Literary, Dramatic, and Cinematic points
of view on the film “Gone With The Wind”
Through out the film “Gone With The Wind”, I
noticed many reflections and many factors that proved the film involved all
three of these topics. It was made in the year of 1939, and was produced by
David O. Selznick. Victor Fleming, who is a well known, and very skilled
director, directed the movie. He completed many moves such as “The Wizard Of
Oz” and of course “Gone With The Wind”. Gone With The Wind won ten Academy
Awards, and held this record for twenty years. It was also ranked in at number
four on the top one hundred best American Films Of All Time in 1998. The movie
has had the best turn out, and earned the most money in history.
I will start discussing the literary
category. This movie was much like a book, because the story plot was very
fascinating and the plot seemed like it truly did belong in a classic
storybook. Constantly through the movie, I kept thinking that the movie would be
better left just as a story.
I think the main topic that made me think this
way was the dialogue. This movie was an old English type, because it was filmed
in 1939, and had quite a lot of literary terms and language used by many
classic novels. The sentence structure was very profound and interesting. Each
character pronounced the words with such passion and emotion, that I thought it
may certainly be straight out of a novel.
What made me think that it was also a novel was the length
of the film. Usually you cannot finish a book in an hour and a half, so that is
why this movie was extended and prolonged. Ninety-five percent of movies today
do not have intermissions. This movie however, does. I personally thought that
this was a good idea because audiences would have time to let the moods and
thoughts sink in. This is also very comparable to a movie, because every time
you read a book, you generally would stop and take breaks. This would also do
the same thing by letting all of the feelings and moods sink in. I thought that
this point was a clear indicator of Gone With The Wind being similar to a
book.
Another similarity that this movie has with
novels is the time that it was made in. (1939) because around this period of
time, majority of the population only had books for entertainment. People would
be expecting a plot, dialogue and a resolution just like they would be used to
if they were to read a story. The director (Victor Fleming) would have to work
very hard at adding in details and structure to make sure that the film would
be what the audience was already used to in novels already.
I also really noticed the plot structure in this
movie. It somewhat reminded me of an anti climatic, complicated, twisted story.
There is the occasional book, which fits into this category to relate to
literary points with the film. This movie was not like your typical film. It
really had not genre and didn’t represent any stories that were previously
made. Books are the same way also. Each book can be so different, and have very
unique plot structures and endings just like the film Gone With The Wind.
The way that Scarlett O’Hara was chasing after Ashley
Wilkes, who was head over heals for Melanie Hamilton reminded me of a classic
love story. It reminded me of Romeo and Juliet in a way, because, it was the
kind of love story that was twisted and different than what we are used to
learning about. This was another key point that leads me to believe this movie
had a lot of relations with novels.
For the dramatic aspects on “Gone With The Wind”, I
have a lot more to say. I noticed that this movie had more similarities and
references to the drama department. From the costumes, to the lighting I
noticed so much.
The costumes in this play reminded me of something I
would see on the stage of an old English play. Each costume was perfected down to the tee. We even were
previously discussing how the actors and actresses costumes were so perfected;
that even the underwear was from the old days to get them thinking about what
it was really like back then. They spent very high amounts of money trying to
make the costumes perfect. Each lady had to wear a very large old-style 1861
styled dress. Each dress was thousands of dollars and took forever to custom
make. This would have been very expensive and time consuming for the crew. This
is the same idea with drama productions because, many times, the stage rentals,
costumes, actors, and lights cost a lot. Each actor ad actress would have to go
through hair and makeup, just as live drama productions would have to do.
Another point I can think of, are the sets. Each set
was very high quality for the time period that the movie was made in. If you
took the time to realize the detail painted into each scene, it was
immense. Some scenes I have to
admit were a little bit off with the lighting, or how the set colors were used.
That was something I could relate to in live drama, because if something on
stage goes wrong, the show still must go on. I found that the movie was very
well cut in between scenes. In live theater, they do this by shutting of the
lights, setting the mood with music, and changing to a different scene. In Gone
With The Wind, they use the cut and paste method with the actual film. I still find
this similar because in both situations they are changing the mood, and
accustoming you to a different part of the story line.
During most scenes, the characters had to react on the
spot to different situations that were presented. Sometimes, in Gone With The
Wind, they overreacted. In most cases I wouldn’t normally encourage if an
actress or actor over reacted but I feel as though it helped build drama in the
story. I also see this with actors on stage quite frequently. This movie, and
live theater both benefited from this gesture, because I know I felt more on
the edge of my seat while watching the problem, or scene un fold.
The cinematic points on this film, were very tough for
me to think about, because I didn’t noticed that many in every scene that were
relevant to today’s movies. Any time I thought about how this could relate to
today’s movies my thoughts changed because this movie was made around the time
when movies were first starting come out, and it was one of a kind.
I am going to talk about one particular scene in
the movie where I noticed them using innovating and unique camera angles. There
was a scene in the movie where Scarlet and Melanie were in a church praying.
They were leaning down, and there was a light candle flickering in front of
their faces. Typically, you could not get this type of shot with a camera and
have the shadows projected on the wall like the director envisioned. To make
his vision come true, they previously filmed the shadows and projected them
onto the wall. Then the two actresses were being filmed at real time to match
their shadows on the church wall that were previously recorded. You could tell
that the shadows were not actually matching the actresses because their
movements were slightly off.
This movie was one of a kind, and I thought it was very
interesting how they could make a 238 minute-long movie with really no true
genre. They captured and paved a way for all movies afterwards to follow what
they had done. They mixed adventure and romance, comedy, drama, action and much
more to make this fascinating movie.
Vivien Leigh
(Scarlett O’Hara) really did make the movie cinematically. She added
just the right touch of emotion to everything that she did. I know that it took
the directors a long time to cast the character of Scarlett, and I think they
waited just for the right person, and it paid off. She was a very important
character because without the right person to play Scarlett, this movie would
have fallen to its knees.
The camera angles in this movie, I believe set a
standard. This was one of the first movies to be this long, and one of the
first to use innovating camera angles, and shots. They used some from a bird’s
eye view, and even tried some shots that were in the actor or actresses
perspective. Movies afterwards used Gone With The Wind’s camera techniques to
better their movie. I believe that they set an example o how all movies since
1939 had to be made.
Gone With The Wind had you feeling almost every
emotion that you could feel. One minute you could feel sad, and the happy the
next. This was all to do with the director and how he played a very prominent
role in this movie. Personally, I think that this is what led all the directors
now days to do the same. We think of directors now as the people that manage
and control everything that happen in their movie. Gone With The Wind certainly
set the standards very high with how much Victor Fleming was involved. He had
envisioned specific details and morals that the movie should follow. This is
why I think the movie won so many Academy Awards.
The movie Gone With The Wind could never be any
better, and was definitely the best of its kind. I believe that every person
should have a chance to discover what a truly wonderful movie should be like.
The actors, actresses, crew, technicians and director deserve everything that
they have won for this mesmerizing film. I am very glad I got to watch this
classic movie, and share my thoughts and opinions on Gone With The Wind.
