Gone with the Wind (1939)

 Victor Fleming's "Gone with the Wind"

Considered one of the biggest films in the history of classic Hollywood, 1939's "Gone with the Wind" is monumental in its technical achievements and its box office reputation. Watching the film, it's easy to see why there is so much fervor over the film, for both its technical prowess, along with its controversial romanticism of the Old South. Regardless, the film stands as a monolith of film history and is the discussion of much recognition and debate today.

The film centers on a young, Southern belle named Scarlett O'Hara who lives on her family's estate in 1860s Atlanta. As discussion of war is spoken about amongst the local populace, Scarlett is mainly focused on her spoiled life and her attraction to Ashley Wilkes. However, after war breaks out between the North and the South, Wilkes ends up marrying Scarlett's cousin, Melanie Hamilton, while Scarlett is left to marry some other lowly man she knows. As the war rages on, Scarlett loses her new husband, she loses her home to destruction, and loses some family members. Her and her family now live in poverty and Scarlett does whatever she needs to do to keep everything afloat, including marrying a man who owns a local business. After further struggles, this husband dies and she then marries Rhett Butler who she has a child with. After her child dies in an accident, her and Rhett become irrevocably detached and Rhett leaves her. Scarlett is left with nothing to do and nowhere to go, clinging to the delusion that the old house her family owns will be her sanctuary. 

I find the main engagement with the film is its visual abundance. The use of technicolor was so advanced for 1939 and it really shows. The images are still as crisp and vibrant today. Some of the shots that Victor Fleming employs will take your breath away. Most of the filming was done at Selznick International studio's back lot. Much of the outdoor sequences utilized plywood and paper-mache facades that were built onto the lot. The extensiveness of the production, the sets that needed to be designed, and abundant cast, and the technologically advanced technicolor processing made "Gone with the Wind" the second most expensive film production at the time, sitting only behind 1925's "Ben Hur."

The story itself was something of a mixed bag. The first section of the film deals with Scarlett's relationship to the Civil War breaking out, as she attempts to navigate its consequences. I found this section of the story to be the most fulfilling, as it demonstrated the film's central most themes in the most engaging and meaningful ways. The central themes being the integral to the temperament of the America at the time in 1939, they demonstrated the fleeting nature of both society and personal fixation. As America was headed into a global war and contemplating the evaporating nature of its current generational climate, "Gone with the Wind" also grappled with these concepts and substituted them for the 1860s and that monumental upheaval. This 19th century upheaval completely destroyed the Southern economic structure and replaced it with a more industrial and technological economic that would become prevalent in the 20th century. Those times, those people, and their way of life and society are now gone with the wind, completely bulldozed over in favor of this 'new world.' Similarly in the 1939 present, many were anticipating a similar seismic shift with the incoming global conflict of World War II. The film was able to ruminate on these anxieties, the loss of society, and the passing of time in the same way (I feel) that Orson Welles' 1942 film "The Magnificent Ambersons" so eloquently demonstrated. 

However, the second half of the film is where many critics and audiences become exasperated. After the war ends, Scarlett's relationship troubles and her spoiled, selfish behavior continues. After the utter shock and horror of war, it almost seems like these post-war troubles become rather moot. I understand their inclusion, as Scarlett continues to adjust her personality and behavior to fit this new dimension of the story. Life after war must continue, and presumably with more individualized troubles. However, many felt that this is where the film's nearly 4 hour runtime starts to become fatiguing. And I can't help but agree. 

Despite all of this, "Gone with the Wind" was not only a success, but was the single largest success in the history of film. Even if you were to adjust for monetary inflation, it still is considered the highest box office producer in film history. The film was a seismic shift in film recognition and consciousness. This was especially true in the American South, as many Southerners felt the film represented the romanticism of the Confederacy and the Antebellum that had been lost so many years ago. This remained a spark in the South, as many Jim Crow laws were still in effect, even to the point that the black actors in the film could not attend the film's premier in Atlanta due to these laws. The film even sparked a national conversation about how black Americans should be portrayed in future Hollywood productions.

Regardless of the controversy of the film, in spite of its mixed bag of a story, "Gone with the Wind" remains a topic of conversation. The illustrious technical achievement of the film, the superb performances from Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and Olivia de Havilland, the contextualized anxieties about the changing of time, the controversy surround the romanticism of the old American South, and the box office feat that could never ever be achieved again are all still topics of discussion today.