Gone With The Wind

Gone with the wind

Shane Sullivan

Film Studies 15-Mr. Chow

Western Canada High

Gone with the wind, directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor and Sam Wood follows an American girl struggling for survival while love during the Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Gone with the wind was actually a novel before the movie, written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. Margaret wrote the book to pass the time while recovering in the hospital from a serious car accident. After finally being discharged, Harold Latham, an editor looking for a new fiction novel, took an interest in her book. After Harold agreed to publish the book, Margaret spent the next 6 months rewriting and doing research to perfect her novel.  The book later won the Pulitzer award and was made into a movie three years later. The Film was the longest sound film ever made at the time (3 hours 44 minutes), one of the first major films in color and won 10 Academy Awards, a record that stood for 20 years. The Film also won the first Academy Award for Best Cinematography in color (Technicolor).

Firstly, the dynamic camera angles truly established perfection of the Hollywood style. Many long shots or establishing shots were used such as at the beginning of the film to introduce Tara and Twelve Oaks. Later in the film, what seems like a close up shot of a few people dying in Georgia quickly pans out to reveal thousands dying laid out on the ground. “Over the shoulder” was used during conversation between characters throughout the film but not as common as a strait forward shot. Characters were often set up underneath archways, drapes or in front of larger objects such as chairs to bring the eye to the characters as well as to isolate the characters. Examples of this were a scene with Ashley and Scarlett talking with chairs in front of them and in another scene we find Rhett Butler and Scarlett talking under and archway. Close ups and Extreme close ups were very popular in scenes with Scarlett to bring out her emotions such as her crying, the surprise and joy on her face when seeing Ashley ect. A couple “bird’s eye view” shot were taken, like when Scarlett returns to twelve Oaks after the war to find it in ruins.

A strong supporter of the camera angles were the beautiful lustrous colors used to capture the attention of the audience. During a conversation between Scarlett and Ashley, Scarlett raps a bright yellow sash around Ashley waist to get the audience to see significance of Ashley’s character in the film. Hues of red were mostly used to represent the prosperity and richness of Tara. Also in the beginning, Twelve Oaks is rich with beautiful lush trees and everyone is celebrating and enjoying themselves at the barbeque.  When Scarlett returns to Twelve Oaks near the end of the war, it is charred black and grey with a large shadow covering the building like a cloak.

During the period of time when the movie takes place, women are inferior to men and African American’s are slaves. Women at the time had to be well dressed and mannered around in the presence of men. The black slaves were poorly educated and forced to work hard labour if they were field hands. House slaves worked hard as well but were better clothed, feed and had longer sleep hours than the field hands. While slavery is wrong, salves were generally well taken care of. Their “owners” needed then to be healthy, strong and well rested to perform their duties. In the movie we see a perfect example of this with Scarlett’s father. Scarlett’s father confronts her that she was being too hard on Prissy and hurt her. This shows the slaves were also listened too, to some degree. At that time as well, society allowed men to hit their women if they were”misbehaving”. Rhett Butler and various other characters in the film are shown striking women across the face.

Like every movie, there’s always a few continuity errors and goofs. To give a few examples, when all the carriages are riding into Twelve Oaks, they disappear into the backdrop. Another scene, Rhett is celebrating the birth of his daughter Bonnie and is smoking a cigar. The camera angle changes and he is holding his cigar in the hand he was just holding a drink with. In a few other scenes, the shadows of boom mikes can be seen.

All in all, no one questions why this is said to be one of the greatest movies ever made. 72 years since its making it is still widely watched and rewatched by thousands. The story is relatable to all of its audience members and has so many rich qualities. This movie will always be around.