#6: Gone with the Wind

My wife loves this movie.  For the last four years of my life all I have heard about is how much she loves this movie, how good this movie is, how it is the best thing that has happened since sliced bread (whatever that means).  That is right today I am reviewing Gone with the Wind.  The 1939 film Gone with the Wind is based of the Margret Michelle novel of the same name and is directed by Victor Flemming and stars Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.  Anyways lets get on with the review before we are dust in the wind.

This film is an American epic.  This film was the longest running film (almost four hours) and was one of the first films filmed in color.  It broke the box office becoming the highest grossing movie shortly after it came out.   And to do this day if you adjust for inflation Gone with the Wind is the highest grossing movie of all time.  This film also is referenced much as well as having one of the most famous lines from film, "Franky, my dear, I don't give a damn".  On top of all of this Gone with the Wind won 8 academy awards for Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography (color), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel), Best Director, and Best Picture.  It also received honorary and technical Oscars and was nominated for 5 other awards.  McDaniel was the first African-American to win an Academy Award.

The internet also has postive things to say about this film.
IMDB: 8.2 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating): 96%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating): 91%
It seems the internet agrees that there is something special about this movie.

The acting in this movie was very good for an older film.  I usually find older films to have really bad acting but this movie was great.  Starting with the supporting characters we have family members of Starlets family and they are decent nothing special.  Then we have Mammy who was played by McDaniels.  This character was so funny and so sassy.  She also liked to use the phrase "white trash" which I had no idea was around back then. But the problem with this movie is that for every great enjoyable character we have one of these:

Ugh Prissy!  The same goes with the main characters as well.  Clark Gable as Rhett Butler (which I learned is not Bret Butler the ex-Dodger).  Clark was great.  He was funny and likeable.  Ashley the Boy was also well acted and an enjoyable character.  His wife Melanie was great and probably the nicest person in the movie.  But with all of these good likable characters we knew the there had to be a realy annoying character the problem this time is that the annoying character is the main character Scarlet, played by Vivien Leigh.  While I cannot complain about the acting the character is so unlikeable.  She is selfish, lacks empathy, uses people, and is just a general brat.

The story aspect of the movie is really what was hard for me to enjoy.  The movie felt like it had no point other than to follow Scarlett as she dealt with the Civil War.  When the end came I felt like saying "that's it?".  I put 4 hours into this film and what I got was really nothing.  This movie is definitely based on novel.  It is long, not about to much but character development.  At times I felt like I was watching Twilight with Team Rhett and Team Ashley.  On the bright side I did learn somethings:
#1. There were eating disorders in the Old South (20 in waist was big?)
#2.  They all hate the Yankees as much as I do.
#3.  Must not be an age of consent.
#4. They really are into incest in the South:

The music was fairly good and the settings and cinematography were very good too.  At times I felt like I was at Disneyland.  I do not fully know why but it just reminded me of Fronierland or Critter Country.   The green screen on the other hand is not very good:

In conclusion this movie was long and at times left long.  The acting and cinematography were great but the characters not so much.  The movie has definitely left  a huge impact on American film.  I have to give Gone with the Wind an A.