Gone With the Wind
(Four-Disc Collector's Edition)
 Gone With the Wind
is frequently cited as the Civil War epic to end all Civil War epics -- and it’s
undeniable that it’s the leading example of the kind of movie that they don’t
make ’em like anymore. It’s true -- they don’t. That’s not necessarily
such a bad thing.
You probably already know where you stand on the issue of
whether or not GWTW is high art or a complete potboiler. I wish I did. I
grew up in the South, you see, and to many Southerners to varying degrees, the version of
plantation life and Reconstruction you see in GWTW is truer than reality. I was
taught -- by my parents, by the public schools of Virginia, by the local media, and by the
museums and memorials that surrounded me -- that the defeated Confederate States of
America was a country occupied by rapacious Yankee scalawags and bled dry by greedy
carpetbaggers. The rest of the United States joined us in the 65th year of our poverty for
the Great Depression, and only Roosevelt and World War II pulled us out of it. You might
say that Hitler gave Southerners someone we could hate more than we hated William Tecumseh
Sherman.
You’ll probably think I’m joking when I tell you
that the re-release of GWTW (approximately every eight years) was considered such a
major social and historical event that local schools let out at noon so that us kids could
reap the edifying benefits of learning about "our glorious southern culture."
This conveniently ignored the fact that about 60% of us kids would have been chattels in
that glorious past -- and couldn’t go see the movie anyway, because it was shown in
whites-only theaters.
So don’t ask me if Gone With the Wind is a
great movie or not. There’s no possible way I can view it merely as a film.
On the other hand, I can tell you that this
four-disc DVD edition is pretty impressive.
The transfer, which, like those of Robin Hood and Singin’
In the Rain, employs Warner Bros.’ Ultra-Resolution process, is
eye-poppingly sharp and vivid -- and this time it’s on two single-sided discs, which
makes it a joy to watch. Yes, it does mean you have to change discs, but the movie
was designed to have an intermission, so you could stretch your legs, see a man about a
horse -- it is nearly four hours long.
And wowsers -- if you have a really big monitor or a
projection system, this is the movie to make your purchase seem worthwhile. The sound is
extremely good, considering the film’s age -- robust and balanced, with almost no
noticeable tape hiss. But what made the package work for me was the two discs’ worth
of extras. Film historian Rudy Behlmer’s commentary track is incorporated on the
discs containing the film, and it’s worth seeing. Behlmer wrote the book on GWTW
-- literally. Its title is Memo from David O. Selznick.
Good as Behlmer’s commentary is, however, it
isn’t the most interesting of the extra features. That would have to be "The
Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind," a two-hour documentary that sets the
standard for what these things ought to be. It delves into the casting, writing the
screenplay, and the coming and going of its three directors. This isn’t the usual
extended commercial for the movie -- you might even want to watch it a second or third
time, as I did.
There are also some fascinating, albeit minor, pleasures,
such as footage of the 1939 premiere in Atlanta, Georgia (memorialized in The Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood), and the 1961 Civil War Centennial
"premiere," also held there. There’s a fascinating featurette on the
preservation process used for this edition, which includes a wonderful explanation of how
Technicolor works. There’s also my favorite: a one-minute preface that appeared
before the international release, explaining the historical background of the story. There
are also cast profiles and a few less than memorable features, such as sample scenes in
foreign languages.
If this set is a trifle inflated at four discs,
I’ve seen it for sale for around $30, which makes it a bargain -- especially given
the quality of the restoration. That quality was enough to make me swallow my misgivings
about the glorification of the "lost cause" and wallow in the epochal melodrama
of Gone With the Wind -- which, like Cole Porter’s cheap music, is
extraordinarily potent.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
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