Gone With the Wind (Single Disc): BD Review
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Page 1 of 3 Warner / 1939 / 238 Minutes / Rated G / Street Date: February 2, 2010
Y'all heard of this one? Gone With the Wind may not be number in rotation with the XBox crowd, but if there's anything that the Blu-ray preservation of GWTW proves, it's that this Vivien Leigh/Clark Gable phenomenon undoubtedly has a pole position in the history of American Film. It may not be your favorite picture, it may not even be something that modern viewers watch more than one time in their lives, but technical prowess aside, for this writer, watching Gone With the Wind again confirms that the importance of the movie is implicit and absolute. Its storyline is pretty darned recognizable: Scarlett O'Hara (Leigh) is a southern belle living on a vast plantation near Atlanta, GA, and as the film opens, she's pissed that her sometimes-beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) has become engaged to the weasely miss Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). When she attempts to woo Ashley, things backfire and all she does is throw a grade-A tissyfit, but that's not the important part: What matters is that said tissyfit is witnessed by Mr. Rhett Butler (Gable), an equally tempestuous gentleman, who is instantly sucked in with Scarlett's passion-filled tractor beam. This romance then gets stretched into different dimensions - The Civil War ravages Atlanta, hearts are broken, lives are lost, allegiances are test - and the two must realize exactly what they mean to one another.
While many aspects of the film may appear desperately antiquated to modern audiences, this viewer had no problem at all being immersed in Scarlett O'Hara's world here. The sumptuous colors of this Technicolor marvel, the sweeping music, the irresistibly thorny romance between our two protagonists - sure, there aren't many movies more melodramatic than Gone With the Wind, but as its epic narrative reaches its climax, I simply couldn't stand not knowing what would happen next: One doesn't just watch GWTW, one lives it. And now, following on the heels of Warner's wonderful Blu-ray Ultimate Collector's Edition of Gone With the Wind, Warner has unleashed their previously Target-exclusive single-disc edition of the film on BD to retailers everywhere. But will fans of the film find this Blu-ray release enough to sate their high-definition thirsts? Let's see.... |
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