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Gone With The Wind (1939) Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh The grandmommy of all blockbusters—no movie, not even Star Wars, has surpassed its earnings. And for good reason. I don't know what more can be said about GWTW because every superlative has already been uttered. The cast, costuming, directing and cinematography—all of it has been rehashed since the movie's release in 1939. Miraculously, after nearly 70 years, the film still holds up as one of the greatest movie-making feats in Hollywood history. Clocking in at 3 hours and 45 minutes, it remains a spellbinding experience (though the second half loses the grandeur of the first half, turning into a domestic soap opera). To add frosting to the cake, the film has been digitally re-mastered and re-colorized-with superb results. Warner Brothers 2-disc DVD set is the preferred version for most, but MGM's single version set is good, too. There's also a Warner Brothers 4-disc Collection Set that contains good background commentary on two of the discs. One point must be mentioned here: the movie's racism. Both book and movie gloss over the issue of slavery; indeed, slaves are sometimes made to seem content with their lot. Butterfly McQueen's Prissy, especially, is portrayed as a dim-witted stereotype, sadly typical of the era's movies. The film's saving grace is Hattie McDaniel's Mammy, who (like Dilsey in Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury) stands as one of the moral forces of the entire work. McDaniel, by the way, won an Oscar for her role-the first African-American ever to be nominated and to win. |
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