Gone with the Wind (1939)

Academy Awards, USA 1940

Winner Honorary Award	William Cameron Menzies For outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone with the Wind (plaque).
Winner Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Vivien Leigh
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to be nominated for and win an Oscar.
	Best Director Victor Fleming
	Best Writing, Screenplay Sidney Howard Posthumously. Sidney Howard became the first posthumous Oscar nominee and winner.
	Best Cinematography, Color Ernest Haller Ray Rennahan
	Best Art Direction Lyle R. Wheeler
	Best Film Editing Hal C. Kern James E. Newcom
	Best Picture
Winner Technical Achievement Award	R.D. Musgrave For pioneering in the use of coordinated equipment in the production Gone with the Wind.
Nominee Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Clark Gable
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Olivia de Havilland
	Best Sound, Recording Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)
	Best Effects, Special Effects Jack Cosgrove (photographic) Fred Albin (sound) Arthur Johns (sound)
	Best Music, Original Score Max Steiner

MGM
Directed by Victor Fleming
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)

Vivien Leigh plays southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, a stubborn, high-strung, spoiled girl living on a cotton plantation in 1861 Georgia. She falls in love with an older gentleman who lives at a neighboring plantation, or at least tells herself she does, then spends the rest of her life, and the movie, regretting it. She ignores the initial overtures from visiting playboy Rhett Butler (Clark Gable, in his iconic role), despite their obvious mutual attraction, even when the other man announces he is engaged. Civil War breaks out, and as the men go to war the women are left to take care of the plantations. Scarlett impulsively marries another departing soldier, but he soon dies. Ostensibly in mourning, she travels to Atlanta to recover, but really is hoping to meet the other man. She helps her family doctor tend to the wounded, becoming more and more involved, and is eventually overwhelmed, in perhaps the film's most powerful scenes. She returns to her plantation home with the the help of Rhett, in a memorable carriage ride in the wake of Sherman's March to the Sea. The war ends and she is left to try to put the plantation back together mostly alone. She marries a shop owner in Atlanta for money, and proves to be better than him at business. He dies, leaving her alone again. Rhett comes to the rescue and she marries him, again for his wealth. The film quickly devolves into a turgid melodrama chronicling their unhappy marriage, beautifully filmed in Technicolor, but still turgid melodrama. By the fourth hour, I was relieved to hear those magic words from Rhett: "frankly my dear, I don't give a damn", signalling at long last the end.