Gone With the Wind

1   1. In class we discussed how Gone With the Wind was one of the most successful films of all time, in terms of box office numbers as well as the awards it won in 1939. You can see why the film won awards such as Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actress. The acting in this film was on point in all aspects. Gone With the Wind was the highest grossing film of all time until 1966, which is completely understandable because of the film’s epic journey. We also discussed in class how black actors and actresses were used in films of the times and Gone With the Wind both showed and broke these examples. In the film the black characters were not given leading rolls, however Hattie McDaniel’s roll in the film was absolutely outstanding which is why she won the Best Supporting Actress award.  Although the black actors were not used in the leading roles, they weren’t given just the comedic roles and had roles that helped move the story along as apposed to just being in the background.

2. This article talks about how the film was looked at as a flop before it even came out and how it became so successful when it was released. According to the article Gone With the Wind “had the nickname “Selznick’s Folly” by critics while the film was still in production.  They then go on to state that “the cynicism was swept aside by such reactions as the Hollywood Reporter’s headline description: “Magnificent and Supreme Triumph of Film History” when the movie premiered in December of 1939.” The article talks about how the film cleaned up on award night by going home with eight Academy Awards but Clark Gable was robbed for not winning the Best Actor award.  Apparently Selznick was very angry that Gable did not win this award and blamed the producer for not campaigning properly to get him this award.

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/414427/Gone-With-the-Wind/articles.html

3. Although the article touched on some of the things that we had discussed in class about Gone With the Wind, it went a bit more into depth about the film’s success. The one thing that I really couldn’t believe was that people thought that the film was going to be a flop. I don’t know if it is because the film cost $4 million to make and they did not think that it could do big numbers, but that just blew my mind. This film was the highest grossing film for almost thirty years and they were criticizing Selznick prior to it even being released. This article really made me respect how much pride Selznick had in his work because of how upset he got that Clark Gable was beaten out for the Best Actor award. Even after winning awards in a year that had films such as Stagecoach and The Wizard of Oz, he was upset that his actor did not win and that shows how much of a perfectionist he was.

4. Gone With the Wind is clearly one the most critically acclaimed films of all time and you can see why. It is an epic tail of one of the most important events in United States history with a great love triangle in the foreground. Although I didn’t care for it as much as I did some of the other films we saw because it was very long, I can see why the film is held in such high-regard in terms of the history of film.