It's very hard to write about this film, because in one hand it's really one of the greatest film, but on the other hand I don't like this film very much and not my personal favourite. I have to appreciate its place in the movie history, the great achievements in cinematography and special effects (matte painting) and the performances by Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. The thing, I don't like about this film is the story. It's full of sentimentalism, propagandizes conservative thoughts and behaviours and simply too long. But it's interesting to watch the film just because of the cinematography. Every pictures, every moments were so beautiful and eye-popping. It made the whole movie like a dream and so unreal. The use of colours, shades, contrasts. And Ernest Haller keeps the quality at the same level along the whole movie. And the level is perfect. Never could anyone reach it again. It's an interesting fact, that he photographed 'Jezebel', the other Southern epic, one year before. It was made in black-and-white and he could catch the mood of the South so well, that the only man who could made 'Gone with the Wind' was him. The scene of the burning of Atlanta is an essential scene in the movie history and a landmark in the action-photography. David O.Selznick was a talented economist too, because it was a great idea to burn down old sets in front of the cameras and put it in the movie as 'the burning of Atlanta'. No one wondered that 'the gate of King Kong' was in Atlanta. The other great thing is the set design. I was surprised, that how perfectly have the matte painting technic been used in this relatively early movie. Clark Gable is perfect as Rhett Butler. I think, that he was more believable than Robert Donat, who got the Academy Award for the Best Actor in 1939, in 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips'. Vivien Leigh is the only Scarlett O'Hara. The casting procedure and the hysteria across the United States was something what has never been before and never happened since then. And it was a huge fortune, that Selznick found Leigh at the last minute, because only one producer suggested her to the role. The background of the film is almost as interesting as the movie itself (three directors but only one credited, lot of versions of the screenplay and the most important: Hattie McDaniel was the first Afro-American actress, who got the Best Supporting Actress Oscar). All in all it's a great, landmarking picture from my favourite period of movie history, one of the biggest success of all time and got 8 Academy Awards.
Review of Gone with the Wind
