DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Gone With The Wind - Four Disc Collector's Ed. (VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). (1 Viewer)

[Alejandro]

Regarding Arthur's test



I guess he didn't.

When people usually asks what historical figure you would like to share a day with and in what particular time, I always think of DOS on those GWTW frantic pre-production days. Luckily we have this doc that serves as a make believe.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Scarlett is so brash, and Melanie is so gentle. The movie shows a kind of feminism emerging in Scarlett. Were you comfortable playing the less aggressive character?"

BARF!

O how I hate it when people approach old movies through the prism of their favorite political agendas.

Scarlett embodies Feminism? Melanie embodies demure weakness? From where I'm sitting, Melanie was the strongest woman in the entire story. Who else but Melanie could have had the strength to forgive someone like Scarlett? Case cloesd.

 

[Paul_Scott]

from the moment Melanie throws down her lightsaber and says "i forgive you, Scarlett" to the point where Rhett picks Scarlett up and tosses her down the reactor shaft, i still get chills down my back.

one of the most powerful and moving sequences in cinema, without question.

 

[AlanP]

The Gable documentary was so BORING !!!!
Vivien Leighs was good.
I WANTED SOME OUT TAKES, THEY MEUST EXIST SOMEWHERE.
THEY MUST BE HOLDING THOSE FOR THE ULTIMATE SHOWCASE EDITION, DOWN THE ROAD.
I THINK THE FILM LOOKS AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL.
THE EXTRAS I WOULD RATE A B MINUS.
"THE MAKING OF" a GREAT STORY OF THE FILM FROM START TO FINISH. I AM DISAPPOINTED WITH THE EXTRAS, I JUST THINK THEY COULD HAVE INCLUDED OUT TAKES. SEVERAL BOOKS, I HAVE READ ABOUT THE FILM, SAID THE SECOND HALF WAS LONGER, AND FLOWED MUCH BETTER, MORE LIKE THE FIRST HALF. THE LAST HALF SEEMS SO UNEVEN, AND COVERS SO MUCH, SO FAST.

 

[ScottR]

Don't hold your breath for outtakes. You have to remember that GWTW was an indie project, even though MGM distributed it, and even though David Selznick kept a lot, no outtakes have been found. My guess is that with the tight editing schedule, when shots and scenes were tossed, they were really tossed.

 

[Alejandro]

Again, Casablanca and Robin Hood are from the same period and have newly found outtakes.
If Selznick got to keep the many screen tests, why not keep the outtakes?

 

[Elinor]

"From where I'm sitting, Melanie was the strongest woman in the entire story. Who else but Melanie could have had the strength to forgive someone like Scarlett? Case cloesd."

Well, that works if strength is some abstract notion.

Melanie ended up dead before she was 35, pining for the past. Scarlett was very much alive, very much in the moment, very much engaged in her future battles.

Different kinds of strength, perhaps.

But in the animal world, Scarlett was the survivor. She was the fittest.

 

[Ernest Rister]

So feminism = survival in the animal world?

 

[BarryR]

1939's THE WOMEN had fun with that notion, if you recall its title sequence.

 

[ScottR]

The screen tests were probably kept while the search for Scarlett continued, and were filed away. There was no reason to keep the outtakes. Once the film was released, that was it....no one thought it would be around 65 years later.

 

[Alejandro]

Yes I do. I love that movie as camp as it can be, but boy, its concept of women and marriage is sooooo dated.

And yes, ScottR, you may be right about the outtakes but how can you be so sure?

 

[ScottR]

I can't be 100% sure...I mean, I wasn't an employee at Selznick International in 1939. But using common sense, there were thousands of feet of film printed for the film. The outtakes just weren't that important to anyone. Selzick was a perfectionist. Another theory could be that he never wanted anyone to see what didn't make it into his masterpiece, and he had the footage destroyed. Anyhow, we are lucky to have the Robin Hood and Casablanca outtakes. Most films of the period aren't so lucky.

 

[AlanP]

So, if they kept, the screen tests, why would they discard out takes ??
Remember, in the "MAKING OF", they said the preview was a longer film ???
So, they must be somewhere in some vault .............
I am sure some will turn up someday, if those tests are still around, I would have rather seen longer takes of those, than, that BORING GABLE BIO, that was the WORST !!!!! DULL, DULL, DULL, like watching paint DRY.
And would love to have seen, the other screen tests as well, like Marsha Hunts, for Melanie, and George Montogmerys, for Ashley, Mae Wests for Belle, etc.
So, why not include those as well. They were much to brief in "MAKING OF", Where was Hepburns test, and Davis' test ??

 

[Patrick McCart]

So, did you find the Clark Gable documentary boring?


I don't understand how Casablanca and The Adventures of Robin Hood can be compared to this. Those were films made by Warner Bros. and GWTW was made by Selznick, released by MGM. MGM probably didn't keep a lot of outtakes... after all, only one scene out of the entire group of deleted Wizard of Oz material survived complete. How many other MGM films from that time have surviving outtakes?

 

[ScottR]

As popular as Gone With the Wind is, I think we would have seen outtakes by now. It's not as if they are being kept from us. It would be a virtual goldmine to release them. However, with the shortness of time between editing and releasing the mammoth production, it just seems likely that they were tossed along with the hundreds of alternate takes and camera angles. The special effects mattes and other techniques (remember a lot of the ceilings were even paintings) weren't even finished when the film was being put together in the editing room. My guess is that they were thrown out immediately. If they weren't, they are probably in an almost unwatchable state. I wish they would surface too, but you can't fault Warner Home Video for not including them in 2004.

 

[DeeF]

According to the list of tests prepared by Selznick's office, there were never any screentests of Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn. These women were negotiating to get the role, but refused tests (as did Jean Arthur, until the very last minute).

There have been floating around stories about Hepburn's test, but I believe they are... apocryphal.

 

[Alejandro]

Yes, the same said for Mae West. She was just an idea. Selznick wanted Tallulah Bankhead to consider the role of Belle Watling but, after being rejected as a possible Scarlett, was afraid to ask her.

 

[Michael Coate]

For those who haven't seen the new "Gone With The Wind" DVD, FromScriptToDVD.com has posted a trivia contest with the DVD as the prize.

http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/gwtw_trivia.htm

 

[Mike_Heggemann]

Just a few comments and a question (spoiler alert):

Comments:

1) I was really surprised that they didn't mention Hattie McDaniel's oscar in her career overview segment.
2) I really liked the way they did the career overview segments on the major cast members. I wish more studios would handle them this way on DVD.
3) I love the way they prefaced the "Old South" short - mentioning that some parts of it are objectionable today, but were commonplace when the piece was released. This is the way items like this should be handled (putting them in context), not like some studios (cough...Disney..cough) who edit their past to match today's PC climate.

Question:

In the documentary, they showed stills of a scene of Rhett carrying Bonnie Blue's body away from where she had fallen off her pony. I could swear I've seen that scene as part of the movie, but the scene on the DVD ended with Rhett just starting to pick up Bonnie's body.

Am I crazy?

 

[perrin]

Has anyone noticed towards the end of disc 1 that during the Burning of Atlanta scene there is a bit of film damage? It seems some of the film elements were damaged during that fire scene. I noticed the film turning a bit of reddish orange when I was watching it.


perrin