Gone with the Wind
Academy Award × 8·AFI #6·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
What critics thought
Gone with the Wind was immediately recognized as an extraordinary technical and production achievement, with Vivien Leigh's performance as Scarlett drawing near-universal admiration. The central debate among contemporary critics was structural: most felt the film's fierce loyalty to Margaret Mitchell's novel made it too long, with the second half — domestic squabbles replacing the Civil War's sweep — seen by several reviewers as dramatically weaker and only intermittently convincing.
“a major event in the history of the industry but only a minor achievement in motion-picture art. There are moments when the two categories meet on good terms, but the long stretches between are filled with mere spectacular efficiency.”
Franz Hoellering·The Nation
“the story had been cut short and tidied up at the point marked by the interval, and if the personal drama had been made subservient to a cinematic treatment of the central theme—the collapse and devastation of the Old South—then Gone With the Wind might have been a really great film”
The Manchester Guardian
“interesting story beautifully told”
Frank S. Nugent·The New York Times
Genres
Drama, Romance, War
Cast & Crew
DirectorVictor Fleming
StarringVivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, Hattie McDaniel
ComposerMax Steiner
Gone with the Wind
Academy Award × 8·AFI #6·National Film Registry
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
What critics thought
Gone with the Wind was immediately recognized as an extraordinary technical and production achievement, with Vivien Leigh's performance as Scarlett drawing near-universal admiration. The central debate among contemporary critics was structural: most felt the film's fierce loyalty to Margaret Mitchell's novel made it too long, with the second half — domestic squabbles replacing the Civil War's sweep — seen by several reviewers as dramatically weaker and only intermittently convincing.
“a major event in the history of the industry but only a minor achievement in motion-picture art. There are moments when the two categories meet on good terms, but the long stretches between are filled with mere spectacular efficiency.”
Franz Hoellering·The Nation
“the story had been cut short and tidied up at the point marked by the interval, and if the personal drama had been made subservient to a cinematic treatment of the central theme—the collapse and devastation of the Old South—then Gone With the Wind might have been a really great film”
The Manchester Guardian
“interesting story beautifully told”
Frank S. Nugent·The New York Times
Genres
Drama, Romance, War
Cast & Crew
DirectorVictor Fleming
StarringVivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, Hattie McDaniel
ComposerMax Steiner
Rent/Purchase