Considered by many to be the greatest year in the history of cinema, 1939 had so many smash hits that it was a wonder that they could narrow down a reasonable list for the Best Picture Award. Ten nominations came to us in this year. Ten nominations of what would be some of the most historic movies to ever be remembered. 1939 not only held one of the best movies to ever be produced but it also held of the biggest technological advantages that movies would see. That addition of color to the movies. Now, color is not completely new the movies at this point. The previous year there was a movie that was nominated for best picture that was a colorful film. There have also been some films that had some scenes with color in them (42nd Street as I mentioned before did have a color sequence in it but like I said in that post it has been lost to history). This was the year that movies began to play with the idea more and it also grew into a sensation that soon became the new standard in movies.
The best reason that color became the new standard was the winner of the 1939 Best Picture MGM's Gone with the Wind. Considered by many people to be one of the best pictures of all time Gone with the Wind is a spectacularly rare treat that still excites, and thrills audiences today.
The story follows a strong- willed southern lady, Scarlett O'Hara, as she finds herself trapped in a love circle but is also trapped in the end of the old south as the outbreak for the Civil War approach. Living in Georgia just on the cusp of war, Scarlett is very keen on how the south operates. Women are to get a man, produce a child, and never worry too much about men are talking about. Scarlett has learned at a very young age that she can get any information, or anything she wants for the matter, from a man if you work them the right way. Scarlett is an expert flirt that only has eyes for one man and one man only, Ashley Wilkes. She thinks that she is going to get everything she wants out of life when she finds that Ashley is going to marry Melanie Hamilton instead of her. In a pure fit of loss Scarlet does "unladylike" things in order to get Ashley to change his mind. Some examples would be to show her bosom before three o'clock, or basically telling Ashley she is madly in love with him instead of playing coy. In doing all of these thing she does manage to capture the attention of a man but not the one she was after. Rhett Butler is smitten with Scarlett the moment he laid eyes on her. However, he knew that she would not warm up to in right away because his reputation was ruined and was pronounced a cad well before he ever made it to the south. That doesn't stop him from trying to capture her attention, just as Scarlett's desperation to get Ashley doesn't stop when Ashley tells her he is still going to marry Melanie. In an attempt to make Ashley jealous, Scarlett agrees to marry Melanie's little brother Charlie, that way she can still stay close to Ashley. All of that plan goes awry when Charles is killed in the war and leaves Scarlett widowed. In an attempt to escape the boredom of being a widow, Scarlet decides to go and visit Melanie in Atlanta (with the secret hope to see Ashley when he gets his Christmas Furlough). Scarlet finds out soon that she waited too long to get back home when the war makes it way down to Georgia. Sherman is on his way and has plan to reek havoc on the fair city of Atlanta. The day that Sherman burns down the city of Atlanta, Scarlet reaches out to the scoundrel Rhett Butler to try and get home to Tara. They narrowly exscape the city and spend the next days to make it to their county. Along the way they find that the Yankees have taken down every home, and stolen everything in their path as they marched through. Finally reaching her home she finds that things are worse than what she could have imagined. Her mother had just died the night before she made it home, her father lost his mind because of the loss of his wife, her sisters sick with typhoid, and absolutely no food to be found anywhere, Scarlet has to muscle up the strength to take care of herself and everyone around to and to save the home she loves. All of this while hoping her sweet Ashley will come back to her and resisting the ever charming sweet talk of Captain Rhett Butler.
This film has so many honor associated with it that it's hard to keep up. Just of few of the accomplishment are: First Film with Color to win the Best Picture Award, The first African-American to be nominated and win an Academy Award went to Hattie McDaniel (won for her role as Mammie in the film), is the still the most successful film in box office history (when adjusted for monetary inflation), placed in the top ten films of all time by the American Film Institute, and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1989. As I mentioned before the competition was rough this year. The other films that were nominated were: Warner Brothers' Dark Victory; MGM's own Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Ninotchka, and The Wizard of Oz; RKO's Love Affair; Columbia's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; United Artists' Of Mice and Men and Stage Coach; and Goldwyn's Wuthering Heights.
While the competition was tough, and my person favorite more of all time, The Wizard of Oz, is also nominated, I have to say the Academy picked the right more this year. I have seen most of the movies from this list, and a lot of the movies from this year, and you can not get a better movie all around than Gone with the Wind. What I think that I love most about this film is the fact that you can watch it a million times and still find something new about it. Whether it be the costumes, the acting, the scenery, the reason for the shot, the looks on people faces, it's always a new adventure watching this film. This is one of those films that will always be relevant in some way in the modern world as it was in the 1930s. This movie is a shear masterpiece and can not be simply given justice in one simple post. I will have to watch this film again after this list is done and do a real in depth look into the film and see what else I find new and exciting about it. This is one of those film that you can watch it over and over again and find you never watch the same film twice...
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