Gone with the Wind: The Eternal Film

The civil war epic set the standard for all future 'event' movies to come.

It is the movie! It stands alone. It is a classic film that rises above all other classic films. It is in a class by itself. It is Gone With the Wind.

It has long been available on video and DVD, but on November 9th, it is being released on a special 4 disc special edition DVD. It includes a 2-hour documentary on the making of Gone With the Wind as well as some footage of the 1939 world premier in Atlanta. It also includes a 45-minute interview with Olivia de Havilland, who played Melanie.

Every decade or so a movie comes along that changes how movies are made, or how we look at them. The Jazz Singer gave us talking movies. Bonnie and Clyde matured the violence in films. Star Wars took film marketing to a whole new level. But it was Gone With the Wind that created the event movie.

So popular was Margaret Mitchell's novel that everyone, it seemed, was weighing in on the making of this movie. Fans of the book demanded that Clark Gable play the title role. He agreed after having it put in his contract that he would not be required to use a southern accent. The search for an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara was quite extensive. The media, including Time and Life magazines, wrote about it. Many notable actresses, including Gable's real life wife Carole Lombard, tested for the part, before it went to relative unknown British actress Vivien Leigh.

Casablanca may have better dialogue and Citizen Kane may be more of a critics favorite, but Gone With the Wind is the most financially successful film of all time.

Gone With the Wind is the film by which every other blockbuster movie must be compared. It is a love story. Rhett and Scarlett are second only to Romeo and Juliet in romantic literary couples. It is an action flick. MGM burned the old set from King Kong for the burning of Atlanta scene. It is a comedy. Who can forget Mammy? "It ain't fitten. It just ain't fitten!"

Gone With the Wind, through it's several theatrical releases, showings on television, sales of video and DVD (including this new package) has remained an amazingly significant film. For our review of Gone With the Wind click here.