Gone with the Wind (1939)

The epic of the epics of the studio system! What can one say about "Gone with the Wind" that hasn't been said a million times? It is still the most viewed movie of all time and the biggest money maker(yes, counting tickets SOLD and considering inflation of the coin). Actually my relationship to Wind had not been a good one. I had seen it two or three times in my early teens, and I had found it an utter bore, and now, ten years passed, and having gained in the process a profound passion and a knowledge of cinema, I was delaying seeing it again in the light of my earned sensibility and insightfulness. Today I decided that it was time, and so I sat for 3h40min to gaze upon Selznick's over the top production. And I found a new movie entirely. There are epics and there are epics. Most great epics are by independent filmakers (Kurosawa, Kubrick, Lean, Leone), but this is the creme de la creme that can be achieved with the studio production format. This means that the shots never sweep you off your feet, are regular enough, but the production value is enormous. It tells the saga of Scarlett O'Hara, from a spoiled girl to a strong headed woman, and her three marriages always in the shadow of her supposed true love. This off course, in the context of first the glorious American South, then the civil war, and then the aftermath, poor and starving where they try to pull their lives together, and succeed. Scarlett is off course Vivien Leigh, the then little known english stage actress who won the most wanted role of all time. Her performance is a trifle overblown, and actually I never get much sympathy for her, although her strength is memorable, as are the famous scenes at the top of the hill with the sundown backdrop. Clark Gable (as Rhett Butler), third husband and continuous presence in the movie is suave, sophisticated (the James Bond of the south I would say :) ), but inside a storm of feelings, and for me is the best thing, and understandably lost the Best Actor Oscar, only because there was a little genius called Robert Donat who delivered one of the greatest performances of all time in "Goodbye Mr Chips". The rest of the cast was top notch, from Thomas Mitchell to Olivia the Havilland (a sensitive soul, heavenly till the end), from Leslie Howard (the one Scarlett always loves but can't marry) to, off course, Hattie McDaniel, the first black Oscar winner, in a role to treasure forever. And glad it was so, because the rest of the african-americans are really treated with more than a little racism by the movie. Excluding McDaniel, they are all the stereotype of the dumb black slave. In the first three hours, the movie is never dull, the backdrop of the civil war perfectly balanced with the coming of age of Leigh's character, with fantastic set pieces, as the sick ward and the burning of Atlanta. Victor Flemming may be the credited director, but he had a hand of two other masters, George Cukor and Sam Wood, as well as of course the present eye of Selznick. Unfortunately, as all large scale epics, as Scarlett settles finally with Rhett and everything appears fine, the melodrama swells, and here yes, the movie becomes a little more than what I was willing to bear. But all that becomes almost worth it, just to hear Gable say he doesn't give a damn, and to know that the movie does not have an alls-well-that-ends-well ending. Tomorrow may be another day, but "Gone With the Wind" will always remain as one of the greatest achievements ever put on film. It may not be magical but is is magnificent, it may not be artistic but is very powerful, it may be over the top with sweeping music (Max Steiner at his best) and extensive melodrama, but its acting is superb, and the quality is one that only the golden age of Hollywood could give. And this is the ex libris of that. Nothing defines Hollywood movie making as "Gone with the Wind", nothing defines the studio system as "Gone with the Wind", nothing holds so long the test of time as "Gone with the Wind". And even if Scarlett may hold the viewers hearts, mine will always be on Clark Gable. It won 8 Oscars against a very tough competition in one of the best years in cinema history. As God as my witness, I will never make fun of "Gone with the Wind" again. It has gained my respect, that the folly and inexperience of my youth could not give.