Gone with the Wind Comes Back to Hollywood!

If you’re a big fan of films from 1939, you know that this year is the 70th anniversary of such classics as The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights, and of course, Gone with the Wind.  Every year the American Cinematheque screens classic films at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, CA, and Grauman’s Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd.

This year, in honor of 70 years of 1939, The Egyptian will be screening Gone with the Wind on Saturday, November 28 at 7:30pm.  What makes the Egyptian special is that it was THE original “picture palace” and is now a Los Angeles historic-cultural landmark.  It may look rather small on the outside, but don’t let that fool you.  The inside looks like an opera house with gilt ceilings and a real organ!

Interior: Grauman's Egyptian Theater circa 1922

The Egyptian is steeped in Hollywood history–having been built by the famous Sid Grauman (who also built the Chinese Theater  and the El Capitan Theater a few blocks down)–and was the location for the first ever Hollywood premier:  Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks in 1922.  In later years the theater fell into disrepair and was sold to the American Cinematheque in 1996, whereupon the funds were raised to restore it to its former glory.  Though the Chinese Theater has surpassed it in fame due to its location and all of those celebrity hand prints out front, The Egyptian is still a wonder to behold and a pleasure in which to see films of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Street Entrance on Hollywood Blvd.

This will be the second time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Gone with the Wind at the Egyptian and I can say first hand that is it such a wonderful experience.  The print that they’ve shown previously is pretty old and very saturated with Technicolor, so it’s always interesting to see this film  as it was shown over the decades to different audiences, and how technology has come so far in digitally restoring films.  Moreover, it’s always fun to see it with a whole crowd of people who love it as much as you do.

Gone with the Wind

If you’re in the LA area, you can purchase tickets to the screening on Fandango.  Don’t miss out on this fabulous opportunity!

“It’s this from which you get your strength: the red earth of Tara.”

Review (with spoilers!): Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939), and one girl’s (me) journey into the past.

Oh boy, where to start, where to start? I guess I’ll start by saying that this is my favorite film of all time; it is also my favorite novel of all time as well. Usually I end up disappointed with films that are adapted from my favorite books but not this time. Can you believe that there was a time when I detested this movie? I didn’t even want to try watching it. It was “too old, boring, annoying, long, and did I mention too old?” I’m sad to say that for a girl who had been in love with the movies her whole life, I wasn’t a very open-minded film nerd.

That all changed when I was 18. You see my friend, Tara, who was named after GWTW, had a poster of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in that famous shot where Rhett has asked her to marry him and then he plants a dominating kiss on her. I said, “Tara, what? You actually like that movie?” To which she replied, “Yeah, it’s like my favorite movie ever, it’s so good.” I was confused. How could my friend who was so awesome, like this film? But what if she was right? What if it WAS the best film ever and I was missing out for being so stubborn?

I decided to read the book first; I got a used paperback for like $4 and proceeded to read it. Within a couple chapters, I was hooked. I’d always loved to read, and adored books with intricate and detailed imagery. I like to be able to picture the scene in my mind and feel like I’m there, in another time and another place. I like to believe the characters, even if I don’t like them. Isn’t that what good books are all about? Needless to say, I finished the novel after two months feeling accomplished and sad at the same time. Accomplished because I’d read long books before, but not as long as GWTW (to this day it remians the most lengthy book I’ve ever read aside from “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas). Sad because it was over. The saga of Scarlett O’Hara and her love for the wrong man was over and then I was thrust back into reality and I wanted more. I wanted to go back to the Civil War South and stay there. Well, the next best thing to do was see the film. So my mom bought it for me for Christmas, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Gone with the Wind is the story of selfish, beautiful and manipulative Scarlett O’Hara, whose life is shaped by the American Civil War and Reconstruction. Scarlett thinks she loves the dreamy Ashley Wilkes but is sought after by the roguish Rhett Butler who seeks to make her love him. As Scarlett’s world is turned upside down by circumstance and her own actions, so are her feelings toward those who love her and those she can’t quite understand her feelings for. Once she realizes that her love for Ashley Wilkes was nothing more than a fantasy, an illusion, it may be too late to have a life with the man she really loves so much because he is so like her.

One of the first things that struck me after watching the film for the first time was how similar the two leads were to Margaret Mitchell’s descriptions of Rhett and Scarlett in the book. When you read about the search for the leading lady by David Selznick, the producer, you have to wonder how he must have known not to sign anyone until Vivien Leigh showed up and surprised everyone with her striking facial similarity to Mitchell’s heroine. It must have been fate. Vivien was perfect for that part, in my opinion. It didn’t matter if she wasn’t Southern, if she had a British accent, she pulled it off like a dream and it’s no wonder she took home the Oscar that year for her performance. Clark Gable did equally as well. He fit Rhett Butler like a glove, and you have to acknowledge the chemistry between those two on screen. It’s like if you lit a match, the whole place would explode, so thick was the sexual tension between those two characters. I think it’s an example of perfect timing as far as when it was made, who was cast, and audience’s sensibility to screen stories at that time. That’s why it works so well.

I think the film has lasted so long in the mind of the public was not because it was so lavish and big budget for its time; it’s because of audience’s ability to relate to the characters, especially Scarlett, and the themes presented in the story. Compared to so many womens’ roles during the 1930’s, Scarlett O’Hara was the ultimate bitch. She wasn’t demure, she wasn’t kind, and she wasn’t submissive. Maybe that is why so many actresses vied for the part, because it was so different from the norm. Everyone wanted to play the bad girl. Yet despite Scarlett’s flaws (and she’s got more than I can count) as a person, she was strong, full of vitality in the face of destruction, and, in Margaret Mitchell’s words, she had “gumption.” She adapted as her surroundings changed while everyone else (except Rhett) fell behind. She didn’t give up despite war ravishing her family, her friends and her home. She vowed to hold on to what was important to her, and even though she may have lost more than she gained in doing so, she refused to quit.

Scarlett was like a phoenix being reborn from the ashes and rising up as a new woman. And Rhett; tall, dark, handsome, sarcastic Rhett, what kind of girl doesn’t like a character like that. I’d rank him up there with your Heathcliffs and your Darcys and your Rochesters. He is my favorite character in the novel and my favorite literary crush of all time, haha. I mean honestly, who doesn’t love his blackguard ways?

Gone with the Wind is an epic film in every sense of the word, and Robert Osbourne (whose job I want) made a good point last night when he introduced it on TCM. He said it was “the movie to which all other films are held up to.” That certainly was true at the time. It stands as the pinnacle of Hollywood’s Golden Age of cinema, and I personally think that even if someone tried to remake it today, the original would not be lost from memory, nor would its leading actors.

With its stellar performances, sweeping music, beautiful cinematography, and heart-wrenching melodrama, Gone with the Wind still remains number one in so many people’s hearts and I think it will continue to be so for generations to come.

It is a film for all time. They just don;t make ‘em like that anymore.  And if you haven’t read the book but you like to read, I encourage you to do so, it’s so wonderful.  It might just change your life.  No, I’m serious, that’s how rad it is.

Rating: 4 stars