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Gone with the Wind [DVD] [1939]

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GWTW is full of people playing roles, just like its actors, trapped in the past as times change; and is it better to pull yourself up by the boot straps or sink solemnly and with dignity down into the oblivion, true to the old ways? Perhaps its most singularly striking shot is Scarlett wading through the streets of Atlanta that are covered with over a thousand gravely wounded soldiers. Selznick was notorious in the industry for his onslaughts of memos, and it's even mentioned in Rudy Behlmer's audio commentary that much of what's known about the film's production is owed to those reams upon reams of notes. Gone with the Wind draws much of its strength from its striking use of color, and these hues play a key role in shaping the mood and tone of the film.

There are also a couple of good extras, one exploring the history of the "Old South" which is worth seeing.Scarlett has certainly hardened and has been forced to draw from a reserve of strength she never knew she had, but it's debatable just how much she's actually matured. This is undoubtedly a five-star effort, yet it just seems as if a wider net than this could've been cast, and its more limited scope leaves Gone with the Wind somewhat overshadowed by the exceptionally diverse extras on The Wizard of Oz. It's certainly true that the black characters throughout Gone with the Wind settle somewhat into cliché, and the institution of slavery is never portrayed as a negative. The carefree bliss of a smile that's too quickly a distant memory, the frigidity as she steels herself, her compulsion to use sex as a weapon. Selznick’s epic Academy Award-winning masterpiece swept away audiences and defined what a Hollywood blockbuster should be: fearless filmmaking with a grand scope, intimate drama and enduring romance… all in stunning Technicolor.

One mustn't forget that because it isn't a story about the Civil War; it is a story about love and loss set in a time of Civil War and one that is largely stripped of any reality. Though much of this information is also contained in Rudy Behlmer's audio commentary, the presentation here is still compelling, and if nothing else, Making of a Legend is worth watching for the screentests alone. This is a rather bleak segment -- charting the shuttering of MGM in the early 1970s, including footage of its immaculate backlots being bulldozed, and the tragic end of Judy Garland's Hollywood career -- but it's not all downbeat.isolated score, nor are there any extras dedicated to Max Steiner or his contributions to Gone with the Wind. Warner's digital team delves into the background of the Technicolor process as well as how it both helps and hinders the remastering process. There is also a short documentary Restoring A Legend which is about the technical and digital process of restoring GWTW for this edition without changing or removing anything from the original version. This segment also touches on the shifting balances of power throughout Hollywood as a whole, including the arrival of such Method actors as Brando, the power of the producer making way for directors craving more creative control, and the reluctant embrace of darker themes and more graphic violence. Wonderfully epic in scope, the decline and fall of the antebellum South as seen through the eyes of feisty, independent and wilful heroine Scarlett O'Hara makes the first half of the picture an absolutely riveting spectacle.

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