Gone with the Wind (film)

Categories: 1939 films | American Civil War films | Best Actor Oscar Nominee (film) | Best Actress Oscar (film) | Best Picture Oscar | Best Supporting Actress Oscar (film) | Best Supporting Actress Oscar Nominee (film) | Drama films | MGM films | Films based on novels | United States National Film Registry | Films directed by Victor Fleming

Gone with the Wind
Image:Gwtw-original-poster.jpg
Directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor (uncredited), and Sam Wood (uncredited)
Written by Margaret Mitchell (novel),
Sidney Howard (adapted screenplay),
Ben Hecht (uncredited),
David O. Selznick (uncredited),
Jo Swerling (uncredited),
and John Van Druten (uncredited)
Starring Clark Gable,
Vivien Leigh,
Leslie Howard,
Olivia de Havilland,
and Hattie McDaniel
Produced by David O. Selznick
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date December 15, 1939
Runtime 222 min
Language English
Budget $3,900,000 (estimated)
IMDb page

Gone with the Wind is considered as one of the greatest films of all time. Adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind, the 1939 film went on to win 8 Academy Awards.

Producer David O. Selznick decided that he wanted to create a film based on the novel after his story editor Kay Brown read a pre-publication copy in May 1936 and urged him to buy the film rights. A month after the book's publication in June 1936, he bought the rights for $50,000, a record amount at the time. A well-publicized casting search for an actress to play Scarlett resulted in the hire of young English actress Vivien Leigh, although many other famous or soon-to-be-famous actresses had been auditioned, considered for the role, or tested, including Katharine Hepburn, Norma Shearer, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Susan Hayward, Carole Lombard, Paulette Goddard, Irene Dunne, Merle Oberon, Ida Lupino, Joan Fontaine, Loretta Young, Miriam Hopkins, Jean Arthur, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee, and Lucille Ball.

Several actresses were given screen tests for the part, but only two finalists — Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh — were tested in Technicolor, on December 20, 1938. Producer Selznick had been quietly considering Vivien Leigh for the role of Scarlett since February 1938, but for publicity reasons he arranged to first meet her on the night of December 10, 1938, when the burning of the Atlanta Depot was filmed. Her casting was announced on January 13, 1939.

Principal photography began January 26, 1939, and ended on June 27, 1939, with post-production work (including a fifth version of the opening scene) going to November 11, 1939. Most of the filming was done on the Selznick International lot, with the few location scenes photographed in Los Angeles County or neighboring Ventura County. Estimated production costs were $3.9 million; only Ben-Hur (1925) had cost more.

The film premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15, 1939, and has become the highest-grossing movie of all time (adjusted for inflation). It garnered thirteen Academy Award nominations and eight Awards. Rhett Butler's infamous farewell line to Scarlett O'Hara, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," was voted in a poll by the American Film Institute in 2005 as the most memorable line in cinema history [1].

Although some have criticized the film for sanitizing or even promoting the values of the Old South, filmgoers in 1939 had a different view. Scarlett O'Hara's father, Gerald, deferred to his wife, Ellen, who was portrayed as the real head of the O'Hara household. A black woman, Mammy, was not shy about upbraiding her white mistress, Scarlett. In early 1940, Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first time an Oscar was given to an African American.

In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it #4 on its "100 Greatest Movies" list. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry and has undergone a complete digital restoration.

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