How long is the uncut version of Gone With the Wind?

Q: Is Gone with the Wind Rated R?

A time-tested favorite, we give Gone With the Wind a 9 out of 10. OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Although the film wasnt initially rated (it came out before the advent of the MPAA ratings) it has since been rated G.

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When originally released theatrically in the UK in 1940, the BBFC made cuts to secure a 'A' rating.

Originally shot in a 1.37:1 ratio; the prints re-released in 1967 by MGM, were converted to a simulated wide screen ratio, chopping strips at the top and bottom of the image.

For its fiftieth anniversary in 1989 a special restored version was prepared using some of the original negatives, some sections of which had been heavily damaged by time. This version restores the original 1.37:1 ratio, but has been usually projected in a 1.66:1 ratio because modern theaters lack the equipment to properly display the original screen size.

New Line Cinema spent $1 million to prepare a restored version using the original Technicolor printing process. This version was released theatrically June 1998.

The first broadcast showing, on Nov. 7, 1976, had an entirely unfamiliar moment in the scenic backgrounds of the scrolling prologue. In all known prints, the last scene was of slaves driving oxen toward the camera, silhouetted against a sunset sky. But NBC's print ended the prologue on a blue sky with moving clouds.

The rough cut shown to MGM executives in July 1939 ran four and a half hours. By September 1939 it had been trimmed to three hours and forty minutes for a preview showing in Riverside, California. Further additions (including a fifth shooting of the opening scene) and deletions brought it to its final running time in December of three hours and forty-two minutes.

Foreign versions of the film included a scrolling text prologue to explain the circumstances leading to the American civil war.

Issued in Argentina by MGM in 1984 on VHS (in two cassettes) with the opening original prologue with a special one for Foreign versions explaining the circumstances leading to the American civil war. This film went into the public domain in Argentina between 1989 and 1995, and during those years several minor video editors published their own versions (usually lifting them from American editions) and with much more quality than what MGM did in 1984. Several of this companies issued the VHS on a single cassette (the N-PAL color system allowed this), although removing the intermission and the exit music. In 1986, for its second Argentinean TV exhibition two different versions were simultaneously televised. LS85 TV Canal 13 of Buenos Aires used standard dubbed in Spanish print that has also been used by Turner Entertainment and, now, Warner Bros. At the same, on another channel, LS86 TV Canal 2 used a different print, without permission from the copyright owners: the print used was an older dubbed version from Spain, probably lifted from an MGM video edition, featuring all of the titles and signs in the entire film in Spanish. The source from that print was a company called VEA (Video Editora Argentina) that had a partnership with the television station at the time.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Do Not Buy THIS Special Edition!!!!!! Look for an older used.
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2020

Do NOT Buy this. By this, I mean this new anniversary edition of a a Blu-ray. See the featured on the screen shot? They don’t work! The “Great Extra Features” are not available, either, on this dvd. And I’m so horribly embarrassed tonight, because I finally talked a couple of people into watching it. They’ve never watched or read “ GWTW.” This horrid version I bought has missing scenes. (Edited out, I’m sure for time!) It was pretty sad to try and explain the choppy story line from the night before Rhett took Bonnie away. I couldn’t even get just the music to play as people were leaving tonight. HaHaHa.... jokes on me. Right? I wish I’d have dragged out the original dvd 1st release. I bought this in February of 2020. It’s now September 2020. I guess I should have opened it long before now or I’d have returned it immediately. I’m just sad for a generation of people who haven’t read it, watched it or been able to discuss it. Selfishly sadder for me, though, because I spent money on something I e been Begging people to watch. Just.... please find another copy, or buy anything not Blu-ray anniversary edition. So disappointed tonight.

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Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2009

Almost four years ago, on November 17th, the 70th Anniversary Edition of GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) was released in a special 5-disc boxed set. While a Hollywood classic, GWTW is not for everyone.

GWTW is not for you if:

1) you think a movie must be as historically accurate as a history book;
2) you think a 1939 movie should reflect the values of the 21st century;
3) your attention span doesn't allow you to watch movies longer than two hours;
4) you can only accept politically correct films, particularly in terms of racial issues;
5) you can only accept special effects as they appear in (computerized) modern films;
6) your idea of great acting is to be found only in the slasher or teen films being made today.

Some find GWTW a ridiculously overblown, exaggerated re-telling of the Old South. To others, Scarlett O'Hara is nothing more than a spoiled brat who never really grows up; or, by the time she shows a glimmer of doing so, it's too late.

What one should keep in mind when watching GONE WITH THE WIND: it is not a documentary. Despite the obsessive care producer David O. Selznick lavished on historical accuracy as to the "look" of the period--the clothes, the interiors--the movie is not reality, but rather an historical romance set against the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil, a war in which at least 618,000 Americans died. (Some experts say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation's total loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.)

GWTW is a great--perhaps THE great--Hollywood example of the power of film: although battle scenes are never actually shown, the results of the war--the devastation, disease and death--are so powerfully depicted that people swear they "remember" seeing bloody combat in the movie.

WITH ONE LOOK: Vivien Leigh as Scarlett, at the Atlanta church-turned-charnel house of diseased, dying and dead soldiers. With one reaction shot(see below)--her revulsion at a soldier's screams as his leg is amputated, without anesthesia--Vivien Leigh conveys the horrors--and the (never shown) bloody battles--of war.

This power of film is perhaps why GWTW comes in for different criticisms. The movie is so real in its physical aspects--its "look"--that it is criticized for not being (historically) accurate in others. But, again, the movie is not a documentary. It is a m-o-v-i-e based on a novel; i.e. fiction.

Not only is GWTW not a documentary on the Civil War period, it is not a history of slavery in America. It was criticized--as was the novel--for its treatment of blacks. But upon an objective viewing of the movie today, it is quite often the slaves--Mammy, Pork, Big Sam--who are the only characters with any sense. Of course, GONE WITH THE WIND, with its happy plantation slaves posed against bleeding robin's breast sunsets, has its enraging and embarrassing moments; the racist depiction is, regrettably, part of the nation's collective past.

Caption: Hattie McDaniel as Mammy explaining to Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) that Rhett has locked himself in the room with his daughter Bonnie's corpse and has threatened to kill Scarlett if she buries the child.
If this scene alone doesn't rip your heart out--largely due to McDaniel's performance--then pick up the phone and call the undertaker because you are most assuredly dead.

Taken as cultural artifact of an earlier period of American movie-making, one has to look at it as anthropology tells us we must look at cultures not our own. That is, just as we must "judge" a culture on its own terms, we must look at a 70-year-old movie in terms of the times in which it was produced.

Finally, GONE WITH THE WIND is an adaptation of a novel written by a Southern woman who, as a child, sat and listened to the stories the old Confederate veterans told about the old days before, during, and after The War. It is a love story, inspired in part by the novelist's grandmother, reflecting the attitudes left over from that long-ago time.

Taken on its own terms, it remains the prototype of the Hollywood epic film. It achieved many firsts. Today, it remains--in terms of tickets sold--the all-time box office champ.

---Hoyt Harris, Lafayette, LA

Gone with the Wind (70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition)
Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master
Frankly, My Dear: "Gone with the Wind" Revisited (Icons of America)
Gone with the wind, the screenplay by Sidney Howard; based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell
***
Vivien Leigh: A Biography
David O. Selznick's Hollywood

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Two years after announcing he would bring "Gone with the Wind" to the screen, producer David. O. Selznick--after paying the publisher MacMillan a record sum for the rights--still did not have a script. He was still a couple of months away from getting MGM to loan Clark Gable in return for world distribution rights and half the film's box office.

Despite a phenomenally costly, two-year, nationwide search for an actress---amateur or professional--to play the tempestuous, spoiled and fickle Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, Selznick still didn't have his Scarlett, either. (In all, 1,400 hopefuls were interviewed, 90 given screen tests, and exactly one actually cast, in a minor role. Also considered: Katharine Hepburn (who lobbied for the part), Bette Davis, and even RKO Studio's loony suggestion of Lucille Ball. Charlie Chaplin's companion, Paulette Goddard, seemed to have the role locked up, but a massive letter campaign spearheaded by the Florida chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy torpedoed it.)

With or without a Scarlett, construction crews needed to get cracking on building sets for Selznick's epic--what many doomsayers were already calling "Selznick's folly." To make room for construction of a two-mile long re-creation of Old Atlanta, the back lot of Selznick International Pictures had to be cleared of old movie sets.
Someone came up with the idea of burning the remnants of the set of KING KONG (1933) and filming it as the "burning of Atlanta," one of the great visual sequences in all of film.

Just as Life itself so often does, it came down to one shot. There could be no retakes.

Without a script, without stars for the two principal characters, on the night of December 10, 1938, the shooting of GONE WITH THE WIND finally began--stunt doubles for Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler escaping the inferno on buckboard as Los Angeles firemen aimed their hoses at the raining embers. (The fire on the Culver City back lot--fed by an elaborate system of pipes pumping oil and water through the sets so that the fire could be raised or lowered at will--was huge and intense. Its red glow was so ominous on low-hanging clouds on this chilly December night that hundreds of L.A. residents called the fire department, wanting to know if MGM was on fire.)

Because there could be no retakes, the lenses of every available Technicolor camera (there were no more than a dozen in existence) were trained on the one-chance, make-or-break scene. As the sets went up in flames, Selznick's brother, the agent Myron Selznick, brought a lovely British actress onto the scaffolding, a perch from which "General" David Selznick was watching the inferno.

David looked into the eyes of this exquisite, dark-haired, green-eyed beauty.

A British actress little known in the United States at that time, Vivien Leigh-- who had made her first stage appearance at the age of three, reciting "Little Bo Peep"--was 26.

But Vivien Leigh's entrance was no accident. She had come to Hollywood from England ostensibly to be with her lover Laurence Olivier, one of Myron's clients, whom she would marry a year and a half later when his divorce--and hers--became final.

But Vivien Leigh had also come to Hollywood to pursue the part of Scarlett.

Both Selznicks already knew of Leigh. But it wasn't until this night--with the crimson glow of the burning movie set illuminating her face--that David O. Selznick first laid eyes on Vivien Leigh.

Leigh reportedly auditioned for then-director George Cukor that very night. A week and a half later, on December 21 and December 22, her screen tests were made. Legend has it that George Cukor called her three days later on Christmas Day to tell her she had the part. She signed her contract on January 16, 1939. Principal photography began on January 26.

The opening scene of "Gone With The Wind," in which the Tarleton Twins are talking to Scarlett about the war, was one of the most troubled scenes of the film. It was shot a total of five times. The first time was on Thursday, January 26, 1939. Selznick was not satisfied with this take because the Twins's hair, dyed red for the film, appeared "too orange" in Technicolor. The scene was shot again on Monday, January 30, but was not used because of the lighting. When George Cukor left the production, Victor Fleming took over; his first scene, shot on Wednesday, March 1, was the porch scene. But Selznick was not happy with the Twins' performances so the take was not used. Fleming shot the scene again on Monday, June 26. This take was not used because Vivien Leigh looked "exhausted." She took a vacation before returning to shoot the scene a final time on Thursday, October 12, 1939. It was the last scene shot with Vivien Leigh and is the version that appears in the final film.
So, in the finished film, Vivien Leigh is almost nine months older at the beginning of the movie than she is at the end of the movie.

Now, let's fast-forward thirteen months.

January 29, 1940-- Los Angeles--Ambassador Hotel's Coconut Grove.

It's Oscar night in Hollywood. With comedian Bob Hope emceeing, the Oscar ceremony is underway. One after another, the gold-plated statuettes--gold-plated, 92 percent tin now, but gold-plated solid bronze on this night--are showered on GONE WITH THE WIND. It won't be a "clean sweep," but the movie will set a record for most Oscars won.

--William Cameron Menzies for his use of color.
--Hal Kern and James Newcom for film editing.
--Ernest Haller and Ray Renahan for color cinema photography.
--Lyle Wheeler for art direction.

Acclaimed author Sinclair Lewis announces the Academy Award for best screen adaptation: a posthumous Oscar (the first such Oscar ever given) to writer Sidney Howard.

(A lover of the quiet rural life, Howard had died five months earlier while working on his 700-acre farm in Tyringham, Massachusetts. The screenwriter was crushed to death in a garage by his two-and-a-half ton tractor. He had turned the ignition switch on and was cranking the engine to start it when it lurched forward, pinning him against the wall of the garage. Apparently an employee had left the transmission in high gear. Sidney Howard died less than four months before the movie he scripted had premiered. He never saw the movie that he had written--with the help of many others, including his micromanaging, obsessed producer.)

Mervyn LeRoy, who produced THE WIZARD OF OZ this same year, steps to the podium to present the next Academy Award.

--Best direction to Victor Fleming--who had simultaneously directed OZ--for GONE WITH THE WIND.

All Oscar nights since the first one in 1928 had been glamorous ones. But this night was special. It represented what history would soon realize was the zenith, the high-water mark of the studio system and the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the twelve months of 1939, more now-classic films were produced than in any year-- before or since.

In addition to GONE WITH THE WIND, 1939 saw production of the following movies:

* Edmund Goulding's DARK VICTORY (with three nominations and no wins) about a young heiress who is slowly dying of a brain tumor and ultimately accepts her death in noble fashion

* Director Sam Wood's GOODBY MR CHIPS (with seven nominations and one win - Best Actor), a version of James Hilton's novel about a beloved Latin teacher/schoolmaster at an English public school (the Brookfield School for Boys)

* Director Leo McCarey's tearjerker LOVE AFFAIR (with five nominations and no wins) - that he later remade as AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) - about two lovers who promise to meet atop the Empire State Building

* Director Ernst Lubitsch's delightful romantic comedy NINOTCHKA (with four nominations and no wins) about a cold Soviet official sent to Paris

* Director Lewis Milestone's adaptation of the classic John Steinbeck tragedy "Of Mice and Men" (with five nominations and no wins)

* Director John Ford's version of Ernest Haycox's story "Stage to Lordsburg", STAGECOACH (with seven nominations and two wins - Best Supporting Actor and Best Score) - the director's first film with star John Wayne - about a stagecoach journey by a varied group of characters

* Director Victor Fleming's perennial favorite - the beloved fantasy film about a Kansas farm girl who journeys to a brightly colored world in THE WIZARD OF OZ (with six nominations and only two wins - Best Song "Over the Rainbow" (almost cut from the film by MGM executives) and Best Original Score)

* Director William Wyler's best film version of Emily Bronte's romantic novel about doomed lovers in WUTHERING HEIGHTS (with eight nominations and only one win - Best Black and White Cinematography by Gregg Toland, who, the following year would shoot CITIZEN KANE for Orson Welles)

* Director Frank Capra's film MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (with eleven nominations and only one win - Best Original story) of Lewis Foster's story about a naive and innocent junior senator.

But on this night the movie receiving Hollywood's glitter and gold was perhaps the most highly anticipated film in Hollywood history. The public had quickly made Margaret Mitchell's novel a best-seller after its publication in 1936. (It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1937.) Sales of the novel, at the virtually unprecedented price of three dollars, reached about one million by the end of that year. Once it was announced that Selznick planned to adapt it the screen, the novel's legion of fans eagerly gobbled up any news about the production. The public also began clamoring for their favorite stars to play specific characters in the book.

Five months earlier---while the film was being edited---when Selznick was asked by the press 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 Mayer Selznick, 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, 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. The theater manager 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 to his wife the name of the film.

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 more than 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 (the words) "Gone with the Wind" came on the screen, it was thunderous!"

In his 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.

With thirteen nominations, the most ever up until that time, GONE WITH THE WIND won 10 Academy Awards--8 regular, 1 honorary, 1 technical--a record that stood for twenty years, until BEN HUR won eleven in 1960.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Quoting GWTW:

Rhett: With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.

Scarlett: Great balls of fire. Don't bother me anymore, and don't call me sugar.

Scarlett: I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.

Rhett: No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.

Rhett: Did you ever think of marrying just for fun?
Scarlett: Marriage, fun? Fiddle-dee-dee. Fun for men you mean.

Rhett: I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.

Scarlett: Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?
Rhett: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

Scarlett: Sir, you are no gentleman.
Rhett: And you, Miss, are no lady.

Scarlett: As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.

Scarlett: Cathleen, who's that man staring at us? The nasty dog.
Cathleen Calvert: Why that's Rhett Butler, he's from Charleston.
Scarlett: He looks as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy.

Rhett: Here, take my handkerchief. Never in any crisis of your life have I known you to have a handkerchief.

Scarlett: Rhett, don't. I shall faint.
Rhett: I want you to faint. This is what you were meant for. None of the fools you've ever know have kissed you like this, have they? Your Charles, or your Frank, or your stupid Ashley.

Mammy: It ain't fittin'... it ain't fittin'. It jes' ain't fittin'... It ain't fittin'.

Rhett: My darling, you're such a child. You think that by saying, "I'm sorry," all the past can be corrected.

Gerald O'Hara: Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts.

Scarlett: I'll think of some way to get him back. After all...tomorrow is another day.

Scarlett: I only know that I love you.
Rhett: That's your misfortune.

---Hoyt Harris, Lafayette, LA

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2022

Gone With the Wind is a movie that causes a lot of division, especially with the rise of the infantile division we have had in the country for years. The truth is, it can both be a classic movie and have a problematic theme. But, it also has to be looked at through the lens of history. It is a movie that could be made the way it was in 1939 with the understanding that it would probably never be made the same way today. And that is not to say it shouldn't be made the same way today. It was set during the Civil War and told from the perspective of people in the south. Obviously, most people today would not agree with the perspective of the rich, slave-owning, southerners of that time, but it does not mean that how they were portrayed in the movie is not how they were. Also, the movie was a dramatic period piece, not a documentary. So, it was never going to show the evils of slavery in all their gory details. And, I do think to say that the movie glorified slavery does a couple of things. First, it ignores the fact that there were in fact slaves that had roles such as "Mammy", and it also diminishes Hattie McDonald's achievement in playing that role. The fact that she was a black woman living under the Jim Crow laws and facing the racism that she did and still won an academy award is frankly amazing. And. let's face it, even states that did not have Jim Crow laws were not devoid of racists by any means, so the fact that a black woman in the late 1930s/early 1940s would even be nominated for an academy award, much less win it, was quite something. All that said, no, the movie is never going to be banned, and anyone who thinks so is kidding themselves, if you want to find it, you will always be able to do so, and if a disclaimer at the beginning of it really triggers you, it has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray multiple times.

As for the movie itself, as I said above, it is a drama set in the south during (and after) the Civil War. It stars Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, who is basically a rich brat, who at the beginning of the movie is trying to steal her cousin's boyfriend. Clarke Gable plays Rhett Butler, who was an attendee at a party thrown at the O'Hara estate who did not buy into the fact that the war was going to be a quick and easy thing, and also, ultimately ended up gaining Scarlett's affection, by basically standing up to her and not taking any of her crap, and marrying her. The movie is partly a romance drama, but mostly about the ravages of war, telling how Scarlett had to grow up and transform from the bratty Southern Belle who was handed everything on a silver platter, to having to deal with the realities of war. The first part of the movie (up to the intermission) deals with the war and ends with Atlanta burning. The second part deals with the aftermath of the war, and the characters trying to put their lives back together.

For those who get the movie on Blu-Ray, it looks and sounds great in the HD format. The HD transfer was very well done, and while it still has the Film-noir era look to it, the video transfer does look great. What kind of extras you get depends on the version of the movie you pick up. There is a multi-disc collectors edition that has about 19 hours' worth of bonus content. The version I have is the single-disc 70th Anniversary edition, and the only extra on it is a commentary track by Historian Rudy Behlmer.

Overall, the movie is a timeless classic. It has many great quotable lines, and it tells a good story, although definitely from the perspective of the losing side in the Civil War. Chances are, if it were made today more of the evils of slavery would be shown to give it more context, and show exactly why the Civil War was being fought. And yes, the civil war was about slavery, pure and simple. If you read the articles of secession from any of the states that formed the Confederacy, that is plain as day, and to say otherwise is denying all reality. I do not think the movie glorified slavery as much as it glorified the south overall. But, again, taking the movie for what it is and considering the time it was made, it can both be a classic movie and a topic of debate at the same time. And, I think a healthy debate about what was good and what may have been problematic about the movies would not necessarily be a bad thing.

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2022

Chiefly I'm writing to protest the movie's preface screen about "the racial and ethnic prejudices" and the "racist depictions" of the movie. I assume this note was added by HBO when they pulled it from their collection "temporarily" (their words). But why did Amazon permit the preface to stand? It quite frankly infuriates me. How ignorant do these people think I am? I certainly feel pre-judged because it is assumed I'm not capable of determining morality independently. And what rock do they think I've been hiding under? As if anyone COULD be unaware of racial/ethnic discrimination and stereotypes in this day and age! It's been a problem for more than the few decades since this book was written and the movie filmed. But guess what? The movie didn't CAUSE the problem. And if they're going to preface this movie, there are plenty of others that need commentary for this and/or other reasons. It's unfair to label one and not others, but where would it end? Can you say "censorship"? I also object to being unable to write a review before watching the movie to the end since it wasn't the movie I wished to write about. In that case, where's my protest page about HBO/Amazon's switch to "preaching"? And if HBO/Amazon really wants to take a stand, then how about not selling the movie? Funnily enough, they don't seem to mind earning $$$ from what they deem wrong or else are unwilling to cope with customer criticism-- that's a spineless way of taking a stand . All-in-all, this preface is a TAD hypocritical and pointless. Why don't they team up to create a film critiquing the book and/or movie instead? Again, that might actually require an investment on their part. So ineffectual and offensive.

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Ein farbenprächtiges und spektakulär inszeniertes Bürgerkriegsepos!

Reviewed in Germany on February 4, 2020

Wenn man Menschen nach einem Klassiker aus den 30ern fragt, werden wahrscheinlich 90 Prozent „Vom Winde verweht“ nennen, der bis heute zu den cineastischen Meisterleitungen zählt.

Regie führte damals VICTOR FLEMMING, die Hauptrollen spielten VIVIEN LEIGH (Scarlett O'Hara) und CLARK GABLE (Rhett Butler). Das Drehbuch von SIDNEY HOWARD und BEN HECHT basiert auf dem gleichnamigen Erfolgsroman von MARGARET MITCHELL, der 1936 veröffentlicht wurde.

Er zählt heute zu den bedeutendsten Romanen der Literaturgeschichte und handelt von der temperamentvollen SCARLETT O`HARA (Vivien Leigh), die während des amerikanischen Bürgerkriegs und „Reconstruction-Ära“ eine stürmische Romanze mit dem Frauenschwarm RHETT BUTLER (Clark Gable) eingeht, ihn sogar heiratet, obwohl sie ihre Jugendliebe ASHLEY WILKES (Leslie Howard) nicht vergessen kann. Dieser ist für sie aber unerreichbar, weil er mit seiner Cousine MELANIE HAMILTON (Olivia de Havilland) verheiratet ist.

Ich denke, dass man mehr zu diesem Film gar nicht schreiben muss, diesen Südstaaten-Epos kennt wahrscheinlich jedes Kind. Dieser fast 4-stündige Film hat damals ganz neue Maßstäbe gesetzt und soll bis heute, inflationsbereinigt, fast 7 Milliarden Dollar eingespielt haben. Das macht ihn zum kommerziell erfolgreichsten Film aller Zeiten, der bis heute von geschätzten 500 Millionen Menschen gesehen wurde.

1940 wurde der Film in 13 (!) Kategorien für den Oscar nominiert, achtmal wurde er mit der begehrten Trophäe ausgezeichnet und erhielt zusätzlich zwei „Ehren-Oscars“.
Unter den Gewinnern war auch HATTIE McDANIEL, die für ihre Rolle der schwarzen Sklavin „Mammy“ mit dem Preis für die „Beste Nebenrolle“ ausgezeichnet wurde. Erwähnenswert ist das nur deswegen, weil sie die erste Afro-Amerikanerin war, der diese Ehre zuteilwurde.

Beeindruckend sind bi heute die Massenszenen sowie die Kulissen, die für damalige Verhältnisse überwältigend waren. Am Set waren zeitweise bis zu 2400 perosnen beschäftigt, die an Kulissen und Kostümen arbeitet, das ist eine beeindruckende Zahl und zeigt, mit wie viele Akribie und Aufwand dieser Film gemacht wurde. Angeblich wurden tausende von Entwürfen für Szenen und Kulissen entworfen, ganze Straßenzüge und Häuser wurden originalgetreu nachgebaut. Auch die Plantage „Tara“ wurde auf einem Außengelände nachgebaut, ebenso wie insgesamt fast 2 Kilometer Straßen.
Um den Brand von Atlanta darzustellen, fackelte man kurzerhand die Kulissen von „King Kong“ ab, die waren damals nicht zimperlich.

Über 1400 Tiere, darunter 1000 Pferde, kamen zum Einsatz, dazu noch 450 Wagen und ein riesiges Heer von Statisten. Insgesamt sollen 750.000 Arbeitsstunden zusammengekommen sein, es wurden 140 Kilometer Film aufgenommen, von denen lediglich 6000 Meter für den Film geschnitten wurden. Ich denke mal, dass ich den Aufwand, den man damals betrieben hat, sehr gut vermittelt habe, man könnte da noch seitenweise Details hinzufügen.

Die Darsteller sind natürlich auch erstklassig, allen voran VIVIEN LEIGH und CLARK GABLE. Aber auch die bereits erwähnten OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND, LESLIE HOWARD und HATTIE McDANIEL sind überragend.

„Der Spiegel“ nannte den Film „rassistisch“, anlässlich des 75-jährigen Jubiläums schrieb er folgendes: „Die Greuel der Sklaverei, fast eine Selbstverständlichkeit hier, sind nur Kulisse, die Schwarzen Komparsen. [...] Nicht nur das Drehbuch war rassistisch gefärbt, auch die turbulente Produktion selbst. Es gab getrennte Toiletten für Weiße und Schwarze.“

Sorry Leute, das war eben 1939 so, diesen Film und die Produktion, muss man logischerweise im Kontext der Zeit beurteilen, 75 Jahre später die Moralkeule zu schwingen, ist mehr als erbärmlich. Aber so sind wir Deutschen inzwischen, wir sind allen anderen moralisch überlegen und unsere „Qualitätsjournalisten“ werden nicht müde alles unter rassistischen Gesichtspunkten zu betrachten. Ausgerechnet der „Spiegel“ ….. das „Relotius“-Blatt!
Der Film erzählt nur eine Geschichte, eine Geschichte aus einer Zeit in der das eben genau so war, ob das nun gut oder schlecht war spielt keine Rolle, es war so …. Fertig!

Wie auch immer, egal was die schreiben, der Film ist ein Klassiker, einer der schönsten Filme aller Zeiten. Die Geschichte, die in den Wirrungen des Bürgerkriegs spielt, wird leidenschaftlich und mitreißend erzählt, auch heute och finde ich das beeindruckend. Man hat ein farbenprächtiges Sitten- und Gesellschaftsbild des Amerika im 19. Jahrhundert geschaffen, die Atmosphäre der damaligen Zeit authentisch eingefangen.
Trotz seiner Laufzeit von fast vier Stunden kommt nie Langeweile auf, was nicht nur ein Verdienst von Regisseur VICTOR FLEMING ist, sondern auch von den überragenden Darstellern.

Ich besitze sowohl die DVD und die Blu-ra und würde in jedem Fall zu letzterer Raten, weil da Qualitativ doch noch was rausgeholt wurde.

Mein Fazit: Wenn ein Film den Status eines Klassikers verdient hat, dann „Vom Winde verweht“. Auch heute noch, über 80 Jahre später, hat er nichts von seinem Reiz und seiner Wirkung verloren, das ist definitiv ein Klassiker!
Wer ihn nicht kennt, hat wirklich was versäumt, ich kann ihn nur wärmstens empfehlen.

5.0 out of 5 stars Ein farbenprächtiges und spektakulär inszeniertes Bürgerkriegsepos!
Reviewed in Germany on February 4, 2020

Wenn man Menschen nach einem Klassiker aus den 30ern fragt, werden wahrscheinlich 90 Prozent „Vom Winde verweht“ nennen, der bis heute zu den cineastischen Meisterleitungen zählt.

Die Darsteller sind natürlich auch erstklassig, allen voran VIVIEN LEIGH und CLARK GABLE. Aber auch die bereits erwähnten OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND, LESLIE HOWARD und HATTIE McDANIEL sind überragend.

Ich besitze sowohl die DVD und die Blu-ra und würde in jedem Fall zu letzterer Raten, weil da Qualitativ doch noch was rausgeholt wurde.

5.0 out of 5 stars THE American Civil War epic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2018

What can I say that has not already been said about this production. Magnificent. Olivia de Haviland, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, just faultless. Vivien portrays the spoilt Scarlet Ohara to a T. No other actor could have been Rhett Butler either. A classic must own for everyone who appreciates great stories, epic productions and the creme de la creme of the thespian world.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for fans of Old Hollywood

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2012

Enough has been said about the quality of the film. Clocking in at four hours, it's quite an epic, so be prepared to devote an afternoon to it. When you don't know what film to watch, just stick this on. "A civilisation gone with the wind" does not simply refer to the Old South- it refers to Old Hollywood. They simply don't make them like this anymore.

Anyway, my review is on the 5-Disc Collector's Version. Unfortunately there's no middle-way: you either have to get a bare-bones single-disc DVD or this. However even if you only want a few special features, it's worth getting this version. The background story behind Gone With The Wind is equally as fascinating- it was even made into a lightly amusing TV movie called The Scarlett O'Hara Wars, which is included as a special feature on disc 5, along with a documentary about Hollywood films released in the same year and a featurette about the fans of Gone With The Wind (known as "windies", in case you wanted to know). For those who already have the four-disc collector's version, this extra disc is not indispensable. Your four-disc version should give you all the material you need.

So, disc by disc:

-Disc One has the film, remastered splendidly. You'd never know from this print that it was over seventy years old. I haven't listened to the commentary but the extra material provided in this collector's version means that you probably won't want to bother.

- Disc Two is just the second half of the film (so if you're not hard-core, you can watch one part one day and the second part the next), again with commentary.

- Disc Three contains a feature-length making-of documentary made in the eighties, which gives an extensive view behind-the-scenes, all narrated by Christopher Plummer (aka Captain Von Trapp). There's also a featurette about remastering the film: on most films, this special feature tends to be rather boring but with a film as old as this, it's fascinating to see the old washed-out prints watched in the eighties. It really is a transformation. The newsreels are fine- the "historical short" is a good example of Hollywood racist stereotypes. And there's a bunch of trailers, from the original theatrical one to various trailers used for the many re-releases of the film.

- Disc Four gives information about the cast. The interview with Olivia de Hallivand is rather boring. The documentaries about Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable give an interesting introduction to their various films and an insight into their real life. Fans of the stars may not find much new here but for the others, it's an interesting insight. Unfortunately there's not much material about Leslie Howard, who played Ashley Wilkes: there's just a ten-minute lowdown on this disc. The supporting cast also get quick lowdowns: even the minor parts like Pork, or Scarlett's sisters.

- Disc Five has the lightly comic TV movie, starring Tony Curtis as David O'Selznick and a lot of beautiful women. It's dated but enjoyable. The documentary on other films from 1939, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, gives an insight into how the old Hollywood studios worked and provides inspiration for a list of films to rent. And the featurette on "windies" shows us why people love Gone With The Wind so much and why it has become a classic.

5.0 out of 5 stars timeless classic,curl up and enjoy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 10, 2010

I adore this film,Vivien Leigh looking wonderful and in great catty form. Wonderful colour.I agree with other reviewers taht after the first half the film does sag a bit towards the end and my daughters screamed and hated the ending. However, it does follow what happened at the end of the book (unlike lots of other films that completely change the ending). I think it is the ultimate indulge yourself for three hours curled up on a wet and windy day escapism. My older daughters like to watch it when feeling under the weather - it still looks great.

This box set is great - the colour and clarity of picture were good (unlike My fair Lady which I recently purchased in "restoration" and was dated, pale and fuzzy). It came with the original introduction music and intermission and we really enjoyed the documentary about the making of the film. This detailed all the changes of script writers, change of directors. The story of how Vivien got the part over Paulette Goddard who had done lots of prep filming and it also went into technical stuff such as painting fabulous ballrooms and backgrounds unto the colour plates to save money. There was also good footage of the film's opening in Atlanta with Clark Gable looking very dashing and discussion of the controversial portrayal of the slaves. All fascinating.

It is amazing it all came together so well and has stood the test of time - over 70 years old! I watch this flm every few years and still enjoy it - a classic.

4.0 out of 5 stars A classic film, and is like the book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2019

Parts of this film does look dated, but most of the acting is very good. Some of the special effects are good but parts look out of date. But as the film is 60 years plus, it still stands up again with films of these days.
Most of the actors are too old for there parts, but the acting safes it

Are there 2 versions of Gone with the Wind?

Gone with the Wind (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. Gone with the Wind (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel.

How long is the second half of Gone with the Wind?

Part Two of Gone with the Wind oftenfeels like a strained and stretched-out sequel to Part One, a repetitive milking of characters and storylines that could have been dealt with more effectively and more satisfyingly in two hours rather than four.

Is Gone with the Wind Rated R?

A time-tested favorite, we give "Gone With the Wind" a 9 out of 10. OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Although the film wasn't initially rated (it came out before the advent of the MPAA ratings) it has since been rated G.

Is Gone with the Wind on Netflix or Amazon Prime?

Gone With the Wind, a romance movie starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and Leslie Howard is available to stream now. Watch it on HBO Max, Watch TCM, Prime Video, Vudu Movie & TV Store, Redbox. or VUDU on your Roku device.