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Gone with the Wind (film)

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                  Gone with the Wind
              Original 1939 film poster
     Directed by   Victor Fleming
                   Uncredited:
                   George Cukor
                   Sam Wood
     Produced by   David O. Selznick
     Written by    Novel:
                   Margaret Mitchell
                   Screenplay:
                   Sidney Howard
                   Uncredited:
                   Ben Hecht
                   David O. Selznick
                   Jo Swerling
                   John Van Druten
      Starring     Clark Gable
                   Vivien Leigh
                   Leslie Howard
                   Olivia de Havilland
                   Hattie McDaniel
      Music by     Max Steiner
   Cinematography  Ernest Haller
   Distributed by  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
                   New Line Cinema (1998 re-release)
   Release date(s) December 15, 1939
    Running time   222 min
      Language     English
       Budget      $3,900,000 (estimated)
    Gross revenue  $390,500,000
               All Movie Guide profile
                     IMDb profile

   Gone with the Wind is a 1939 film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936
   novel of the same name. It went on to win ten Academy Awards, a record
   that would stand for years, and has been dubbed by the American Film
   Institute as fourth in the top 100 American films of the 20th Century.
   It has sold more tickets than any other film in history, and today has
   become one of the most popular films of all time, and the most enduring
   symbol of the golden age of Hollywood.

Story

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   The story opens on a large cotton plantation named Tara in rural
   Georgia in 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War. Scarlett O'Hara
   is the eldest of three daughters of Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara and
   his wife Ellen. She is seemingly sought after by every young man in the
   county, except the refined Ashley Wilkes, for whom Scarlett longs. She
   is upset to hear of Ashley’s imminent engagement to his cousin Melanie
   Hamilton, to be announced the next day at a barbecue at his family’s
   home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks.

   At Twelve Oaks, she notices she is being admired by a handsome but
   roguish visitor, Rhett Butler, who had been disowned by his Charleston
   family. Rhett finds himself in further disfavor among the male guests
   when, during a discussion of the probability of war, he states that the
   South has no chance against the superior numbers and industrial might
   of the North.

   When Scarlett is alone with Ashley, she confesses her love for him. He
   admits he finds Scarlett attractive, but says that he and the gentle
   Melanie are more compatible. She accuses Ashley of misleading her and
   slaps him in anger, which is heightened when she realizes that Rhett
   has overheard the whole conversation. “Sir, you are no gentleman!” she
   protests, to which he replies, “And you, miss, are no lady!”

   The barbecue is disrupted by the announcement that war has broken out,
   and the men rush to enlist. As Scarlett watches Ashley kiss Melanie
   goodbye, Melanie’s shy young brother Charles, with whom Scarlett had
   been innocently flirting, asks for her hand in marriage before he goes.
   She consents, they are married, and she is just as quickly widowed when
   Charles dies not in battle, but of pneumonia.

   Scarlett's mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta to cheer
   her up, although the O’Haras' outspoken housemaid Mammy tells Scarlett
   she knows she is going there “like a spider”, waiting for Ashley’s
   return. Scarlett and Melanie attend a charity ball in Atlanta, where
   Rhett makes a surprise appearance, now a heroic blockade runner for the
   Confederacy. Scarlett shocks Atlanta society by accepting his bid for a
   dance, even though she is still in mourning. While they dance, Rhett
   tells her of his intention to win her, which she says will never
   happen.

   The tide of war turns against the Confederacy, and Scarlett makes
   another appeal to Ashley’s heart while he is visiting on Christmas
   furlough. But eight months later, as the city is being besieged by the
   Union Army in the Battle of Atlanta, Melanie goes into a premature and
   difficult labor, and Scarlett must deliver the child herself. Rhett
   appears with a horse and wagon to take them out of the city, including
   a perilous ride through the burning depot and warehouse district. He
   leaves her with a kiss on the road to Tara, which she repays with a
   slap, to his bemusement, as he goes off to fight with the Confederate
   Army.

   On her journey back home, she finds Twelve Oaks burned out and
   deserted. She is relieved to find Tara still standing, but learns that
   her mother has just died, and her father's mind has begun to crumble
   under the strain. With Tara pillaged by Union troops, and the fields
   untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her
   family and herself: “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”

   Scarlett sets her family and servants to picking the cotton fields. She
   also fatally shoots a Union deserter who threatens her during a
   burglary, and finds gold coins in his haversack. With the defeat of the
   Confederacy and war's end, Ashley returns from being a prisoner of war.
   Mammy restrains Scarlett from running to him when he reunites with
   Melanie. The dispirited Ashley finds he is of little help to Tara, and
   when Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire
   for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie.

   Gerald O'Hara dies after he is thrown from his horse while chasing a
   Yankee carpetbagger off his property. Scarlett is left to care for the
   family, and realizes she can't pay the taxes on Tara. She knows that
   Rhett is in Atlanta. Believing he is still rich, she has Mammy make an
   elaborate gown for her from her mother’s drapes. But upon her visit,
   Rhett tells her his foreign bank accounts have been blocked, and that
   her attempt to get his money has been in vain. However, as she departs,
   she encounters her sister’s fiancé, the middle-aged Frank Kennedy, who
   now owns a successful general store and lumber mill.

   Soon Scarlett is Mrs. Frank Kennedy. She becomes a hard-headed
   businesswoman, willing to trade with the despised Yankees and use
   convict laborers in her mill. When Ashley is about to take a job offer
   with a bank in the north, Scarlett preys on his weakness by weeping
   that she needs him to help run the mill; pressured by the sympathetic
   Melanie, he relents. One day, after Scarlett is attacked while driving
   alone through a nearby shantytown, Frank, Ashley, and others make a
   night raid on the shantytown. Ashley is wounded in a melee with Union
   troops, and Frank is killed.

   With Frank’s funeral barely over, Rhett visits Scarlett and proposes
   marriage. Scarlett is aghast at his poor taste, but takes him up on his
   offer. After a honeymoon in New Orleans, Rhett promises to restore
   Tara, while Scarlett builds the biggest and most crassly opulent
   mansion in Atlanta. A daughter, Bonnie, is born. Rhett adores her as a
   less spoiled version of her mother, and does everything to win the good
   opinion of Atlanta society for his daughter’s sake. Scarlett, still
   pining for Ashley, lets Rhett know that she wants no more children. In
   anger, he kicks open the door that separates their bedrooms to show her
   that he will decide that.

   When visiting the mill one day, Scarlett listens to a nostalgic Ashley
   wish for the simpler days of old that are now gone, and when she
   consoles him with an embrace, they are spied by two gossips — including
   Ashley's sister India Wilkes, who has always held a grudge against
   Scarlett. Scarlett’s reputation is again sullied, but Melanie refuses
   to believe in the rumors, and invites her to Ashley’s birthday party.
   Afterwards, a drunken Rhett tells her he will make her forget Ashley,
   and sweeps her up the stairs in his arms, telling her, "This is one
   night you're not turning me out." She awakens the next morning with the
   look of guilty pleasure, but Rhett returns to apologize for his
   behaviour and offer a divorce. When he returns from a visit to London
   with Bonnie, Scarlett tells him resentfully that she is pregnant again.
   After Rhett tells her to "cheer up. Maybe you'll have an 'accident,'"
   Scarlett lunges at him and, when he steps out of the way, falls down
   the grand staircase of their home and miscarries.

   As Scarlett recovers, and Rhett attempts a reconciliation, young
   Bonnie, as impulsive as her grandfather, dies in a fall from her pony
   when she attempts to jump a fence. Scarlett and Rhett are devastated
   and exchange recriminations over her death. Melanie visits to comfort
   them, but then collapses in labor from a pregnancy she was warned could
   kill her. On her death bed, she asks Scarlett to look after Ashley for
   her, as Scarlett had looked after her for Ashley. With her dying
   breath, Melanie also tells Scarlett to be kind to Rhett, that he loves
   her. Outside, Ashley collapses in tears, helpless without his wife.
   Only then does Scarlett realize that she never could have meant
   anything to him, and that she had loved something that never really
   existed.

   She runs home to find Rhett packing to leave her, saying it is too late
   to salvage their marriage. She begs him not to leave, telling him she
   realizes now that she had loved him all along, that she never really
   loved Ashley. Rhett tells her that as long as there was Bonnie, whom he
   could spoil and love unconditionally, as he wished he could with
   Scarlett, there was a chance that they could have been happy, but now
   that chance was gone.

   As Rhett walks out the door, she begs him, "Rhett, if you go, where
   shall I go? What shall I do?" He answers, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t
   give a damn,” and turns away. She sits on her stairs and weeps in
   despair, "What is there that matters?" She then recalls the voice of
   her father Gerald: "Land's the only thing that matters, it's the only
   thing that lasts." And Ashley: "Something you love better than me,
   though you may not know it. Tara." And Rhett: "It's from this you get
   your strength, the red earth of Tara."

   Hope lights Scarlett's face: "Tara! Home. I'll go home, and I'll think
   of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!" And
   in the final scene, Scarlett stands once more, resolute, before Tara.
   Spoilers end here.

Behind the scenes

   Producer David O. Selznick, head of Selznick International Pictures,
   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, Selznick bought the rights for $50,000, a record amount
   at the time. Major financing for the film was provided by Selznick
   business partner John Hay Whitney, a financier who later went on to
   become a U.S. ambassador.

   The casting of the two lead roles became a complex, two-year endeavor.
   Many famous or soon-to-be-famous actresses were either screen-tested,
   auditioned, or considered for the role of Scarlett, including Katharine
   Hepburn, Norma Shearer, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford,
   Lana Turner, Susan Hayward, Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne, Merle Oberon,
   Ida Lupino, Joan Fontaine, Loretta Young, Miriam Hopkins, Tallulah
   Bankhead, Frances Dee, and Lucille Ball.

   Four actresses, including Jean Arthur and Joan Bennett, were still
   under consideration by December 1938. But only two finalists, Paulette
   Goddard and Vivien Leigh, were tested in Technicolor, both on December
   20. Selznick had been quietly considering Vivien Leigh, a young English
   actress little known in America, for the role of Scarlett since
   February 1938, when Selznick saw her in Fire Over England and A Yank at
   Oxford. Leigh's American agent was the London representative of the
   Myron Selznick talent agency (headed by David Selznick's brother, one
   of the owners of Selznick International), and she had requested in
   February that her name be submitted for consideration as Scarlett. By
   summer of 1938, the Selznicks were negotiating with Alexander Korda, to
   whom Leigh was under contract, for her services later that year. But
   for publicity reasons David arranged to meet her for the first time on
   the night of December 10, 1938, when the burning of the Atlanta Depot
   was filmed. The story was invented for the press that Leigh and
   Laurence Olivier were just visiting the studio as guests of Myron
   Selznick, who was also Olivier's agent, and that Leigh was in Hollywood
   hoping for a part in Olivier's current movie, Wuthering Heights. In a
   letter to his wife two days later, Selznick admitted that Leigh was
   "the Scarlett dark horse", and after a series of screen tests, her
   casting was announced on January 13, 1939. Just before the shooting of
   the film, Selznick informed Ed Sullivan: "Scarlett O'Hara's parents
   were French and Irish. Identically, Miss Leigh's parents are French and
   Irish."

   For the role of Rhett Butler, Clark Gable was an almost immediate
   favorite for both the public and Selznick. But as Selznick had no male
   stars under long-term contract, he needed to go through the process of
   negotiating to borrow an actor from another studio. Gary Cooper was
   thus Selznick's first choice, because Cooper's contract with Samuel
   Goldwyn involved a common distribution company, United Artists, with
   which Selznick had an eight-picture deal. However, Goldwyn remained
   noncommittal in negotiations. Warner Bros. offered a package of Bette
   Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland for the lead roles in
   return for the distribution rights. But by then Selznick was determined
   to get Clark Gable, and eventually found a way to borrow him from
   Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Selznick's father-in-law, MGM chief Louis B.
   Mayer, offered in May 1938 to fund half of the movie's budget in return
   for a powerful package: 50% of the profits would go to MGM, the movie's
   distribution would be credited to MGM's parent company, Loew's, Inc.,
   and Loew's would receive 15 percent of the movie's gross income.
   Selznick accepted this offer in August, and Gable was cast. But the
   arrangement to release through MGM meant delaying the start of
   production until Selznick International completed its eight-picture
   contract with United Artists.

   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. Director George Cukor, with
   whom Selznick had a long working relationship, and who spent almost two
   years in preproduction on Gone with the Wind, was replaced after less
   than three weeks of shooting. Victor Fleming, who had just directed The
   Wizard of Oz, was called in from MGM to complete the picture, although
   Cukor continued privately to coach Leigh's and De Havilland's
   performances. Another MGM director, Sam Wood, worked for two weeks in
   May when Fleming temporarily left the production due to exhaustion.

   Cinematographer Lee Garmes began the production, but after a month of
   shooting what Selznick and his associates thought was "too dark"
   footage, was replaced with Ernest Haller, working with Technicolor
   cinematographer Ray Rennahan. Most of the filming was done on "the back
   forty" of Selznick International with all the location scenes being
   photographed in California, mostly in Los Angeles County or neighboring
   Ventura County. Estimated production costs were $3.9 million; only
   Ben-Hur ( 1925) and Hell's Angels (1930) had cost more.

Responses

           Ratings
       Argentina:       Atp
       Australia:       PG
        Belgium:        KT
   Canada ( Brit.Col):  G
   Canada (Manitoba):   PG
   Canada ( Ontario):   PG
   Canada ( Maritime):  G
    Canada (Quebec):    G
         Chile:         TE
        Finland:        K-16
        Germany:        12
        Iceland:        L
      Netherlands:      AL
      New Zealand:      PG
         Norway:        16
          Peru:         PT
        Portugal:       M/12
      South Korea:      12
         Sweden:        11
     United Kingdom:    PG
     United States:     G

First public preview

   When David O. Selznick was asked by the press in early September how he
   felt about the film, he said: "At noon I think it's divine, at midnight
   I think it's lousy. Sometimes I think it's the greatest picture ever
   made. But if it's only a great picture, I'll still be satisfied."

   On September 9, 1939, Selznick, his wife Irene, investor Jock Whitney
   and film editor Hal Kern drove out to Riverside, California with all of
   the film reels to preview it before an audience. The film was still
   unfinished at this stage, missing many optical effects and most of Max
   Steiner's music score. They arrived at the Fox Theatre, which was
   playing a double feature of Hawaiian Nights and Beau Geste. Kern called
   for the manager and explained that they had selected his theatre for
   the first public screening of Gone with the Wind. He was told that
   after Hawaiian Nights had finished, he could make an announcement of
   the preview, but was forbidden to say what the film was. People were
   permitted to leave, but the theatre would thereafter be sealed with no
   re-admissions and no phone calls out. The manager was reluctant, but
   finally agreed. His only request was to call his wife to come to the
   theatre immediately. Kern stood by him as he made the call to make sure
   he did not reveal the name of the film to her.

   When the film began, there was a buzz in the audience when Selznick's
   name appeared, for they had been reading about the making of the film
   for over two years. In an interview years later, Kern described the
   exact moment the audience realized what was happening:

   When Margaret Mitchell's name came on the screen, you never heard such
   a sound in your life. They just yelled, they stood up on the seats...I
   had the [manually-operated sound] box. And I had that music wide open
   and you couldn't hear a thing. Mrs. Selznick was crying like a baby and
   so was David and so was I. Oh, what a thrill! And when "Gone with the
   Wind" came on the screen, it was thunderous!

   In his seminal biography of Selznick, David Thomson wrote that the
   audience's response before the story had even started "was the greatest
   moment of his life, the greatest victory and redemption of all his
   failings."

   After the film, there was a huge ovation. In the preview cards filled
   out after the screening, two-thirds of the audience had rated it
   excellent, an unusually high rating. Most of the audience begged that
   the film not be cut shorter and many suggested that instead they
   eliminate the newsreels, shorts and B-movie feature, which is
   eventually how Gone with the Wind was screened and would soon become
   the norm in movie theatres around the world.

1939 response

   The film premiered in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15, 1939 as the
   climax of three days of festivities hosted by the mayor which consisted
   of a parade of limousines featuring stars from the film, receptions,
   thousands of Confederate flags, false antebellum fronts on stores and
   homes, and a costume ball. The governor of Georgia declared December 15
   a state holiday. President Jimmy Carter would later recall it as "the
   biggest event to happen in the South in my lifetime."

   From December 1939 to June 1940, the film played only advance-ticket
   road show engagements at a limited number of theaters, before it went
   into general release in 1941.

   It was a sensational hit during the Blitz in London, opening in April
   1940 and playing continuously for four years. It is still the most
   watched movie of all-time in the U.K.

Worldwide release dates

     * Argentina: December 27, 1939
     * U.K.: April 17, 1940
     * Australia: July 4, 1940
     * Sweden: October 6, 1941
     * Spain: April 28, 1947
     * Norway: December 15, 1947
     * Netherlands: March 3, 1949
     * Belgium: March 3, 1949
     * Hong Kong: June 16, 1949
     * France: May 20, 1950
     * Finland: September 15, 1950
     * Italy: November 3, 1951
     * Japan: September 10, 1952
     * West Germany: January 15, 1953
     * Austria: January 30, 1953
     * Denmark: September 9, 1958

Racial politics

   Some have criticized the film for romanticizing, sanitizing or even
   promoting the values of the antebellum South, in particular its
   reliance on slavery. For example, syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts
   has referred to it as "a romance set in Auschwitz." But the majority of
   filmgoers back in 1939 expressed no concerns about this. In fact, the
   blacks in the film were generally portrayed in a better light than the
   black characters in the book.

Portrayal of Black characters

   The character of Mammy, played by Hattie McDaniel, has been linked with
   the stock character of the "happy slave", an archetype that implicitly
   condones slavery. However, some, as in Scarlett's Women: Gone with the
   Wind and Its Female Fans by Helen Taylor, have argued that Mammy's
   character is more complex than this, that her character represents
   someone who cared for others, despite the racism and oppression she
   suffered. Other writers also point out that despite her position as
   slave, she is not shy about upbraiding her white mistress, Scarlett;
   and indeed, she is yelling at Scarlett in her first scene.

   But Mammy frequently derides other slaves on the plantation as "field
   hands", implying that as a House Servant she is above the
   "less-refined" blacks. While never referring specifically to Mammy,
   civil rights leaders like Malcolm X were very critical of "house
   Negroes" who helped maintain the status quo of slavery and subjugation
   by being content with their place. Most apparent is the scene in the
   film where Mammy accompanies Scarlett to Atlanta, in order to convince
   Rhett Butler to help them pay the taxes on Tara. As they walk down the
   streets, Mammy passes by a Yankee carpetbagger who promises a group of
   ex-slaves " forty acres and a mule." The ex-slaves are excited, but
   Mammy glares at them disapprovingly.

   Responding to the racial critiques of the film, Selznick replied that
   the black characters were "lovable, faithful, high-minded people who
   would leave no impression but a very nice one." While Mammy is
   generally portrayed in a positive light, other black characters in the
   film are not so fortunate.

   The character of Prissy, a dim-witted slave girl, played by Butterfly
   McQueen, offended blacks and whites when played in the theatre. In one
   especially famous scene, as Melanie is about to give birth, Prissy
   bursts into tears and admits she lied to Scarlett: "Lawzy, we got to
   have a doctor. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" (in
   response, Scarlett slaps her). In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the
   former civil rights leader recounted his experience of watching this
   particular scene as a small boy in Michigan: "I was the only Negro in
   the theatre, and when Butterfly McQueen went into her act, I felt like
   crawling under the rug."

   Others have pointed out that Scarlett also slaps Ashley, Rhett, and her
   sister Suellen. But none of those incidents involved Scarlett punishing
   a slave like Prissy who could not reasonably retaliate. Others have
   also argued that Prissy's frightened dim-wittedness is matched by the
   white matron Aunt Pittypatt, who deserts Melanie and Scarlett in their
   time of need. But while Aunt Pittypatt is frightened and dim-witted,
   she knew that unlike Prissy, she could leave without consequences.

   The role of Prissy catapulted Butterfly McQueen's film career, but
   within ten years she grew tired of playing black ethnic stereotypes.
   When she refused to continue being typecast that way, it ended her
   career.

   Many black actors in the film were criticized by members of the
   African-American community for agreeing to play a role. Oscar Polk, who
   played the role of Pork, wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Defender -- a
   prominent newspaper in the black community -- to respond to that
   criticism. "As a race we should be proud," he said, "that we have risen
   so far above the status of our enslaved ancestors and be glad to
   portray ourselves as we once were because in no other way can we so
   strikingly demonstrate how far we have come in so few years." Polk,
   however, failed to mention that as of 1939 in the South,
   African-Americans were forcibly prevented from voting, lynched and
   subject to Jim Crow segregation.

Unquestioned racist comments

   After the Civil War, Gerald O'Hara (Scarlett's father, who owns the
   plantation Tara), scolds his daughter about the way she is treating
   Mammy and Prissy. "You must be firm to the inferior, but gentle", he
   advises her. While Scarlett was criticized for being too harsh on the
   house servants, Gerald's premise that black people are "inferior" never
   gets questioned in the film at all.

   Some scenes subtly undercut the apparent romanticization of Southern
   slavery. During the panicked evacuation of Atlanta as Union troops
   approach, Scarlett runs into Big Sam, the black foreman of the O'Hara
   plantation. Big Sam informs her that he (and a group of black
   field-hands who are with him) have been impressed to dig fortifications
   for the Confederacy. But these men are singing " Go Down Moses", a
   famous black spiritual that slaves would sing to call for the abolition
   of slavery.

   The Shantytown Raid scene was changed in the film to make it less
   racially divisive than the book. After Scarlett is attacked in a
   Shantytown outside Atlanta, her husband Frank, Ashley, and others leave
   to raid the Shantytown that night to avenge Scarlett's honour. In the
   book, Scarlett's attacker was black, and her friends are identified as
   members of the Ku Klux Klan. In the film, no mention of the Klan is
   made. In both the film and the book, her life is saved during the
   attack by a black man, Big Sam.

Racial politics at Atlanta premiere

   Racial politics spilled into the film's premiere in Atlanta, Georgia.
   As Georgia was a segregated state, Hattie McDaniel could not have
   attended the cinema without sitting in the "colored" section of the
   movie theatre; to avoid troubling Selznick, she thus sent a letter
   saying she would not be able to attend. When Clark Gable heard that
   McDaniel did not want to attend because of the racial issue, he
   threatened to boycott the premiere unless McDaniel was able to attend;
   he later relented when McDaniel convinced him to go.

   At the costume ball during the premiere, local promoters recruited
   blacks to dress up as slaves and sing in a "Negro choir" on the steps
   of a white-columned plantation mansion built for the event. Many black
   community leaders refused to participate. But prominent Atlanta
   preacher Martin Luther King, Sr. attended, and he brought his
   10-year-old son, future civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who
   sang that night in the choir.

   The film also resulted in an important moment in African-American
   history: Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for Best Supporting
   Actress, the first time a black person won an Oscar.

Sexual politics

   Whether Gone with the Wind celebrates women for being strong or
   pigeon-holes them into a submissive role is subject to intense debate.
   Advocates point to Scarlett O'Hara as a headstrong woman with an
   independent streak, and a source of strength and inspiration for women
   coming out of the Great Depression.

   But some have criticized what they consider to be the sexist nature of
   the film as well. Most disturbing to them is the scene where a drunken
   Rhett Butler grabs Scarlett against her will and takes her upstairs as
   she struggles furiously in his arms — apparently to force himself
   sexually upon her. (It should be noted that in the book, Scarlett
   initially resists him but becomes responsive before any sex has
   occurred.) However, this moment, although shocking to some modern
   audiences, is properly set up by the filmmakers in a previous scene in
   which Scarlett decides to eliminate sex from their marriage.

   However, it should be noted that these are modern-day objections to
   events and attitudes that are shocking only by contemporary standards.
   Both the book and the movie conformed to the legal and moral standards
   of their time, which was that a husband had a legal, moral, and ethical
   right to force himself sexually on his wife. This standard was true
   both when the book was published in 1936, as well as when the story
   takes place in the 1860's and 1870's.

Legacy

   In an attempt to draw upon his company's profits, but to pay capital
   gain tax rather than a much higher personal income tax, David O.
   Selznick and his business partners liquidated Selznick International
   Pictures over a three-year period in the early 1940s. As part of the
   liquidation, Selznick sold his rights in Gone with the Wind to Jock
   Whitney, who in turn sold it to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1944. Today it
   is owned by Turner Entertainment, whose parent company Turner
   Broadcasting acquired MGM's film library in 1985. Turner itself is
   currently a subsidiary of Time Warner, which is the current parent
   company of Warner Bros. Entertainment.

   Gone with the Wind was given theatrical re-releases in 1947, 1954,
   1961, 1967 (in a widescreen version), 1971, 1989, and 1998. It made its
   television debut on the HBO cable network in June 1976, and its
   broadcast debut the following November on the NBC network, where it
   became at that time the highest-rated television program ever presented
   on a single network, watched by 47.5 percent of the households in
   America, and 65 percent of television viewers. Ironically, it was
   surpassed the following year by the mini-series Roots, a saga about
   slavery in America.

   Gone with the Wind also holds the record as being the biggest
   box-office hit in the history of movies. Adjusted for inflation, it
   would have made $1,329,453,600 domestically and $2,699,710,936
   worldwide.

   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.

   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.

   In 2005, the AFI ranked Max Steiner's score for the film the second
   greatest of all time.

   The AFI also ranked the film #2 in their list of the greatest romances
   of all time (100 Years... 100 Passions).

   After filming concluded, the set of Tara sat on the backlot of the
   former Selznick Studios, now the Culver Studios (later owned by Lucille
   Ball and Desi Arnaz as Desilu Studios before being sold to Paramount
   and renamed "The Culver Studios") and was disguised and used as the
   house in the television show The Big Valley. In 1959, the facade set of
   Tara was dismantled and shipped to Georgia and stored in a private
   barn. It was given as a gift to one of the former Georgia governor's
   wives. Original plans were used for the reconstruction of a replica of
   the original set in Charleston, South Carolina for the 1994 filming of
   Scarlett, the sequel to Gone With the Wind. The original famous front
   door of Tara's set from the 1939 epic film was donated to the Margaret
   Mitchell House and Museum in downtown Atlanta, Georgia where it is on
   permanent display, featured in the Gone With The Wind film museum.
   Other items from the set, such as many from the set of Scarlett and
   Rhett's Atlanta mansion are still stored at The Culver Studios
   (formerly Selznick International) including the stained glass window
   from the top of the staircase which was actually a painting. The famous
   painting of Scarlett in her blue dress which hung in Rhett's bedroom
   hung for years in the cafeteria at Jonesboro Elementary School, but is
   now on permanent display at The Margaret Mitchell Museum in Atlanta,
   complete with stains from the glass of sherry that Rhett Butler threw
   at it in his rage of anger.

Sequel

   Rumors of Hollywood producing a sequel to this film persisted for
   decades until 1994, when a sequel was finally produced for television,
   based upon Alexandra Ripley's novel, Scarlett, itself a sequel to
   Mitchell's original. Both the book and mini-series were met with mixed
   reviews. In the TV version, British actors played both key roles:
   Welsh-born actor Timothy Dalton played Rhett while Manchester-born
   Joanne Whalley played Scarlett.

Trivia

     * Gone with the Wind is Ted Turner's favorite movie, as such he
       launched the TNT network with a broadcast of this film.

Credits

     * Directed by
          + Victor Fleming
          + George Cukor (uncredited, left the production)
          + Sam Wood (uncredited, took over while Fleming was away)
     * Writing credits
          + Margaret Mitchell (novel)
          + Sidney Howard - adapted screenplay
          + Ben Hecht (uncredited)
          + David O. Selznick (uncredited)
          + Jo Swerling (uncredited)
          + John Van Druten (uncredited)
     * Cast
          + Clark Gable .... Rhett Butler
          + Vivien Leigh .... Scarlett O'Hara
          + Leslie Howard .... Ashley Wilkes
          + Olivia de Havilland .... Melanie Hamilton
          + Thomas Mitchell .... Gerald O'Hara
          + Barbara O'Neil .... Ellen O'Hara
          + Evelyn Keyes .... Suellen O'Hara
          + Ann Rutherford .... Carreen O'Hara
          + George Reeves .... Stuart Tarleton (miscredited on screen as
            Brent Tarleton)
          + Fred Crane (actor) .... Brent Tarleton (miscredited on screen
            as Stuart Tarleton)
          + Hattie McDaniel .... Mammy
          + Oscar Polk .... Pork
          + Butterfly McQueen .... Prissy
          + Victor Jory .... Jonas Wilkerson
          + Everett Brown .... Big Sam
          + Howard C. Hickman .... John Wilkes
          + Alicia Rhett .... India Wilkes
          + Rand Brooks .... Charles Hamilton
          + Carroll Nye .... Frank Kennedy
          + Marcella Martin .... Cathleen Calvert
          + Laura Hope Crews .... Aunt Pittypat Hamilton
          + Eddie Anderson .... Uncle Peter
          + Harry Davenport .... Dr. Meade
          + Leona Roberts .... Mrs. Meade
          + Jane Darwell .... Dolly Merriwether
          + Paul Hurst .... Yankee Deserter
          + Cammie King .... Bonnie Blue Butler
          + Ona Munson .... Belle Watling
          + Eric Linden .... Amputation case
          + Cliff Edwards .... Reminiscent Soldier
     * Produced by
          + David O. Selznick

Academy Awards

   Winner of 10 Oscars
     * Best Picture - Selznick International Pictures ( David O. Selznick,
       producer)
     * Best Actress in a Leading Role - Vivien Leigh
     * Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Hattie McDaniel
     * Best Cinematography, Colour - Ernest Haller, and Ray Rennahan
     * Best Director - Victor Fleming
     * Best Film Editing - Hal C. Kern, and James E. Newcom
     * Best Writing, Screenplay - Sidney Howard
     * Best Art Direction - Lyle Wheeler
     * Honorary Award - William Cameron Menzies - "For outstanding
       achievement in the use of colour for the enhancement of dramatic
       mood in the production of Gone with the Wind." (plaque).
     * Technical Achievement Award - Don Musgrave - "For pioneering in the
       use of coordinated equipment in the production Gone with the Wind."

   5 additional nominations
     * Best Actor in a Leading Role - Clark Gable
     * Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Olivia de Havilland
     * Best Effects, Special Effects - Fred Albin (sound), Jack Cosgrove
       (photographic), and Arthur Johns (sound)
     * Best Music, Original Score - Max Steiner
     * Best Sound, Recording - Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)

     * David O. Selznick was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial
       Award.

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