Search - Gone with the Wind on DVD

MPAA Rating: G Content Advisory: Adult Situations Movie Release: 1939 DVD Release: 10/27/1998 Format: DVD - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 3 hrs 42 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 81 Genres: Epic, Romance, Historical Epic, Romantic Epic See Also: Gone with the Wind, Gone with the Wind [Special Edition Collector's Box], Gone with the Wind [Collector's Edition], Gone with the Wind [Special Edition], Gone with the Wind [70th Anniversary Edition], Gone With the Wind [Blu-ray]

Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vivien Leigh - Scarlett O'Hara
Hattie McDaniel - Mammy

The first DVD issue of Gone With the Wind was a bargain at a list price of $24.95, if only because it captured the existing restored master source without any of the anomalies that afflicted its laserdisc incarnations. On that basis alone, it was an improvement over any of the laser releases of the movie, and the fact that all three hours and 53 minutes of the movie were captured on two sides of a CD-sized platter was a revelation, coming off of laser's 60-minute limit per side. There are none of the extras associated with the most ambitious laserdisc editions of the movie (principally for the 50th anniversary of the movie's release), and no bonus feature other than the original trailer, which consists principally of storyboards and an eight-page souvenir booklet detailing elements of the movie's history and production. The richness of the color and the details, such as the red ribbons in Scarlett O'Hara's hair, were damn impressive at the time, however, especially shorn of the pressing anomalies and other flaws that plagued the laser version. What's more, even at this early date, the MGM Home Entertainment edition of the disc managed to avoid the presence of digital artifacts that afflicted other movies (transferred with less care) on DVD well into 1999. The Dolby 5.1 restoration of the soundtrack is also superior to any prior release of the movie in any home viewing format, retaining and enhancing the sweep of Max Steiner's score and giving superb presence to the dialogue. The 56 chapters break the movie down adequately, and the menu is a model of simplicity. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide