The now iconic Civil War epic ,'Gone With the Wind’ blew reviewers away when it first came out.

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The now iconic Civil War epic ,'Gone With the Wind’ blew reviewers away when it first came out.
The Daily News gave David O. Selznick’s “Gone With the Wind” four stars 75 years ago, with memorable performances by Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, December 18, 2014, 11:06 AM
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Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in the 1939 film classic "Gone With the Wind."
(Originally published by the Daily News on Dec. 20, 1939. This story was written by Kate Cameron)

There has never been a picture like David O. Selznick’s production of “Gone With the Wind.” It is so true to Margaret Mitchell’s novel of the Civil War, as it was fought in and around Atlanta, that the film is of the same epic quality as the book.

All the well-known characters of the famous story, from Scarlett O’Hara, the belle of Clayton County, Ga., to Uncle Peter, Aunt Pittypat’s tyrannical servant, come to vivid life on the screen.

More: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...ned-positive-review-debuted-article-1.2008947
 
Absolutely an iconic movie about an iconic period in our nation's history. I don't imagine today's events to create the stirring drama. Years ago I bought a book at a yard sale. "On the Road to Tara" is a big hardbound edition about the making of "Gone With The Wind". It features sketches for set design, changes to the script, plans for producing special effects and much more regarding the filming. A fascinating companion to the movie.
 
Considering the era of production, there were extremely high production values in this film, and very effective special effects, too. ...and, of course, it was a much-anticipated film, too. I'm not surprised that reviewers were blown away.
 
Every time I see something about this movie I remember reading about the producers worrying that southerners would be upset over Vivian Lee being cast as Scarlett. Apparently the consensus was 'Better an English girl than a Yankee'. :wink:

By the same token, I've been struck by how often in this period southern white characters were portrayed by Brits rather than the genuine article.
 
Coincidentally, posted yesterday at the academic-focused werehistory.org website:

Birth of a Nation was not the most successful or influential pro-KKK cultural text, however. That dubious honor goes to Margaret Mitchell’s historical novel Gone with the Wind (1936), one of the best-selling and most enduring literary works in American history. Mitchell would later write to Dixon that she was “practically raised” on his novels, and in the depiction of Reconstruction in the second half of her book the through-line is clearly visible. That half opens with Rhett Butler, the novel’s romanticized hero, in jail for the shooting of an African American man who “was uppity to a white woman.” And in one of the novel’s most striking sequences, Butler follows through on that individual action in a more communal way, joining Ashley Wilkes and many other men on a Ku Klux Klan ride to avenge the assault and near-rape of heroine Scarlett O’Hara by an African American brute and his white accomplice. While the 1939 film version of Mitchell’s novel does not put Butler and his comrades in KKK robes quite as openly as did Griffith’s film, the sequence and heroic ride are indeed included in the movie.
Together, the novel and film made one of American culture’s most famous romantic leading men a Ku Klux Klan member. And as such, he and both texts represent the culmination of seven decades of pro-KKK images and stories in American popular culture
.
http://werehistory.org/pop-culture-ku-klux/

"Dixon" referrred to above is author Thomas W. Dixon Jr. whose novel, The Clansman, inspired DW Griffith's creation of Birth of a Nation.
 
Considering the era of production, there were extremely high production values in this film, and very effective special effects, too. ...and, of course, it was a much-anticipated film, too. I'm not surprised that reviewers were blown away.

Seems like a fairly dumb review to me, as my mother, who was a young adult when it came out, always talked about the movie with a two word description, "Clark Gable." She did mention once how scandalized they were that Clark Gable said, "****."

I caught a short portion of GWTW on TV recently and my gosh Gable was a horrible actor. But he certainly was CLARK GABLE.
 
My favorite contemporary reference to GWTW was in a WWII movie ( I forget which one ) where there has been some reference to the Civil War and one of the typical "loveable oaf" lunkhead GI's overhearing says, "That's the war that was in Gone With the Wind, wasn't it? Man, THAT was a war!"
 
At least it wasn't as bad as the southern accents in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" yikes. :s
Haven't seen the movie. Dear One, however, read the book and, consequently, we had to drive to Savannah several years ago. Beautiful town. Never did get to see the cemetery or the forts. At least she was happy.
 
Haven't seen the movie. Dear One, however, read the book and, consequently, we had to drive to Savannah several years ago. Beautiful town. Never did get to see the cemetery or the forts. At least she was happy.

In case you missed the reference to it, the mansion featured in Midnight... was also used as the Bostonian residence of the Shaws in Glory! Too bad - Savannah boasts three interesting nearby forts ( Jackson, Pulaski, and McAllister ) as well as the beautiful huge cemetery featured in the movie as well as a much smaller Colonial one that was the first burial place of Nathanael Greene and his son before they were moved beneath the obelisk in the main square by Chief Tomochichi. I hope you at least got to eat at The Pirate's House, The Old Pink House, or one of Savannah's other wonderful restaurants!
 
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