and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies. 5th ed. New York: Norton, 2015. Print.

Molt, Cynthia. Gone With the Wind on Film: A Complete Reference. Jefferson: McFarland, 2012. Print.

Nussbaum, Ben, ed. Gone With the Wind: Trivia, Secrets, and Behind-the-Scene Stories of America’s Greatest Epic. Chicago: i-5, 2015. Print.

Smith, Ian Haydn, and Steven Jay Schneider. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Hauppauge: Barron’s, 2015. Print.

Vertrees, Alan David. Selznik’s Vision: Gone With the Wind and Hollywood Filmmaking. Austin: U of Texas, 1997. Print.

Wiley, John Jr. The Scarlett Letters: The Making of the Film Gone With the Wind. Boulder: Taylor, 2014. Print.

Wilson, Steve, and Robert Osborne. The Making of Gone With the Wind. Austin: U of Texas P, 2014. Print.