David O. Selznick's 1939 production of Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winner 'Gone with the Wind' is an epic in every sense of the word! An American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction. This sweeping Civil war-era romance won an impressive 10 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), and it's immortal characters Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) captain a rollercoaster story of enduring appeal across generations.
Things did not start well when I sat down to watch this saga. First I notice the running time of the film...3 Hours and 45 Minutes! The DVD disc itself is spread over both sides! Is this movie really gonna be worth it?
The film opens with a single title card that reads - Musical Overture. I sit through a boring 2 and a half minutes of cheesy Hollywood music. Thank God I have popcorn to stuff my face with!
We then get introduced to one of our main characters, Scarlett and it doesn't take long for us to realise she is a major slut! Like OMG! She is so annoying and just flings her affections from one guy to the next without batting an eyelid! Then Rhett comes in with a cheesy intro shot from above...I'm starting to think, classic or not...I'm not gonna like this movie.
Suddenly the Civil war starts and the film does a complete back flip and becomes absolutely riveting! Both Gable and Leigh captivate the audience with their performances, Gable especially. The scenes between the two of them are fantastic and each one is a real screen gem. Some scenes are overacted; the ones between Scarlett and Ashley (Leslie Howard) come to mind. But these are tolerated because the story and the dialogue are so rich and fulfilling.
The famous scene in which Clark Gable turns to Leigh and utters those legendary words "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!” is great and can be found in the last 4 minutes of the 3 hours and 41 minutes previous.
On a side note this was the first colour film to win the Best Picture Oscar. On another side note this has to be the most politically correct film ever! I LOL'd at the scene towards the beginning of the film in which young black slave girls are fanning the young white girls as they take their afternoon naps! I can see only one problem with this...how do you stop these rudimentary fans from stealing themselves all the time?
I didn't think I would like this film and for the first half an hour of it I really didn't but towards the end I was caught; hook, line and sinker! And as much as Scarlett is an evil, scheming, lil' spoilt rich girl...I did feel sorry for her in the end. It is an end of tragedy and heartbreak but it leaves us with the truth...There is no place like home!
It's been quite a while since I have wrote something on this blog. I started off with good intentions but then like every project I start I get lazy and before you know it BAM! It's a new year and your blog still only has 2 followers...
We must power on children! For the sake of film history and random rattles on about nothing!
Have you ever been run down by a plane? ...Ive been on a rundown plane....cheap QANTAS joke HAHAHA....moving on. Wells one leathery skinned Cary Grant almost gets run down by a plane in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller NORTH BY NORTHWEST.
Middle-aged Madison Avenue advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Grant) is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies. He gets involved in a series of misadventures and is pursued across the States by both the spies and the government whilst being helped by a beautiful blonde.
Now I watched this film a while back and then forgot to blog about it but from what I can remember...it was pretty figgin' sweet! I wouldn't say that this is one of Hitchcock's most imaginative or groundbreaking films, but it's a great thrill ride with plenty of action and adventure...and hot, blonde women...like boner hot! But then you stop and think, "Wait a minute! This boner hot chick is probably like an old woman now or even a rotting corpse...", and then your mood is ruined and you don't really feel like watching a movie anymore so you go to your room and cry.
But the movie is filled with some of Hitchcock's most memorable scenes. The famous crop dusting plane scene and the Mount Rushmore chase are terrific and have been since parodied in shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. The film is so crammed with memorable passages that one hardly notices it's 136 mins long.
James Mason is terrific! He manages to play a bad guy you just cant help but feeling sorry for! And I could listen to that man read the telephone book! BEST VOICE EVER! Sorry...where was I?
One fact from this movie has always stuck with me. In the scene where we see Cary Grant standing outside the United Nation building, Hitchcock couldn't actually get permission to film the UN, so Hitch mounted a camera inside a delivery van and got Grant to walk around the UN steps until he got his shot. In the film you can actually see UN security carefully watching Grant...maybe trying to figure out what he's doing?
I was thoroughly entertained by this film. I didn't pay to much attention to the techniques or film language within it, but I guess that's a marker of a truly engrossing and endearing film. Be sure to keep an eye out for Hitch's cameo; Hitchcock arrives at a bus stop (during the opening credits) but gets there a second too late and the door is closed in his face.
Between you and me...with the ammount of weight Hitchcock was carrying...he was kidding himself if he thought he was gonna make that bus!
