Gone with the Wind (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"On June 9, 2020, the film was quietly removed from HBO Max's library amid the George Floyd protests as well as in response to an op-ed which was written by screenwriter John Ridley and published in the Los Angeles Times earlier that day in which he called for the streaming service to temporarily remove the film from its library. A spokesperson for HBO Max said that the film was "a product of its time" and as a result, it depicted "ethnic and racial prejudices" that "were wrong then and are wrong today". It was also announced that the film will be returned to the streaming service at a later point along with "a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history.""--Sholem Stein |
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Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American dramatic-romantic-war film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming. The epic film, set in the American South in and around the time of the Civil War, stars Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland, and tells a story of the Civil War and its aftermath from a white Southern viewpoint.
Plot
In 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, Scarlett O'Hara lives at Tara, her family's cotton plantation in Georgia, with her parents and two sisters and their many slaves. Scarlett learns that Ashley Wilkes, whom she secretly loves, is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, and the engagement is to be announced the next day at a barbecue at Ashley's home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks. At the Twelve Oaks party, Scarlett makes an advance on Ashley, but instead catches the attention of another guest, Rhett Butler. The barbecue is disrupted by news of the declaration of war, and the men rush to enlist. In a bid to arouse jealousy in Ashley, Scarlett marries Melanie's younger brother Charles before he leaves to fight. Following Charles's death while serving in the Confederate Army, Scarlett's mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta, where she creates a scene by attending a charity bazaar in her mourning attire and waltzing with Rhett, now a blockade runner for the Confederacy.
The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg, in which many of the men of Scarlett's town are killed. Eight months later, as the city is besieged by the Union Army in the Atlanta Campaign, Melanie gives birth with Scarlett's aid, and Rhett helps them flee the city. Once out of the city, Rhett chooses to go off to fight, leaving Scarlett to make her own way back to Tara. Upon her return home, Scarlett finds Tara deserted, except for her father, her sisters, and two former slaves: Mammy and Pork. Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of typhoid fever and her father has become senile. With Tara pillaged by Union troops and the fields untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself.
As the O'Haras work in the cotton fields, Scarlett's father attempts to chase away a scalawag from his land, but is thrown from his horse and killed. With the defeat of the Confederacy, Ashley also returns, but finds he is of little help at Tara. When Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie. Unable to pay the Reconstructionist taxes imposed on Tara, Scarlett dupes her younger sister Suellen's fiancé, the middle-aged and wealthy general store owner Frank Kennedy, into marrying her, by saying Suellen got tired of waiting and married another suitor. Frank, Ashley, Rhett and several other accomplices make a night raid on a shanty town after Scarlett is attacked while driving through it alone, resulting in Frank's death. With Frank's funeral barely over, Rhett proposes to Scarlett and she accepts.
Rhett and Scarlett have a daughter whom Rhett names Bonnie Blue, but Scarlett, still pining for Ashley and chagrined at the perceived ruin of her figure, lets Rhett know that she wants no more children and that they will no longer share a bed. One day at Frank's mill, Scarlett and Ashley are seen embracing by Ashley's sister, India, and harboring an intense dislike of Scarlett she eagerly spreads rumors. Later that evening, Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett to attend a birthday party for Ashley. Incapable of believing anything bad of her, Melanie stands by Scarlett's side so that all know that she believes the gossip to be false. After returning home from the party, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk, and they argue about Ashley. Rhett kisses Scarlett against her will, stating his intent to have sex with her that night, and carries the struggling Scarlett to the bedroom.
The next day, Rhett apologizes for his behavior and offers Scarlett a divorce, which she rejects, saying that it would be a disgrace. When Rhett returns from an extended trip to London, Scarlett informs him that she is pregnant, but an argument ensues which results in her falling down a flight of stairs and suffering a miscarriage. As she is recovering, tragedy strikes when Bonnie dies while attempting to jump a fence with her pony. Scarlett and Rhett visit Melanie, who has suffered complications arising from a new pregnancy, on her deathbed. As Scarlett consoles Ashley, Rhett prepares to leave Atlanta. Having realized that it was him she truly loved all along, and not Ashley, Scarlett pleads with Rhett to stay, but Rhett rebuffs her and walks away into the morning fog, leaving her in tears on the staircase. A distraught Scarlett resolves to return home to Tara, believing that one day she will get Rhett back.
Cast
- Tara plantation
- Thomas Mitchell as Gerald O'Hara
- Barbara O'Neil as Ellen O'Hara (his wife)
- Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara (daughter)
- Evelyn Keyes as Suellen O'Hara (daughter)
- Ann Rutherford as Carreen O'Hara (daughter)
- George Reeves as Brent Tarleton (actually as Stuart){{refn|group=nb|name=Tarleton|The credits at the start of the film contain an error: George Reeves is listed "as Brent Tarleton", but plays Stuart, while Fred Crane is listed "as Stuart Tarleton", but plays Brent.
- Fred Crane as Stuart Tarleton (actually as Brent)Template:Refn
- Hattie McDaniel as Mammy (house servant)
- Oscar Polk as Pork (house servant)
- Butterfly McQueen as Prissy (house servant)
- Victor Jory as Jonas Wilkerson (field overseer)
- Everett Brown as Big Sam (field foreman)
- At Twelve Oaks
- Howard Hickman as John Wilkes
- Alicia Rhett as India Wilkes (his daughter)
- Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes (his son)
- Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Hamilton (their cousin)
- Rand Brooks as Charles Hamilton (Melanie's brother)
- Carroll Nye as Frank Kennedy (a guest)
- Clark Gable as Rhett Butler (a visitor from Charleston)
- In Atlanta
- Laura Hope Crews as Aunt Pittypat Hamilton
- Eddie Anderson as Uncle Peter (her coachman)
- Harry Davenport as Dr. Meade
- Leona Roberts as Mrs. Meade
- Jane Darwell as Mrs. Merriwether
- Ona Munson as Belle Watling
- Minor supporting roles
- Paul Hurst as the Yankee deserter
- Cammie King Conlon as Bonnie Blue Butler
- J. M. Kerrigan as Johnny Gallagher
- Jackie Moran as Phil Meade
- Lillian Kemble-Cooper as Bonnie's nurse in London
- Marcella Martin as Cathleen Calvert
- Mickey Kuhn as Beau Wilkes
- Irving Bacon as the Corporal
- William Bakewell as the mounted officer
- Isabel Jewell as Emmy Slattery
- Eric Linden as the amputation case
- Ward Bond as Tom, the Yankee captain
- Cliff Edwards as the reminiscent soldier
- Yakima Canutt as the renegade
- Louis Jean Heydt as the hungry soldier holding Beau Wilkes
- Olin Howland as the carpetbagger businessman
- Robert Elliott as the Yankee major
- Mary Anderson as Maybelle Merriwether
Following the death of Olivia de Havilland—who played Melanie Hamilton—on July 25, 2020 at the age of 104, the only surviving credited cast member from the film is Mickey Kuhn, who played Melanie's son, Beau.