Just saw "Gone With The Wind" for the 1st Time! "Spoilers" (1 Viewer)

[David Ruiz]

Hi Everyone,
I'm trying to watch all of the films that have been highly regarded through out history, to see why people hold them so high!
Anyway, I finally rented "Gone With The Wind" for the very first time in my entire life!
At first, I thought, I was going to be bored out of my mind, because I generally don't like extremely classic movies, but this was quite a surprise. I actually enjoyed it very much. I wouldn't say that it's the greatest movie of all time, because I have seen many films better than this, but I would not disagree if anyone said that it was the greatest film of that time-period.
Second, The colors on this DVD are fantasic. The transfer looks better than some of the '80s horror movies out there on DVD today, and this film is 10 times older!
It had a lot of shocking moments:
Moment #1: Scarlet falls down the stairs and looses the baby

Moment #2: Scarlet's daughter falls off a horse and dies.
Moment #3: Melony (sp?) dies.
She was the nicest kindest person in the film, and it killed me inside, when she died.
Anyway, I'm really glad that I finally gave this film a chance, and I am hoping to rent more classic movies, to see what all the fuss is about.

 

[Peter Kline]

David,

1939 is considered one of the greatest years for films. Besides GWTW here are other films available from that year on DVD - original studio listed:

1. Dark Victory (WB)

2.Goodbye Mr. Chips (MGM)

3.Love Affair (RKO)

4.Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Columbia

5.Ninotchka (MGM)

6.Of Mice and Men (UA)

7.Stagecoach (UA)

8.The Wizard of Oz (MGM).

9.Wuthering Heights (Samuel Goldwyn)

In addition some other films not yet available on DVD are:

1.The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (both Fox)

2.Beau Geste (Paramount).

3.Confessions of a Nazi Spy (WB).

4.Destry Rides Again (Universal).

5.Dodge City (WB)

6.Drums Along the Mohawk (Fox).

7.Each Dawn I Die and The Roaring Twenties (both WB).

8.Gunga Din (RKO).

9.The Hunchback of Notre Dame (RKO).

10.The Little Princess (Fox).

11.Made for Each Other (David Selznick).

12.Only Angels Have Wings (Columbia).

13.Son of Frankenstein (Universal).

14. They Made Me a Criminal (WB).

15.Union Pacific (Paramount).

16.We Are Not Alone (WB).

17.The Women (MGM).

18.Young Mr. Lincoln (Fox).

Not a bad year to start looking at classics!

 

[GlennH]

In addition some other films not yet available on DVD are:
:
:
12. Only Angels Have Wings (Columbia).

Psst. Peter, this one is out on DVD in a "Columbia Classics" version. I have it but haven't yet gotten around to watching the DVD.
ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS at Amazon

 

[Robert Crawford]

These titles are already out on dvd or will be coming out in the next 2-3 months.

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (RKO).
• The Little Princess (Fox). (Not a great transfer)
• Only Angels Have Wings (Columbia).
• Son of Frankenstein (Universal).
• The Women (MGM). Actually Warner Now

Crawdaddy

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

From Peter's first list, "Goodbye Mr. Chips" and "Ninotchka" are not yet available in Region 1. "Love Affair" is out on Madacy, but I guess it still counts. To counterbalance, however, from his second list, "Son of Frankenstein" is indeed available as a Universal double feature with "The Ghost of Frankenstein", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is one of the few RKO films that Warner has issued, "The Little Princess" and "Made for Each Other" have been released in a number of not-so-hot public domain releases, "The Women" will be out from Warner in a couple of months, and Glenn already mentioned "Only Angels have Wings".
A classic non-hollywood film from 1939 is Renoir's "Rules of the Game". It's not yet out on DVD, but hopefully Criterion is considering it.
Regards,

 

[GlennH]

Yes, here is what DVDFile posted about The Women on March 4:

Rounding out today's news are the full specs for that new special edition of the classic comedy The Women, due from Warner on 6/4. The disc features a new transfer in the film's original 1.33;1 aspect ratio, the original English mono track, the new "Romance Of Celluloid" and "Hollywood: Style Center Of The World" documentaries, interview gallery with costar Virginia Grey and hairstylist to the stars Sydney Guilaroff, music-only scoring stage sessions audio track, and trailers. Retail is $19.95.

 

[David Lambert]

My very quick comment to add to this thread:
Could either a spoiler tag be added to the original post for the list of "shocking moments", or the word SPOILERS be added to the thread subject?
Not EVERYONE has seen GWtW yet, as is the whole point of this thread. I myself only saw it a couple of years ago for the first time, and HTF members would be *SHOCKED* at some of the classic film titles I haven't watched yet.
Its safe to assume other folks who've never seen GWtW will check this thread to see if it's worth their (rather long) time. Why give away key plot points to them? :frowning:

 

[Justin Gates]

Yes, Dave beat me to the punch, but I have yet to see the movie and was a bit concerned about the shocking moments listed and the fact that a spoiler warning was not given.

Please remember that no matter how old or popular a film might be, some of us havent yet seen it.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

...Which reminds me of my first DVD "blunder," which was borne out of sheer ignorance on my part. New to DVD in 1999, I bought Gone With the Wind and was immediately apalled to find that I had mistakenly picked up the "full screen" version instead of the "wide screen" version. I could swear that the opening title sequence was supposed to be panoramic! I even returned the bloody thing to the store, only to discover that there were no wide screen versions available. For a while I thought this sucked.
Then I learned about Academy Standard aspect ratio and other nuggets of knowledge (mostly from this forum) and soon realized that this was how the movie was supposed to look.
Hats off to The Home Theater Forum and all you guys for making me less ignorant.

 

[Rand]

I've probably seen the film twenty or thirty times. Is it the greatest film ever? Of course not. There's certainly no such thing in art and I really can't think of anything else in which that could be unequivically stated. Is it a great film? Yes, I think it would qualify so in any reasonable criteria. I do like the film a lot and would rank it in my favorite top ten or twenty. As mentioned before 1939 is generally considered to by the greatest single year for film. GWTW isn't my favorite film from the year, Wuthering Heights is. This dvd is the best looking I've ever seen it outside of a theater. I did see the film in the Fox (one of the few remaining movie palaces of the thirties) in Atlanta on the 50th anniversary of the novel. Anyone who hasn't seen the film should do so imo.

 

[Scott McGillivray]

I certainly agree that "Gone with the wind" is one of the all-time greats. This is especially true considering the age of the piece. The effects, acting, music and just sheer size of the movie is amazing for its day. I really enjoyed the first half of this movie, but found that the second half really dragged on and beat the story to death. It just did not cover much new ground and seemed to rehash plot points already made. But hey, what the heck. Still a great movie!

 

[Peter Kline]

Crawdaddy and Ken, thank you for the update. I quickly took that list off the 'net and didn't check to see when it was compiled. Lot's of viewing ahead!

 

[Peter Kline]

Jonathan. There was a widescreen version of GWTW. It was released to theatres in the 70s. It was mostly sepia in color, had a rechanneled stereo soundtrack and was presented in 70mm! Of course some heads and feet were missing, but what the hey. It was awful. :frowning:

 

[SteveP]

The 70MM version of GWTW was first released to theatres on a roadshow basis beginning in October, 1967. It was a great commercial, if not artistic, success-- playing reserved-seat engagements in major markets for an entire year, before a 35MM general release lasting well into 1969. It was at this time that the sweeping main title card was replaced on the theatrical prints with a static one that remained until the 1988 Turner version that returned to the three-strip Technicolor negative for the first time since the late forties. The 1954 and 1961 re-releases presented the film in a cropped 1.85:1 ratio with Perspecta steering on the soundtrack in 1954. The 70MM version had a limited re-release in 1974.

The 1988 Chace stereo soundtrack included

directional dialogue and was far more effective than the recent 5.1 version.

 

[Bill J]

David, how could YOU call The Godfather the worst film ever "because it was boring" and not call Gone With the Wind boring?

 

[Jeff_HR]

To me GWTW is the GREATEST movie of all time! The first time I saw it in a movie theatre I sat spellbound the entire film. Plus I've watched this film more than any other, over 150 times!

 

[Calgary Goldsmith]

GWTW is one of my favorite films and always will be. The first time I saw this was on a Christmas Day on (TNT, TBS?)

along with the phenomenal making of documentary a little more than a decade ago. I have been in love with it ever since and I've probably seen it 100 times and will probably watch it a hundred more.

Some people criticize this movie as being a long boring soap opera. Well let me tell you this movie pretty much invented the modern soap opera. This movie has more characterization than most anything made today.

I highly reccomend anyone who hasn't seen this movie to go out and rent it and see for yourself the way they used to make great movies. Grand epics with fantastic actors and solid directors and it doesn't even contain one computer generated effect or have gratioutis nudity or foul language (if you don't count the most famous line in all of movies).

I'm interested to hear anyone else watching this movie for the first time and hearing your impressions or anyone else giving the movie another shot.

Happy Viewing!

 

[Peter Kline]

SteveP, thanks for the correction on the release date of the 70mm GWTW. I was close, but no cigar!:frowning:

 

[Philip Hamm]

This movie has more characterization than most anything made today.

The character development that Scarlett goes through from the beginning to the end of the movie is more than the characters in 5 "typical" movies combined. That's what I love about Gone With The Wind, watching this firey strong woman's character, with all it's human failings, grow and change.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Actually, the 70mm Gone With The Wind was blown up to 2.21:1.
In Metrocolor, too.