Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind, American epic film, released in 1939, that is one of the best known and most successful films of all time. Based on the runaway best-selling 1936 novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, the movie chronicles the tumultuous ups and downs in the life of Scarlett O’Hara (played by Vivien Leigh), the daughter of a Georgia planter, in the years immediately before, during, and after the American Civil War. The movie—almost four hours long, including an intermission—won eight Academy Awards (in addition to two honorary awards), and it remains the highest grossing film of all time when adjusted for inflation. It has been criticized for promoting a rosy portrait of the antebellum South and contributing to the Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War and its aftermath. Nevertheless, Gone with the Wind is considered a classic of the golden era of American moviemaking, hailed for its affecting storytelling and sweeping dramatic scope.

Plot summary and characters

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The film, set in the American South during the time of the Civil War, tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the headstrong and willful daughter of the owner of Tara, a plantation in Georgia. The story begins in 1861. Scarlett is in love with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), but she learns that he intends to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). At a party at Ashley’s home, Scarlett’s overtures to Ashley are seen by another guest, Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). Ashley rebuffs Scarlett, and she therefore agrees to marry Melanie’s brother, Charles (Rand Brooks).

War is declared, and the men go off to enlist with the Confederacy. Charles dies of measles during the war, and the widowed Scarlett goes to Melanie’s home in Atlanta. She meets Rhett at a charity fundraising bazaar and dances with him, violating the customary rules of mourning. Rhett, a successful blockade runner, continues to visit Scarlett over the next few months, as Atlanta comes increasingly under siege by Union forces (see Atlanta Campaign). Ashley returns home on a Christmas furlough and asks Scarlett to take care of Melanie, who is pregnant.

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Melanie goes into labor as Atlanta is being evacuated, and Scarlett and her servant Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) must attend the birth on their own. Scarlett summons Rhett to take her, Melanie, Prissy, and the baby back to Tara, and they flee through the burning city, only to find that Tara has been pillaged by Union soldiers. Scarlett’s mother has died, and her father has fallen into depression. The only people remaining there are her father, her sisters, and the formerly enslaved Mammy (Hattie McDaniel) and Pork (Oscar Polk).

In the second half of the movie, Scarlett tries to resurrect Tara. She and her sisters and the house servants work in the fields. Ashley returns when the war ends but is unable to offer Scarlett help in paying the exorbitant Reconstruction taxes. Scarlett decides to ask Rhett for money, and she and Mammy construct a dress from velvet curtains for her to wear to meet Rhett. However, Rhett has become a Union prisoner and cannot help her. In desperation Scarlett marries her sister’s wealthy beau, Frank (Carroll Nye). She uses his money to save Tara and then establishes a lumber business in Atlanta.

After Scarlett is attacked while riding in her carriage near a shantytown, Frank, Ashley, and some other men attack the shantytown, and Frank is killed in the raid. Scarlett then marries Rhett, and they have a daughter, but Scarlett continues to pine for Ashley, and the marriage is stormy. Their daughter dies after being thrown from a pony, and later Melanie dies in childbirth. Scarlett realizes that Ashley loves only Melanie and that she loves Rhett, but Rhett refuses her and leaves her alone at Tara with the words “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Production, premiere, and reception

The film’s producer, David O. Selznick, bought the film rights a month after the publication of Mitchell’s novel. As the book became a huge hit, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, media outlets covered the production process of the film in minute detail. Several roles—notably that of Scarlett—involved lengthy searches and elaborate dealmaking. As many as five directors and 13 writers toiled to bring the epic to life. Shooting for the film took 140 days. The famous “burning of Atlanta” scene required the fiery destruction of a 30-acre back lot.

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Three days of festivities were held for the film’s premiere in Atlanta on December 15, 1939. Thousands of fans massed outside the theater to welcome the film’s stars. However, the film’s Black actors were absent, as the city was still firmly under the Jim Crow regime of racial segregation. Gone with the Wind was the first color movie to win the Oscar for best picture, and Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to be nominated for and to win an Oscar. In 1989 it was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, an honor given to films deemed culturally, historically, and artistically significant.

Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)

• Picture*
• Lead actor (Clark Gable)
• Lead actress* (Vivien Leigh)
• Supporting actress (Olivia de Havilland)
• Supporting actress* (Hattie McDaniel)
• Art direction* (Lyle R. Wheeler)
• Cinematography (color; Ernest Haller, Ray Rennahan)*
• Directing* (Victor Fleming)
• Film editing* (Hal C. Kern, James E. Newcom)
• Special effects (Jack Cosgrove, Fred Albin, Arthur Johns)
• Music (original score; Max Steiner)
• Sound recording (Thomas T. Moulton)
• Writing* (Sidney Howard)