Der Film, der zur Legende wurde: Vom Winde verweht

A look behind the scenes at the making of and what went into the production of Gone with the Wind.

This is a really great documentary with loads of archival footage and interviews with the surviving cast and crew of the film. You get a great sense of how much work it was to put the book to screen and all the trials and tribulations that happened along the way. It'll give you a renewed appreciation for the movie and the effort that was put into it. Overall this had the flavour of a really strong DVD special feature made 10 years before they existed. TCM does it again!

The only slight would be that the racial aspects of the movie and book aren't really talked about, but they've been elsewhere so you can always just look there instead of expecting this to be all things to all people.

Whatever your opinion of the 1939 classic, 'Gone With The Wind' (and I happen to think it is the best film ever made), this documentary will have something to interest you. Whether it be the headache of securing expensive film rights to an 'impossible' bestseller and then wondering how to recoup your investment; or the power struggles between producer, director(s) and writers; or the studio shenanigans to ensure the best possible cast; or the celebration of a job well done, it is all here.

Surviving cast members Evelyn Keyes, Ann Rutherford, and Butterfly McQueen (but curiously not Olivia de Havilland) contribute alongside Selznick colleagues and archive footage/reconstructed interviews with participants now dead. We see the story of GWTW from the first low-key appearance of Margaret Mitchell's soapy book, the fever as a nation sent it up the bestseller lists, and the struggle to condense its 1000 plus pages into a manageable film.

We see the screen tests of failed Scarletts, Melanies, and Ashleys (although there was only ever one man really in the frame for Rhett - the wonderful Clark Gable). We hear the romanticised story of how Vivien Leigh won the part of Scarlett. Finally, we hear about the film's preview and the rapturous reception it received before its glitzy premiere in - where else? - Atlanta, Georgia.

A worthy companion to a fabulous Follywood film. GWTW, all sprawling four hours of it, has no equal in the golden days of Tinseltown, and this documentary gives you just a few reasons why.

Selznick himself would have given his highest rating of approval to this fascinating documentary which traces the birth of the Margaret Mitchell novel through its publication and on to Hollywood, where it became a major chore for David O. Selznick to wittle the 1,000 page novel into a workable screenplay. Selznick's work habits are examined at length and the kind of stress his perfectionist behavior gave everyone around him is understandable. But his persistence paid off and, of course, the end result was all anyone could hope for.

Having read many books on this subject, I can assure you this is a project that is well worth viewing for anyone who has more than a passing interest in the making of the film. There are some interesting and revealing comments by George Cukor, the original director on the film who was fired after a few weeks of filming but still remained on good terms with Selznick after Victor Fleming took over.

Most interesting aspect are a series of tests made by various actors and actresses under consideration for roles--most of whom were highly unsuitable if the tests are to be taken seriously.

Missing among the cast members who speak about the film is Olivia de Havilland, who was probably too heavily involved in personal matters at the time this was being put together and could not find time to make her contribution--which would have been a significant one. Fortunately, she turned up for last year's DVD release of the film in a segment called "Melanie Remembers". But Evelyn Keyes and Ann Rutherford do a nice job of describing some behind-the-scenes events as well as the initial premiere of the film in Keyes' home town of Atlanta. Butterfly McQueen recalls what it was like to play Prissy.

Excellent commentary by Christopher Plummer is a definite plus, and the well written script gives the viewer a complete feeling of what it was like for everyone involved in the making of this great classic. By the time it reaches the film's world premiere reaction, you will be thoroughly involved and entertained by the interesting presentation of facts. As an added bonus, much of the documentary is accompanied by selections from Max Steiner's massive score.

Summing up: A documentary you can't afford to miss.

The great ingenuity and care taken in the preparation of this documentary (over 2 hours in length) reveals the love that the people involved had for this project. It is filled with detail from valuable primary sources: letters, memoes, telegrams, production records, story boards, photographs, voice recordings, film (including home-movies and screen tests, as well as the more usual news footage, outtakes, and movie clips), interviews with those still living, and even employs the actual typewriter Margaret Mitchel used to write her novel. It is unusually well written and edited, and offers many interesting parallels between sentiments expressed by characters in the film and the feelings and motivations of the people who worked on it, via the judicious juxtaposition of clips from the movie with the documentary material. The VHS videotape may not be readily available. I got it from the NY Public Library. Hopefully, this production will be reissued on DVD.

Good documentary about the perils and rewards of film making. I like how it puts the true auteur of this famous, if controversial, work, producer David O Selznick, at the center of the story. It shows that the guy possessed the three qualities that all great producers must have, namely boundless energy and determination and an ability, shared by successful baseball managers and high school principals, to properly evaluate one's personnel. For example, a lesser producer would have gone with the proven, safe choices of either Joan Bennett or Paulette Godard as Scarlett and they would have been fine and the film most likely would have done quite well. But it wouldn't have been an iconic performance as is Ms. Leigh's and the film would have been merely good rather than great which, despite its mirroring noxious mid century racial attitudes, it is, largely owing to Ms. Leigh's matchless ability to inhabit the body, mind and soul of one of the most fascinatingly ambiguous characters in Hollywood film history.

A couple caveats. Like an earlier reviewer I found Christopher Plummer's narration borderline annoying; needlessly cheeky and at times mumblingly unintelligible. A more serious criticism is that for a documentary about the making of GWTW made in 1988 director David Hinton and writer David Thomson puzzlingly neglect the importance of Hattie McDaniel's pathbreaking and magnificent performance as a counterweight to the offensive prejudices that are, regrettably, central to this work.

Bottom line: Doesn't make me want to watch the movie again but it drove me to google Selznick. Give it a B plus.