Rating summary
Movie | | 5.0 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.5 |
Extras | | 4.5 |
Overall | | 5.0 |
Gone with the Wind Blu-ray Movie Review
Warner takes yet another one of the glories of its catalog and delivers a brilliant Blu-ray which
belongs on every collector's shelf.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 20, 2009
If you ask most film fans to name just one movie which best sums up the Golden Age of
Hollywood, or even film in general, chances are the majority of them are going to answer
Gone With the Wind. This epic 1939 release, which still sits atop most all time box
office champ lists (at least those with receipts adjusted for inflation), really shouldn’t
have been such a bellwether production, though. With a famously troubled pre-production
which forced producer David O. Selznick into groveling before his father-in-law, Louis B.
Mayer, and then an equally troubled filming which famously didn’t even have a leading lady
signed until second unit filming had already begun, and which then went on to weather,
under duress, a change of director, Gone With the Wind really should have been the
Heaven’s Gate of its day—a big, lumbering mess with attractive stars but without a
point of view or dramatic momentum. And yet, despite all the odds against it, Gone With
the Wind remains the absolute apex of what the old Hollywood studio system could
achieve under the most trying of circumstances. Back in the day where every studio had its
own amazing roster of virtuoso talents in everything from designers to composers to
something as innocuous as craft services, this film shows what a group of dedicated
professionals, each at the peak of their talents, could do. And this despite the fact that the
Selznick studio didn’t really have the resources of any of the majors, hence its distribution
deal with dad-in-law’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Now seventy years after Gone With the
Wind’s Atlanta premiere, the film remains the gold standard for all which has come after
it, and it has been one of the most widely anticipated releases on Blu-ray since the format
hit consumer shelves. As has been their wont, Warner has devoted a lot of care to this
lavish new collector’s edition, and I can’t imagine any serious Blu-ray devotee is going to
want to be without it.
Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) enchants the Tarleton Twins. That's future television Superman
George Reeves on the right.
My introduction to this epochal motion picture was in one of the early 1970’s 70mm
stereophonic re-releases. My mother was a huge
GWTW fan, and by that I mean
both the original novel, which she typically reread once every couple of years or so (one of
her proudest book possessions was a pristine first edition of the tome, something I've heard
is pretty rare nowadays), as well as the film. When this particular re-release was
announced, she simply informed me I was going to go with her and my father. Need I tell
you that
Gone With the Wind was not exactly at the top of a very young boy’s “must
see” list? And yet, I was transfixed by this film from the first frame (I was too young to
know or care about the butchering the image received by being blown up and rematted to
approximate the 70mm format). I still remember sitting with my jaw agape during the
famous crane shot of Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) walking amidst the wounded and dead
Confederate soldiers. Even at that young, extremely innocent age, I knew that that shot at
least was something spectacular. I also fell in love with Max Steiner’s incredible score, and
in fact I was soon pounding away on the solo piano version of "My Own True Love." I was
also schooled by my mom in the many differences between the original novel and the film, as
she went into minute, almost page by page, detail of how the film altered and reordered the
events in Margaret Mitchell’s best seller.
In fact adapting the novel was one of the biggest nightmares of David O. Selznick’s famously
obsessive compulsive career. If you’ve ever read Rudy Behlmer’s absolutely fascinating
book
Memo from David O. Selznick (and you should if you haven’t), you’re well aware
of the micromanaging to which Selznick subjected his underlings (Behlmer in fact contributes
the exhaustive commentary to the film, doing his typically excellent job). Selznick was
nowhere more putatively in control than during
Gone With the Wind, a film he was
proud to have optioned from under the noses of all the majors (including of course his
father-in-law), and he knew, perhaps instinctively, that this was the film on which his entire
reputation would rise or fall. Large swaths of the novel fell by the wayside under the
repeated attempts of a truckload of scenarists (including Selznick himself), resulting in what
could have been a hodgepodge of styles and approaches. Amazingly, though, the basic
premise of the novel, a portrait of that most petulant of Southern Belles, Miss Scarlett
O’Hara of the plantation Tara, and her ill advised love affair with dashing ne’er-do-well Rhett
Butler (Clark Gable, in a role he was seemingly predestined to play), remained front and
center in the final screenplay (credited to Sidney Howard, though a who’s who of other
screenwriting legends contributed), even while a slew of the novel’s supporting characters
(including two additional children for Miss Scarlett) never made it to the screen. Howard
wisely streamlines the novel’s labyrinthine subplots and melts them down into what
basically amounts to a quartet of starcrossed relationships. Scarlett pines for Ashley Wilkes
(Leslie Howard), who marries his beatific cousin, Melanie (Olivia de Havilland). Perhaps in
spite, mixed with just the right amount of naked lust, Scarlett, after a brief but tragic
dalliance with Melanie’s brother, enters into a tempestuous affair, and ultimately an equally
tempestuous marriage, with Rhett. Have I forgotten to mention this all plays out against
the South’s entrance into the Civil War, with the devastating personal and societal
repercussions that brought, at least for the white folks. Some historical apologists have in
fact accused
Gone With the Wind, in both novel and film form, for adhering to, if not
outright promoting, racial stereotypes, but I would argue that the film is actually somewhat
forward looking in presenting Scarlett’s slave maid, Mammy (the resplendent Hattie
McDaniel), as a woman with a mind (and voice) or her own, not afraid to put her charge in
her place if circumstances warrant. And really how can a film dealing with the end of the
horrific slave era
not indulge in some racial profiling, as it were, at least to some
degree? While the film certainly doesn't really ever take a more politically correct stance
abhorring slavery, I think it's unfair to say it glorifies the practice, other than giving it the
glossy studio system patina that virtually every major film from that era displays.
This is a film in which virtually everything works, from the magnificent performances to the
seamless direction of George Cukor and his replacement Victor Fleming (as well as
contributor Sam Wood), to the amazing production design, the impeccable Technicolor
cinematography and the unmatched magnificence of Max Steiner’s score. It was a foregone
conclusion that Clark Gable would play Rhett, and he famously actually didn’t want the role
as he feared he would never be able to rise to his public’s preconceived notions of what it
should be. He needn’t have been concerned. Playing Rhett with just the right amount of
rogueish wit, mixed with a surprisingly menacing undercurrent of bitterness and even
menace, this is a textbook example of an actor overcoming his “star” image to actually
inhabit the role. Vivien Leigh, of course, was largely unknown stateside at the time of her
casting, and therefore had only the novel readers’ own mental images of Scarlett to
compete with, instead of her own starry façade. She is simply perfection in this role, a
scheming coquette with a steel will and flashes of temper that can take a first time viewer’s
breath away. The supporting cast is similarly wonderful, with Howard’s Ashley Wilkes a
study in noble self denial and tormented passions, and McDaniel’s superb Mammy both the
comedy relief and, perhaps surprisingly, often the emotional anchor of much of the film. But
the two standout acting honors must ultimately go to de Havilland, able to invest a pretty
treacly character like Melanie with some grit and nuance, and the incredible Thomas Mitchell
as Gerald O’Hara, Scarlett’s father, a proud southern plantation owner who pays the
ultimate mental price for the south’s downfall. But really, one could pretty much single out
any supporting actor in this piece and heap praises upon them; this is a film where even bit
parts were cast with care and craftiness, offering a superb palette that only proves how
deep the “back bench” of Hollywood was in those days. You’ll see a truly unmatched
panoply of actors in various roles here, from Jane Darwell to future
Superman
George Reeves to Eddie “Rochester” Anderson to Butterfly McQueen, and they are all
brilliant, sometimes in roles that only grant them mere seconds of screentime.
But the performances are only one part of
Gone With the Wind’s enduring magic.
This is a film which virtually defines the epic, at least as it was at the acme of Hollywood’s
Golden Era that most heralded year of 1939. Ernest Haller and Lee Garmes brought new
splendor to the then still relatively untested medium of three strip Technicolor, offering an
eye-popping array of colors that are only more impressive in this new Blu-ray presentation.
The legendary William Cameron Menzies was on hand as overall production designer, and
along with William Plunkett’s impeccable costume designs, the viewer is whisked by their
mastery into the Antebellum South as in perhaps no other film. When one considers that
this film begins at the height of the south’s prestige and extravagance, and then devolves
into the horrors and degradations the Civil War brought home to bear, it’s an all the more
remarkable achievement. Anyone who has seen this film’s depiction of Tara pre- and post-
battle will know exactly to what I refer.
Against all odds the screenplay also offers a compelling through line, though truth be told
many find the second half of the film less riveting than the first. There are so many classic
moments in this film one almost seems boorish to pull out a few for the purposes of a
review. Rhett and Scarlett’s first meeting, with their hilarious epithets tossed at each other,
setting up their relationship in two brief lines of dialogue, is a perfect example of precise and
concise screenwriting. The absolutely legendary burning of Atlanta segment remains one of
the most jaw dropping spectacles ever committed to film. Scarlett’s anguished cry to the
heavens that she’ll never be hungry again as the film builds towards its incredible
intermission is indelibly imprinted on virtually every
Gone With the Wind viewers’
mind. Of course the famous crane shot to which I referred earlier still remains one of the
most impressive technical achievements of all cinema, especially with the technology
available to the filmmakers of that day. Emotionally devastating moments like Scarlett’s
shooting of the Union soldier in the denuded Tara are as gut wrenching on the fiftieth
viewing as they are on the first. All of these moments and more simply go to prove why
Gone With the Wind is the enduring masterpiece it is; it’s a film whose freshness
never seems to wilt despite how iconic its images have become. You can laugh yourself silly
at the famous Carol Burnett parody
Went With the Wind, especially with its classic
“drape dress” gag, but then you can return to the original and be just as emotionally
involved as you ever were by Scarlett’s shenanigans to impress Rhett. It’s a rare film that
can retain this visceral level after so long, and after having been seen so often and just as
often satirized and parodied through the years.
Finally, one must properly acknowledge the unobtrusive yet brilliant direction, largely by
Fleming, but with several key scenes helmed by either Cukor or Wood. Obviously the tonally
perfect performances are a credit to these directors' mastery, but the epic sweep of this film
must really be attributed squarely to their quiet professionalism. In an era when directors
love to call attention to their own manic camera work, it's notable to see how thrilling
Gone With the Wind is with largely static, or at least non-showy, shots. Fleming
simply plants his camera down and lets the actors and the images tell the story. That
means when there
is some camera movement, as in the famous crane shot, it
becomes all the more thrilling and riveting. A lot of younger directors could, in my not so
humble opinion, learn a lot from this
modus operandi, a component of the director's
craft that has, sadly, disappeared a la this particular film's title.
The Antebellum South may indeed have perished with the winds of time, but there’s little
doubt
Gone With the Wind will forever retain its status as one of the greatest films,
if not
the greatest film, ever made.
Gone with the Wind Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Warner has taken its catalog titles more seriously than perhaps any other major studio
currently releasing its classics on Blu-ray. If they haven't always hit things completely out of
the ballpark (How the West Was Won, a triple play but just shy of a home run),
they're out there swinging for the fences and more often than not connecting big time and
providing film lovers repeated reason to celebrate. The recent Blu-ray upgrade of The
Wizard of Oz in its Collector's Edition is just the latest example of Warner going the
extra mile in their restoration efforts, and Gone With the Wind stands proudly next
to Oz as one of the sharpest looking high definition images of a classic film title yet
delivered to the public. Encoded via VC-1, Gone With the Wind's original 1.37:1
image is a marvel to behold, with a beautifully rich and complex lifelike film texture that has
noticeable but never overwhelming grain. Colors are astoundingly brilliant throughout this
film, with gorgeous saturation and at times breathtaking hues. Scarlett's scandalous red
dress has never been more crimson, and Leigh's eyes sparkle and shine with depth and
luster as never before. I will say that some videophiles may find the Technicolor registration
just a tad on the yellow side, which is noticeable mostly in the skin tones. But just take a
gander at the deeply saturated Technicolor reds in some of the screenshots I've provided
and you have a good indication of how spot on the bulk of this film's color is. As mentioned
below, this film underwent one major scrubbing a few years ago for its 4 disc DVD release,
and the new 8K re-do for this release is simply amazing. Depth of field reveals a level of
detail in backgrounds and matte paintings as never before, and items at the forefront of the
image simply are astoundingly well detailed. Warner has done itself proud with this release
and I doubt there will be any major complaints from even the most demanding viewers.
Gone with the Wind Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Gone With the Wind offers both the original mono track as well as a repurposed
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix, which is rather conservative in its surround ambitions, but which
cleans and clarifies the source material rather dramatically at times. A lot of purists decry
these surround reimaginings, but I have a hunch few will argue about the propriety of this
particular renovation. Dialogue is almost inescapably in the front center channel. Surround
channels kick in where you'd expect them to, in such bombastic segment as the Civil War
battles. Steiner's score typically also fills all the channels. I was rather impressed with the
opening up of the sound itself. Too often Dolby tracks, even lossless high def iterations,
sound to me like they're overly compressed, especially on the high end. You'll notice quite a
bit more hiss on the mono track, but that noise reduction in the TrueHD track does not mean
a loss of the high end, which is to be lauded. This is a subtly repurposed 5.1 mix that
preserves the front and center soundfield of the original soundtrack while gently nudging it
into the surround channels at appropriate times. While even the TrueHD re-do can't
completely overcome the technical limitations of the original recordings (you'll hear this in the
somewhat boxy sound of the music mostly), this is really quite an excellent upgrade that
should delight even the most discriminating listener.
Gone with the Wind Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
The Antebellum South may indeed have perished with the winds of time, but there's little
doubt Gone With the Wind will forever retain its status as one of the greatest films,
if not the greatest film, ever made.
The Box
Blu-ray collectors may have seen their wallets slimmed down considerably with the slew of
collector's editions recently, but few are going to complain about spending money on this
lavish new box for what is arguably the greatest film from Hollywood's Golden Era. Similar in
size and shape to the Snow White Diamond Edition I recently reviewed, as well as
Warner's recent Wizard of Oz Collector's Set, this Gone With the Wind offers
several supplements ported over from the last DVD release, as well as several new ones.
The box itself is clad in a rich red velvet and features the iconic painting of Gable holding
Leigh as the flames of Atlanta burning rage in the background. The main extra-disc feature
is a beautiful 52 page hardcover book which has a wealth of pictures and details about the
film. While not, perhaps, quite as opulent as the oversized book that came with the
Snow White set, it certainly is in a league with its Wizard of Oz counterpart.
For those unfamiliar with Behlmer's The Memos of David O. Selznick, several are
reproduced here, all germane to the casting and crew hiring, as well as the budgeting, of
Gone With the Wind. They show a producer absolutely fixated on the minutiae of an
epic scale production and offer a keen insight into a man seemingly compelled to handle
every last detail himself. Also included is a reproduction of the Atlanta premiere's souvenir
program, a fascinating little piece of memorabilia that shows how studios promoted their
films back in the days when audiences were a bit more starry-eyed than they are now.
Finally, ten paintings of the plantations of the film are included, all on heavy
cardstock.
The Discs
The two Blu-rays and one SD-DVD are contained in a trifold case. A standalone soundtrack
CD is packaged separately.
Disc One:
The main feature, running at around four hours, is on a BD-50 disc and contains "only" the
Behlmer commentary as its one bonus. I say "only" because this is one of the most
authoritative, yet easily accessible and unfailingly affable, commentaries ever recorded.
Behlmer, unlike his frequent counterpart Drew Casper, doesn't deal in faux
profundities or outright inanities, and instead imparts one fascinating fact after another
about the film and the filming. I'm not sure if he was also schooled by my late mother, but
he also goes into detail about the differences between the Margaret Mitchell source novel
and the final film version. Though you'll end up spending eight or so hours watching the film
and then rewatching with Behlmer's commentary, I can't recommend it highly enough.
Disc Two:
The bulk of the film's supplements are offered on this second Blu-ray disc. Unfortunately
they're all in standard definition and several have been released previously.
- The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind (SD, 123 minutes): This
documentary has cropped up regularly on TCM and was included on the previous DVD
release of the film. Filled with fantastic information about the history of the property, and its
tortuous production, Legend also offers a great assortment of screentests and
other archival film.
- Gone With the Wind: The Legend Lives On (SD, 33 minutes), is a sort of
sequel to the above supplemental feature, focusing on the now 70 year old legacy of the
film. Emphasis on film preservation and some of the collectors of Wind memorabilia
(who will no doubt be including this set in their treasure trove) is included.
- 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year (SD, 68 minutes), is one of the better extras
on the set, devoting an in-depth look to that most storied year of Hollywood's halcyon days.
M-G-M may have had the "big two" that most people associate with that year, Wind
and Wizard, but as this feature makes abundantly clear, the studio system was in
full swing with high style at all the majors, and there was a bumper crop of classics that
year.
- Gable: The King Remembered, (SD, 65 minutes), gives us a nice
Biography-esque overview, hosted by Peter Lawford. of the man and the movie star.
- Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond, (SD, 46 minutes), is a little bit more surface
level than the Gable effort, but with hostess Jessica Lange pointing the way, does venture
into Leigh's mental issues which affected her later career. Lange, of course, played another
famously troubled actress, Frances Farmer, an actress who was in fact considered for the
role of Scarlett, as you will see if you look quickly in a "potential casting sheet" in The
Making of a Legend.
- Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia de Havilland, (SD, 39 minutes). At
last we get some first-person reminiscences, and with the ever lovely and gracious de
Havilland providing them, you know you're in for a rare treat. What may surprise you is how
impish the star was and still is when this was filmed.
- The Supporting Players, (SD, 30 minutes). I mentioned just a few of the
incredible supporting cast of this film in the main review, which should give you some
indication of the variety and quality of actors covered in this excellent featurette.
- Restoring a Legend, (SD, 18 minutes). Though this focuses on the 2004
UltraResolution restoration for the film's 4 disc DVD release, this is still a fascinating look at
the incredible effort taken to preserve and restore classic films like these. All film lovers will
both be impressed by and grateful for the efforts depicted in this brief featurette.
- Two newsreels are offered, Dixie Hails Gone With the Wind (SD, 4 minutes) and
Atlanta Civil War Centennial (SD, 4 minutes), both of which offer glimpses of
premiere festivities for the film itself.
- The Old South, (SD, 11 minutes), a sort of documentary exposition of the
cultural background of plantation life, this is probably too apologetic for the South's
justification for slavery ("someone has to pick the cotton," to quote an incredibly racist song
of days of yore), but is interesting at least from an historical perspective.
- International Prologue, (SD, 1 minute), another expository piece which acted as
prelude to the foreign release of the film, offering some background on the Civil War.
- Foreign Language Versions, (SD, 3 minutes), gives us a compendium of
snippets of foreign language versions of the film. "Demain est une autre jour."
- Movieola, (SD, 97 minutes), is a pretty lame made for television movie with Tony
Curtis as David O. Selznick. Curtis simply doesn't have the look or feel for this legendary
character, and the rest of this enterprise is similarly uninspiring.
- Finally five trailers from the original release and various re-releases are
offered.
Disc Three:
Finally, on a standalone SD-DVD flipper, the enormous in scope
When the Lion
Roars three part documentary is featured. An exhaustive look at the history of M-G-M,
hosted by Patrick Stewart, this all-inclusive overview is such an onslaught of archival film it's
like a virtual who's who of Hollywood. Part One, "The Lion's Roar," delves not only into the
studio's nascent years but more importantly the epochal relationship between its two titans,
Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg. Most Golden Age fans will most likely be more entranced
by Part Two, "The Lion Reigns Supreme," which covers the era of the 1930's and 1940's,
when M-G-M was the Tiffany of movie studios. The third part, "The Lion in Winter,"
chronicles the slow, sad decline of the studio and its many subsequent owners.
Disc Four:
As mentioned above, a standalone CD of Max Steiner's amazing score is also included. Pay
attention to how effortlessly Steiner weaves folktunes in and out of his original
underscoring.
Gone with the Wind Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Frankly, dear, you will give a damn about this excellent Blu-ray release. A classic film
has been done proud by Warner, and once again Gone With the Wind is set to
captivate audiences worldwide in an impressively upgraded version.