Toughest All-Time Cookie
Perhaps the key reason why audiences were so moved by Gone With The Wind when it opened in late 1939 was because they saw the Civil War agonies endured by Scarlett O'Hara as a metaphor for the deprivations of the Great Depression. On top of which they knew from experience that what matters in hard times is backbone and gumption, which is why they saw Vivien Leigh's Scarlett, a selfish but feisty survivor, as one of their own.
Which is why Gone With The Wind is probably striking the same sort of chord today as well, given our current travails with Great Depression 2.0. And why Molly Haskell's new book, Frankly My Dear: Gone With The Wind Revisited, may sell better now than if it had come out, say, five or ten years ago.
"Scarlett is the perfect character for the times," Haskell recently told MacLean's Peter Shawn. "She has that combination of suffering, glamour and hope that people are looking for. Even though the story was set in the Civil War, audiences saw it as a Depression-era fable. This was a story speaking about their situation and their problems."
Which is why a similar reception may greet the release later this year of a newly remastered Gone With The Wind Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.
In a 2.17.09 interview with High-Def Digest's David Krauss, WHV's George Feltenstein said that a GWTW Blu-Ray would be among a "murderer's row" of classic releases later this year (along with The Wizard of Oz and North By Northwest).
Both Oz and Gone With The Wind "were remastered in 2K Ultra Resolution three or four years ago for splashy DVD releases," Krauss writes, "but have been completely overhauled once again to make sure they meet all of Blu-ray's exacting standards.
"'What was perfection two to three years ago is not now,' Feltenstein says. 'We thought Gone With the Wind would be good to go on Blu-ray with what was done previously, plus $200,000 for dirt cleaning. But to look perfect, we had to start all over from scratch at enormous cost. I took it to management and there was no hesitation. Having a film like Gone With the Wind on Blu-ray will set a new standard and pave the way for more classic releases."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 1, 2009 at 2:18 PM
comment #1
Chase Kahn
says ...
TCM had 'GwtW' on the other day and I watched it in one sitting for the first time in a few years -- still a great movie.
Krauss may be spewing PR rubbish, but after reading that article a few days ago, I really felt like the guy was honestly being torn apart by not getting more classic catalog titles on Blu -- I would count on the 'Gone with the Wind' and 'North by Northwest' BD's to be first-rate transfers.
Although if you want to convert the masses over to Blu, put out demo-material discs of 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Star Wars'...
Posted by Chase Kahn
at March 1, 2009 3:28 PM
comment #2
Chase Kahn
says ...
whoops...
*Feltenstein (not Krauss)
Posted by Chase Kahn
at March 1, 2009 3:29 PM
comment #3
Chase Kahn
says ...
"She has that combination of suffering, glamour and hope that people are looking for".
Sorry for the three-some...but this quote kind of rang false for me. Sure, she has all those things -- she suffers, she perserveres, she's beautiful -- but she's also a manipulative, self-centered snob who takes for granted what she has until it's too late. I hardly consider her the "perfect character for our times".
Posted by Chase Kahn
at March 1, 2009 3:45 PM
comment #4
D.Z.
says ...
"Perhaps the key reason why audiences were so moved by Gone With The Wind when it opened in late 1939 was because they saw the Civil War agonies endured by Scarlett O'Hara as a metaphor for the deprivations of the Great Depression."
I'm not sure how Southerners were deprived after the Civil War, since they were still allowed to exploit and kill black people. So my guess is watching Gone With The Wind was an excuse to flip off WW1.
"On top of which they knew from experience that what matters in hard times is backbone and gumption, which is why they saw Vivien Leigh's Scarlett, a selfish but feisty survivor, as one of their own."
It's hard out there for a trophy wife.
Posted by D.Z.
at March 1, 2009 5:03 PM
comment #5
nemo
says ...
Gone With The Wind would have been a semi-great movie if it had ended with that I'll-never-go-hungry-again scene. But unfortunately, they had an intermission, and then came back with the second half of the film, which was awful.
Once the Civil War was over -- with this scene and the intermission -- all the characters went on to become filthy rich and ceased having any real problems to deal with. So then the filmmakers (and presumably the novelist) resorted to cooking up a lot of contrived soap opera problems. Every 15 minutes they would have someone fall off a damn horse or have a miscarriage or some such nonsense.
Only a person with a heart of stone could watch Scarlett take that long endless tumble down that long endless flight of stairs without bursting out laughing.
Posted by nemo
at March 1, 2009 5:05 PM
comment #6
SHR
says ...
Nemo you are dead right. The film is great until intermission, then is unremittingly bad.
Posted by SHR
at March 1, 2009 6:21 PM
comment #7
Kyle_D
says ...
What Nemo and SHR said.
Posted by Kyle_D
at March 1, 2009 7:01 PM
comment #8
BurmaShave
says ...
D.Z. there are numerous texts on the Reconstruction period in our nation's history. I would recommend one, but I don't believe there are any that you can color in.
Posted by BurmaShave
at March 1, 2009 8:41 PM
comment #9
Calraigh Bracken
says ...
I swear to gawd, Burma. Y'all just made me done gone and fall right in love with ya.
Posted by Calraigh Bracken
at March 2, 2009 7:32 AM
comment #10
D.Z.
says ...
Burma: Do they mention the lynchings?
Posted by D.Z.
at March 2, 2009 1:43 PM
comment #11
Cadavra
says ...
"She's also a manipulative, self-centered snob who takes for granted what she has until it's too late. I hardly consider her the "perfect character for our times".
Au contraire: she's EXACTLY the perfect character for our times. (Think Paris Hilton, for one.)
Posted by Cadavra
at March 2, 2009 3:27 PM