Gone With the Wind . The Boston Phoenix . 07-06-98

Gone With the Wind

DIRECTED BY: Victor Fleming

REVIEWED: 07-06-98

Some movies endure despite, or perhaps because of, their shortcomings. For all that the American Film Institute has just named it the fourth greatest example of American cinema (after Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and The Godfather), Gone with the Wind is still looking for credible characters (Scarlett most of all) and a believable plot (just for starters, there's no way Scarlett's father would have let her marry Charles) -- and never mind lines that should have won Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable Oscars for delivering them with a straight face ("You should be kissed often, and by someone who knows how"). The gift of better dialogue won't be forthcoming, but for its almost-60th-birthday re-release GWTW is getting restored Technicolor and digital sound -- no small thing for a movie whose greatness so largely rests on how it looks and sounds. The restored Technicolor is not just gorgeous but natural: the fields of Tara, far from being postcard perfect, could use some rain, and the camera creates an almost three-dimensional realism in the subtle way it blurs backgrounds. Yet there's no want of pyrotechnics in the flames that consume Atlanta.

Besides, GWTW can be shocking as well as silly -- the sight of hundreds of men laid out on the ground in neat rows after the siege of Atlanta, with just a single doctor in attendance, is more horrific than ever. And the four hours slip by pretty quickly. Scarlett and Rhett are messy, complicated dreamers who never give up hope -- maybe that's why we never give up on them. This is, after all the film that never ends: tomorrow is always another day.

--Jeffrey Gantz

Full Length Reviews
Gone With the Wind

Capsule Reviews
Gone With the Wind
Gone With the Wind
Gone With the Wind

Other Films by Victor Fleming
The Wizard of Oz

Film Vault Suggested Links
The English Patient
Fifty Four
Little Women

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