Hollywood's Greatest Year 3

When my sister Liz asked me to comment on whether 1939 was really Hollywood's greatest year, it was in response to a claim made in some special feature on the recent re-release of the Gone With the Wind DVD. Obviously, a major factor in all the attention paid to that year largely was due to all the attention paid to David O. Selznik's quintessential blockbuster. It wouldn't surprise me if GWTW is still the all-time box-office champ in terms of tickets sold, especially since in the days before home video, the film was re-released to theaters every few years through the 1970s. In fact, it's status as a cultural touchstone renders it difficult to consider as a piece of art-- especially since that status is partly built on the unprecedented commercial dimension of its legacy.

That's not to say it's not a great movie (even though I wouldn't rank it among the top ten of 1939)-- maybe the ultimate movie-movie. But it's also difficult to see it as transcending the sum of its parts, especially the classic performances of most everyone in the massive cast. Certainly, individual scenes are among the most memorable in all of cinema (the crane shot pulling back to reveal the seemingly endless pallets of wounded soldiers; the confrontation between Scarlett and the scrounging renegade Yankee; the final break between Rhett and Scarlett), but it also seems like each successive scene is trying to top what's come before-- there's not much dramatic balance or opportunity for the audience to feel that the narrative is building towards a true climax, since virtually every scene plays like the key moment of the film. It's to the credit of producer Selznik (and director Victor Fleming, I suppose) that the film never completely topples over despite the immense weight carried in every moment of the story. But unlike most classic films, it's hard to work up any enthusisam for watching this one over and over: instead of rewarding successive viewings with subtleties and nuances previously missed, with GWTW you kind of feel like you're constantly being pounded over the head. Scarlett is what she is, and so is Rhett and Ashley and Melanie. As good as Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard and Olivia DeHavilland are in bringing those characters to life, they never really display the complexity one associates with real people. In the end, Gone With the Wind is a technically superior spectacle, and that's worth something. But by my reckoning, that doesn't make it great art.