Last week I picked up the Gone with the Wind (1939) Blu ray box-set from Borders, at a mightily fine discounted price, thanks to the sales assistant who loved our British accents. !
I fell in love with this movie at a very young age, and from it sprung a love for epic Hollywood movies. Of course, I know a lot of the story is BS, such as the portrayal of the Yankees as the epitome of evil as the black slaves really do want to serve their kindly white masters. It wasn't until I was a lot older that I realised what the American Civil War was truly about, but still, from Margaret Mitchell's point of view, the South changed at that time and she wanted to present the view of the fat, rich white people.
This film looks incredible on Blu ray. I'm not the kind of person who gets too wrapped up in technology, as it's the actual film and narrative I care for, rather than the system used to play it. However, watching this in HD on a 43" Pioneer plasma is just gobsmackingly beautiful. The Technicolor is truly breathtaking, and with the sharp detail you can even make out the leaves in the trees behind the action. Interestingly, I saw a restored print of this film at the British Film Institute a few years ago, and they had a talk before the film which said that the original film stock was changed in the 1950s to suit a modern audience. They pumped the Technicolor so that the reds were scarlet and the blues were electric. In fact, the version that was played in the 50 years following was this adapted version, with the colour dial turned right up. When restoring the print, they decided to go back to the original, and brought back the soft, muted tones and colours. The Blu ray does the restoration justice.
I have always been obsessed with GWTW trivia, and I'm pleased to see that the box-set comes with the documentary narrated by Christopher Plummer that talks about the making of the movie. I recorded this documentary about 15 years ago onto VHS during a very stormy night, and whilst the Sky picture kept cutting to a snowy screen. I re-watched the documentary over and over again for many years after, even fast forwarding the snowy segments. That's dedication for you.One of my favourite bits of trivia is that the burning of Atlanta scene, which was the first scene to be shot, happened on the MGM lot where they burned all of the old movie sets from the past decade. On the scene where a huge building collapses whilst engulfed in flames, that building was actually the giant gateway in King Kong. Also, they filmed that scene before they had even cast the role of Scarlett, and David O. Selznick actually met Vivien Leigh whilst that scene was being filmed, as she had accompanied her lover, Lawrence Olivier, on a trip from England. As the documentary says, Selznick knew she was Scarlett as soon as he met her.
I love to read about the lives of the actors/actresses who portrayed the characters. I was so surprised to read that Olivia de Havilland {who plays Melanie} is the sister of actress Joan Fontaine, and that they haven't properly spoken to each other in almost 50 years. Apparently there was a lot of rivalry between them when it came to film roles, and that tension exists right down to today. Of course, that could be purely malicious gossip - who knows? - but it feeds my love for random GWTW trivia just perfectly.
If anyone has any Gone with the Wind trivia of their own to share, I would love to hear it. Or if you love/hate this movie, feel free to leave a comment and share your opinion too.
Whatever you think of the film, you can't have a bad word to say about that score. Beautiful.
