FILM FRENZY

Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind (Photos: Warner Bros.)

By Matt Brunson

GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
★★★★ (out of four)
DIRECTED BY Victor Fleming
STARS Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh

Earlier this year, Spider-Man: Brand New Day surpassed Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens to become the all-time biggest moneymaker at U.S. cinemas. Yet a more accurate way to gauge box office potency is to adjust the grosses for inflation, and, on that score, Gone With the Wind remains the most successful movie of all time. (See the All-Time Top 25 at the bottom of this review.)

Purely from a cinematic standpoint, this adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller about a Southern family’s struggles during the Civil War is a genuine treasure, a four-hour epic distinguished by exemplary performances and breathtaking achievements in moviemaking. From a social standpoint, its past remains ingrained in controversy: Along with D.W. Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation, it’s the film most responsible for whitewashing the evils of racism and in effect making a romanticized vision of the Old South palatable to the nation at large. (Bruce Chadwick’s book The Reel Civil War: Mythmaking In American Film is a fine starting point for discussions on this thorny subject.)

Regardless, GWTW is a motion picture of numerous highs, beginning with Vivien Leigh’s extraordinary performance as Scarlett O’Hara, surely one of the most fully developed characters ever depicted in American cinema. Clark Gable’s not too shabby, either, transforming into the perfect Rhett Butler (even if Mitchell had wanted Basil Rathbone to play the part). And while frail Leslie Howard is miscast as the dreamy Ashley Wilkes, Olivia de Havilland offers a lovely turn as good-girl Melanie Hamilton, while Hattie McDaniel steals scenes as Scarlett’s maid Mammy.

Nominated for 13 Academy Awards, including Best Actor (Gable) and Supporting Actress (de Havilland), the film earned eight, including Best Picture, Actress (Leigh), and Supporting Actress (McDaniel); it also snagged a couple of special honors, including one for production designer William Cameron Menzies’ “use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood.”

Extras in the 4K + Digital Code edition include audio commentary by film historian Rudy Behlmer; a lengthy making-of documentary; two pieces on the film’s influence (both positive and negative) over the decades; a featurette on the character of Scarlett O’Hara; a look at the film’s restoration; and a 2004 interview with a then-88-year-old de Havilland (she passed away in 2020 at the age of 104).

ALL-TIME DOMESTIC TOP 25

Modern box office charts are pretty meaningless (and boring): Of the all-time top 25 moneymaking films, all but two have come from the 21st century, and all 25 from the past 29 years. (Oh, and 19 are sequels or franchise continuations … zzzz…) The real box office champs can be determined via adjusted grosses. To wit:

1) Gone With the Wind (1939)

2) Star Wars (1977)

3) The Sound of Music (1965)

4) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

5) Titanic (1997)

6) The Ten Commandments (1956)

7) Jaws (1975)

8) Doctor Zhivago (1965)

9) The Exorcist (1973)

10) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)

11) Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

12) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

13) Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

14) Ben-Hur (1959)

15) Avatar (2009)

16) Avengers: Endgame (2019)

17) Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

18) Jurassic Park (1993)

19) Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

20) The Lion King (1994)

21) The Sting (1973)

22) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

23) The Graduate (1967)

24) Fantasia (1941)

25) The Godfather (1972)

(Source: Box Office Mojo, others)