GONE WITH THE WIND Blu-ray

If America would preserve only one film from its sprawling legacy of motion pictures, there would be no better candidate than Victor Flemming’s Gone with the Wind. And no, I’m not just saying that because its main character is where I derive my namesake. No, Gone with the Wind is the quintessential American masterpiece. A film that has it all, an epic story of the history of a nation, expansive with the biggest sets, largest casts, most splendid art design and a truly timeless use of Technicolor. With a runtime just shy of four hours, pound for pound there’s no single artifact of grander splendor than this defining moment of the peak of the Classical Hollywood era. You don’t need me to tell you its greatness, though; Hollywood has done a good enough job of that with all the countless re-releases, be they on television, video, DVD or theatrical re-engagements. As long as pictures still move, there will be no wind that could ever carry this film away.

And now today, on the dawn of its 70th anniversary, the film is being released again once more. This will mark its fifth incarnation on DVD, but of greater significance its first time on Blu-ray. From the burning of Atlanta to the epic silhouettes at sunset, the film is filled with some of the most beautiful images committed to celluloid. Three strips of celluloid, to be specific. Yes, there have always been revival film exhibitions of the film with every passing decade it seems, this gives us the first time to really deconstruct the images up close. To pause it, to look deep into the deep focus photography to admire and ingest all the production value inherent in every frame. Gone with the Wind has always stood as an artifact of perfection – just how perfect is it in HD?

For me, this perfection that Gone with the Wind has attained in its grandiose cinematography, it’s colossal sets and the unending supply of extras has almost given the film a hollow sense of cold calculation. There never seemed to be any degree of creative pressure. No lack of budget to force a scene to be down-scaled. No lack of extras to force a scene into close-ups. No lack of daylight to get that countryside crane shot. Anything this film wanted, and I do refer to the film as a separate entity since it passed through so many hands creatively I couldn’t dare just call it Flemming’s, it seemingly got. Art to me has always been in fighting limitations to create greatness. Without a seeming limit on time or budget, though, it’s seemed as if Gone with the Wind never had to endure the hardships that almost any other work of significant artistic merit has had to endure. But now, in HD, the film tells a different story. Yes, it’s still a masterfully idyllic tale of the Civil War, but now, stitched into that veil of perfection, are the seams of craftsmanship.

The added resolution tellingly reveals shots that had always appeared to be sprawling vistas to instead be lifelike matte paintings. Death defying effects now reveal a grain structure that disrobe the optical imagery over-top. Those scenes on the stagecoach reveal backgrounds only achievable on a set. Yes, the clarity and color saturation indeed make the film more beautiful than it surely has ever looked at home, but even more importantly it reveals the humanity behind the production. It gives it a living, artistic blip of imperfection that it’s been long deprived since it’s made its way to the home and to new generations.

In HD no longer is this a film of almost robotic technical perfection, but instead it reveals itself as a movie driven by creativity – from the hands that painted the glorious matte paintings throughout to the optical effects of falling fire or stagecoach speed. This wasn’t just a masterpiece made by a bottomless budget, but instead one by a colossal team of artists that make the effects crews in Avatar seem like location’s manager in My Dinner with Andre. I’ve always respected, admired and awed at the film, but the way it is presented here with such clarity, I can finally appreciate it for the artistic fortitude of its creators. They have made a film where every image – from the color to the composition of actors, props and sets, is of satiating beauty. Even at four hours, this is a film that could still enthrall based on image alone.

Of course, Gone with the Wind is so much more than a pretty picture. It’s story is a wonderful combination of the macro and the micro – presenting on one hand a unified tale of the birth of America, or modernity, of the present and on the other the coming of age of one spoiled little girl. Like other grand epics to follow in its mold, Titanic and Doctor Zhivago among them, it’s able to expertly involve the audience in the plight of history by centralizing it in the heart of a lowly protagonist. It glorifies the era of Southern slavery the same way D.W. Griffith’s now sadly reviled The Birth of a Nation does, but the difference here is that it presents a developed core of central characters that aren’t just caricatured to mere brush strokes. Indeed Hattie McDaniel as the maid was the first black performer to ever win an Oscar for her impassioned performance. You won’t see that from any of the chicken eating black-faced stereotypes in The Birth of a Nation.

For a film so awe striking with all its visual splendor, it’s amazing that the performances, from Hattie McDaniel to, even more memorably, the two star crossed leads whose posterly embrace has forever resonated as a staple of fictional characterizations. As rendered by Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara are two of the grandest screen characters that just happen to reside in the most grandest of motion pictures. At a time when romance was so often melodramatic and telegraphed, the two stars inject a wily sense of unpredictability to each part that never ceases to surprise. Rhett is a rascal and Scarlett a pouty little brat, and perhaps it is these deviations from the traditional romantic archetypes that makes this love story so endearing. Or maybe it’s because the film refuses to resort to the standard clichés of romance that makes the film transcendental when Hollywood at the time was all about presenting uniformity. Gone with the Wind then, as it does now, presents a storytelling of difference that stood out from the pack not just by the splendor of its visuals, but by its refusal to be conventional, either in the story or the performances.

It’s for these reasons and so much more that Gone with the Wind forever deserves the title as the greatest of all American films. There is no way Hollywood could ever recreate the expansive splendor of the art direction, the saturation of the Technicolor process, the brawn of the lead performances or the tenacity of its convention-defying story…especially not all in the same motion picture! It’s the Mona Lisa, it’s the Bible, it’s the very idea of perfection of its medium. And on Blu-ray that perfection is preserved all the more, with its few seams revealed just to remind us that yes, this perfection was indeed culled from things that sometimes weren’t. Wow.

Presentation…

Gone with the Wind is the first film I’ve seen on this new format in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Unlike DVD, which would present films natively in 1.33:1, Blu-ray and less specifically the HD spec, present films natively in the 16x9 (1.78:1) format. As a result, the film is presented pillarboxed inside the 1.78:1 frame. As I’ve elaborated on in my critique of the film, it certainly is beautiful, the deep Technicolor hues really benefitting from the broadened color space of HD. Images are clear and very detailed without showing any signs of digital sharpening. Edges have a slight softness to them that befits reality. There is nary a piece of film damage or debris throughout. The closest you get to it are the inherent grain in the film’s many optical effects. When it comes to vintage landmarks, especially those of the Technicolor order, the desire by Hollywood is to push the saturation as far as it can go. Thankfully here there is a restraint that keeps detail in the blacks and skin tones in check, yet still allows all the other colors to breathe as surely they were intended seventy years ago. That’s the toughest thing to take with this new transfer, though – that the film is actually that old. It’s wonderful that one of the most beautiful movies still looks just as beautiful today.

The film was initially mono, and the mono is preserved here, but it’s also been given a lift to Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The audio elements seemed preserved as well as ever, with almost all traces of hiss completely removed. Every audible bit is rife with clarity, although more than the image the sound definitely reveals its age. Dialogue often contains a flat tonality, lacking the broad depth of today’s sound devices. Max Steiner’s orchestral score is effectively spread around the sound space, and occasionally during the war scenes and other major action moments, there are bits of directionality to the effects. While not quite as glorious as the pictorial restoration, the sound here still is notably restored.

Extras…

Before we get to the hours upon hours of extras, first thing’s first: the packaging on this limited edition set is breathtaking. Like this year’s earlier The Wizard of Oz, the large box is upholstered in velvet with a beautifully embossed painting of the iconic poster image on the front. Open it up and inside is a similarly spectacular array of packaging, from a large hard cover book with plenty of promotional photos to printed reproductions of important letters passed around the studio regarding casting and production. Most memorable is a 1937 letter from David O. Selznick about his three picks for the Rhett Butler part. Also included is a pitch perfect reproduction of the original 1939 program complete with beautifully painted artwork on each page. In addition to many other Selznick letters there is a nice little package of 5x7” watercolor reproduction art prints that further help to demonstrate the careful artistry that went into making the picture. All that and I’ve just talked about the paper!

Contained on the four discs in this set is possibly the healthiest array of extras any release has ever seen. Unlike previous releases of the film on video, the entire four hour picture is now presented on a single disc. No more getting up to change tapes or DVDs – it’s quite the achievement that this massive picture is contained all on a single dual-layer BD. Not only that, but there’s also a four hour commentary with historian Rudy Behlmer containing enough fact to surprisingly sustain the four hours.

Disc two is another dual-layer BD, and like the BD for the film, compresses what was once two discs of footage onto one. In this case it is over 8 hours of footage (3 new and 5 recycled from previous releases). The new footage involves the hour-long documentary “1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year” and a new 30-minute historian retrospective on the film titled “Gone with the Wind: The Legend Lives On”. Finally, the last new extra on disc two, and certainly a notable inclusion, is the 1980 Telefilm “Moviola: The Scarlett O’Hara Story” which, you guessed it, chronicles the history of casting the part Vivien Leigh would immortalize. For those who haven’t gone through the previous 4-disc DVD, here are all the extras from that ported over to this BD:

• “The Making of a Legend” a 2-hour 1988 documentary narrated by Christopher Plummer on the rich and complex history of the film’s various stages.

• “Restoring a Legend”, made exclusively for the 2004 DVD release, about the process taken to restore the film. Too bad a Blu-ray update wasn’t also included…

• “Dixie Hails Gone with the Wind” a 1939 Newsreel of the Atlanta premiere

• “Atlanta Civil War Centennial” a 1961 Newsreel of the 100 year Civil War anniversary screening , again in Atlanta

• “The Old South” an illuminating 10-minute vintage short on the practice of cotton picking

• “Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia de Havilland”a 40-minute interview with the gray and beautiful actress on what it means to be part of such a momentous picture

• “Gable: The King Remembered” an hour-long doc on the big eared Hollywood heartthrob

• “Viven Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond” a 45-minute look at the accomplished life of the actress, narrated by Jessica Lange

• “The Supporting Players” a sizable featurette on all the actors, from Ashley to Mammy, who made up the memorable cast

There are also a bunch of other little nick knacks, like the prologue detailing the history of the Civil War for non-American audiences, various scenes dubbed into different languages, several different trailers, and an awards listing. Whew!

Disc three is exclusive to the Blu-ray set, although it’s contained on a dual-sided DVD. It contains the 6(!) hour documentary, “MGM: When the Lion Roars” which, not surprisingly, details the history of one of old Hollywood’s most notable studios with thorough tribute. This was originally a mini-series in 1992 and has been effectively preserved and presented here. For film buffs, watching this is a must! This was previously featured as a Blu-ray exclusive in the similarly packaged set for The Wizard of Oz also.

And finally, this colossal set is rounded off with a comparatively stingy sampler CD of the film’s soundtrack. The CD contains eight of the film’s many tracks, although most of the major ones, like the start, the end and the escape from Atlanta all represented here.

Four discs – two Blu-rays, a DVD and a CD, as well as printed material of all sorts, truly make this the benchmark release when it comes to retrospective features. Honestly, what more could you ask for short of bringing Leigh or Gable back from the grave?

Wrapping it up…

Gone with the Wind is THE seminal American film, a demonstration of all the splendor and reverie that film as a medium can offer. Similarly, this collectible Blu-ray package represents all the involving and educating experience the home video format can offer. With nearly 20-hours of bonus material, this truly is the most thorough and enlightening tribute to any film in home video history. The video and audio are painstakingly restored and presented in a manner certainly comparable to the first Technicolor printings of this Hollywood masterwork. No film has received greater tribute than this package from Warner, and no film is more deserving than this, the finest artifact from the Golden Age of Hollywood, the indisputable king of the moving image, Gone with the Wind.

overall... Content: A Video: A Audio: A- Extras: A Final Grade: A