Gone with the Wind (1939) on Netflix
Passed19393h 58mDramaHistoryRomanceWar
Georgia, 1861: Scarlett O'Hara, the headstrong daughter of a plantation owner, pursues Ashley Wilkes, who is to marry his cousin Melanie. Rhett Butler overhears her declaration.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb8.2/10358,782 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
Scarlett O'Hara, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Gerald O'Hara, lives at Tara, the family's cotton plantation in Georgia, in April 1861. She flirts with the Tarleton twins, Brent and Stuart, and finds their talk of war with the North dull. At a barbecue at Twelve Oaks, the plantation of neighbor John Wilkes, Scarlett slips away from the other young women and tells Ashley Wilkes she loves him. Ashley answers that he means to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton. Furious, Scarlett throws a vase; Rhett Butler, a visitor from Charleston resting on a couch, rises and jokes about the war. News arrives that the fighting has begun, and the young men rush to enlist.
Cast
- Fred Craneas Brent Tarleton - Scarlett's Beau
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gone with the Wind (1939)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Screenwriter Ben Hecht wrote the first nine reels of Gone with the Wind in seven days, working eighteen to twenty hours a day; Selznick refused to let him break for lunch, providing only bananas and salted peanuts.
- Hattie McDaniel and the film's other black cast members were barred from the Atlanta premiere by Georgia's Jim Crow laws, so Clark Gable threatened to boycott the event; McDaniel persuaded him to attend.
- Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Academy Award, beating her co-star Olivia de Havilland in the same category, but she and her escort were seated at a separate table at the back of the Coconut Grove ceremony.
- Gone with the Wind was banned in Nazi-occupied Europe, but copies were smuggled into occupied territories for private screenings, to the dismay of propaganda authorities.
- Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh were the two finalists tested in Technicolor for Scarlett on December 20, 1938; Goddard almost won the part, but controversy over her marriage to Charlie Chaplin made Selznick change his mind.
- Tara existed only as a plywood and papier-mâché façade on the Selznick studio lot, and for the burning of Atlanta, producer David O. Selznick himself operated the controls for the explosives that destroyed the old backlot sets.
- The film is credited with turning "Scarlett" from a color into a feminine given name; U.S. birth records show its use increased more than seven-fold right after the release.
