Author Topic: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 3. Casablanca (1942)
Obi Anne  25721 posts
Title: FanForce RSA
Europe

Registered: Nov '98
8066_Danni Quee
Date Posted: 9/24 2:29am Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
It's a wonderful film, I just love it. And Scarlett is such a fascinating character, not likeable but more interesting than the usual female characters.

 

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"That is the beauty of grand opera; you can do anything...as long as you sing it" Anna Russell
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Merlin_Ambrosius69  1974 posts
Registered: Aug '08
6602_Obi-Wan Kenobi
Date Posted: 9/24 8:00am Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
I agree it remains one of the most powerful and moving films of all time. My wife and I watched it a few months ago -- she for the first time in many years -- and we both just fell in love with it all over again. What strikes me more than anything about the movie is the sense of verisimilitude -- reality -- in he characters' behavior and dialogue, especially in the "romance" between Rhett and Scarlett. The awful things they say to each other, the curious correlation between their anger with each other and the urge to have sex, the way her love for Ashley lingers and makes him insanely jealous, even though she'll never have Ashley and he knows it... it all feels so real, if enlarged for the screen. What a triumph in an era when the censors were mad with power, and very few scenes in any film were allowed to approximate real relations between men and women.

And to those who say Scarlett is not sympathetic, I say: "Fiddle-dee-dee!" She's plucky and courageous and ultra-feminine, not to mention heart-breakingly beautiful... and I love her for it.

BTW, thanks to Katana_Geldar for listing those factoids about the production. I knew some of them but had forgotten most, and it's good to be reminded. The huge KONG gates burning in that famous shot with the horse in the foreground is my favorite piece of trivia....

 

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Zaz  38719 posts
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 9/24 12:39pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
I said not likable, not not sympathetic. It's clearer in the book, but Scarlett's hardness is necessary for survival. She does survive, whereas a lot of the ex-Confederates go under, because they can't accept reality. Of course, in some things, Scarlett is equally blinkered--namely Ashley. For a modern-dress version, try "The Long Hot Summer", with Paul Newman as Rhett, Joanne Woodward as Scarlett and Richard Anderson as Ashley.

 

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Merlin_Ambrosius69  1974 posts
Registered: Aug '08
6602_Obi-Wan Kenobi
Date Posted: 9/24 2:58pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
I won't argue semantics with you, esp. since I agree with your points about Scarlett's necessary hardness. But beyond being "hard" and realistic, she's also spoiled, demanding, insensitive and discompassionate. She learns how to love the hard way: by screaming and getting screamed at, and then realizing that way doesn't really work.

Either way, I find her likable in spite of her selfish, childish behavior -- or perhaps because of it, since we're all like her just a little bit, and most of the women I've loved in real life have been a hell of a lot like her... which is admittedly a frightening thought.

 

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Katana_Geldar  27942 posts
Title: Former CR Tasmania, AU'
Registered: Mar '03
48693_Elaine (617092)
Date Posted: 9/24 3:41pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
One thing that makes Scarlett and Rhett's relationship so real is how people who love each other can be so cruel to each other.

My favourite line is when Rhett gives her the bonnet: "That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often,
and by someone who knows how."

There's also a set of lines from the novel that was taken right into The Empire Strikes Back, for Han and Leia's kiss, but it didn't make it into the GWTW film.

As for Scarlett, she's not a likable person but we can't help liking her. She's entertaining and we're rather amused by her and what she does, like the scene where she first meets Rhett "Has the war started?"

You can't help but feel sorry for Melanie, particularly what happens to her, poor girl. The fact that she defends Scarlett is something that I cannot understand.

 

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Merlin_Ambrosius69  1974 posts
Registered: Aug '08
6602_Obi-Wan Kenobi
Date Posted: 9/24 4:57pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Well, Melanie sees the good in people, and there is good even in Scarlett. I think M. pities S. also, not in a condescending way but in a kind way. Scarlett is torn up by her passions, whereas Melanie has her own well in hand. I've always wondered to what extent M. was aware that S. secretly loved Ashley, and whether or not this played into M.'s pity for and understanding of her.

 

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Katana_Geldar  27942 posts
Title: Former CR Tasmania, AU'
Registered: Mar '03
48693_Elaine (617092)
Date Posted: 9/24 5:38pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
One of the spinoff novels, Rhett Butler's People (not recommended, FTR) has Melanie hiding in a closet and finding out about them.

 

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Jacen and the two Vergeres http://gmgeldar.wordpress.com/vergere-essay/
Now, if you don't mind, I am somewhat preoccoupied telling the laws of physics to shut up and sit down.
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Zaz  38719 posts
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 9/24 7:36pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Good God. tongue

 

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JohnWesleyDowney  5276 posts
Registered: Jan '04
46107_The Holy Grail
Date Posted: 9/24 7:59pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939) - Date Edited: 9/24 8:23pm (3 edits total) Edited By: JohnWesleyDowney
In Roland Flamini's definitive book, Scarlett, Rhett and a Cast of Thousands, he talks about the famous dawn pullback shot that ends part one of the movie.

Man, this was before CGI.

They posted a lookout overnight at the hill where it was to be filmed, and if the sky looked good around 3am, a call was made to the production office and they called Vivien Leigh, Victor Fleming and the camera crew to be out there when the sun came up.

David O'Selznick insisted the shot be perfect. So everyone got up at 3am NINE TIMES before he was satisfied with the result.

Scarlett O'Hara: "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"

Vivien Leigh: "As God is my witness, I'm never getting up at 3am to do that shot again!"

There's a story that during production Selzick was worried about Leigh's mental health because she was at a weekend party during filming where she invented a new game called "Throwing babies out of moving cars." She was given a few days off for rest after that.

 

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Merlin_Ambrosius69  1974 posts
Registered: Aug '08
6602_Obi-Wan Kenobi
Date Posted: 9/24 10:45pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Great stories! applause It stands to reason that one of the all-time classics would have such excellent making-of anecdotes and factoids.

 

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Katana_Geldar  27942 posts
Title: Former CR Tasmania, AU'
Registered: Mar '03
48693_Elaine (617092)
Date Posted: 9/25 2:10am Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Some more:

* The glass of whiskey that Rhett gives Mammy after the birth of his daughter reall was whiskey when it was meant to be cold tea.
* Upon seeing all the soldiers lying on the ground, Margaret Mitchell said "If we had had that many soldiers we would have won the war!" Some of them are manikins and the real soldiers are making them move with handles.
* Hattie McDaniel didn't attend the Atlanta premiere due to Jim Crow laws and she wouldn't be able to sit with the rest of the cast.
* Some of the exteriors film was actually done in Oregon, and clay from bricks was put on the ground to resemble the red Georgia soil.
* The part in the "as God as my witness" scene, the wretching was done by Olivia DeHallirand (spell?), as Leigh refused to do it.
* The part with Mammy, Pork and Prissy walking up to Scarlett's new house on Peachtree Street was actually the studio front and the house was painted in afterwards.

Remember Scarlett shooting the Yankee deserter? That was FANTASTIC! And Melanie! Coming down the stairs with that sword!

"Don't worry, chickens! Scarlett was cleaning the pistol and it went off and scared us both to death!"

 

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Jacen and the two Vergeres http://gmgeldar.wordpress.com/vergere-essay/
Now, if you don't mind, I am somewhat preoccoupied telling the laws of physics to shut up and sit down.
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Rogue1-and-a-half  22238 posts
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered: Nov '00
16485_Wedge Antilles
Date Posted: 9/28 3:09pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
I've posted at length elsewhere on this board about why Scarlett endures as a character, so I won't do it again. But I will just echo Merlin's line about her beauty; the woman is absolutely ravishing.

My favorite behind the scenes story involves the problem over the final line from Rhett. Profanity wasn't necessarily allowed back in 1939, so the Office of the Production Code felt that the line should be excised and replaced with one of the following:

Frankly, my dear, I just don't care.

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a hoot.

Frankly, my dear, my indifference is boundless


And, my favorite, Frankly, my dear, it makes my gorge rise.

 

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Champion of the Force  814 posts
Registered: Dec '99
48538_Obi-Wan Kenobi (602093)
Date Posted: 9/28 4:51pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Rogue1-and-a-half posted:
Frankly, my dear, I just don't care.

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a hoot.

Frankly, my dear, my indifference is boundless


And, my favorite, Frankly, my dear, it makes my gorge rise.



Thank god that didn't go with any of them (honestly, "my indifference is boundless"???) Though the "it makes my gorge rise" one is pretty funny. happy

 

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Bill-Thompson  576 posts
Registered: Jul '08
42103_Thrawn
Date Posted: 9/28 6:26pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Good movie, but far too long and stretched out with some serious structural problems and character issues.

 

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Zaz  38719 posts
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered: Oct '98
40038_Jawa
Date Posted: 9/28 7:39pm Subject: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) 7. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Lucille Ball tried out for Scarlett.

 

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