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Gone with the Wind |  | Directors: George Cukor, Sam Wood, Victor Fleming
Actors: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil, Evelyn Keyes
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy Used: $9.74
as of 11/21/2009 23:13 CST details
You Save: $10.24 (51%)
New (12) Used (41) Collectible (1) from $9.74
Seller: rose7a
Rating:  750 reviews
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 2
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 233 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0790744082
UPC: 012569500921
EAN: 9780790744087
Theatrical Release Date: December 15, 1939
Release Date: March 7, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
David O. Selznick wanted Gone with the Wind to be somehow more than a movie, a film that would broaden the very idea of what a film could be and do and look like. In many respects he got what he worked so hard to achieve in this 1939 epic (and all-time box-office champ in terms of tickets sold), and in some respects he fell far short of the goal. While the first half of this Civil War drama is taut and suspenseful and nostalgic, the second is ramshackle and arbitrary. But there's no question that the film is an enormous achievement in terms of its every resource--art direction, color, sound, cinematography--being pushed to new limits for the greater glory of telling an American story as fully as possible. Vivien Leigh is still magnificently narcissistic, Olivia de Havilland angelic and lovely, Leslie Howard reckless and aristocratic. As for Clark Gable: we're talking one of the most vital, masculine performances ever committed to film. --Tom Keogh
Stills from Gone with the Wind (70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition) (click for larger image)
Description
Vivien Leigh is Scarlett to Clark Gable's Rhett in cinema's greatest epic of passion and adventure. With its immortal cast, magnificent cinematography and sweeping score, this cherished classic continues to thrill audiences today. Year: 1939
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 750
 WHAT'S THERE TO SAY November 20, 2009
LOGAN HEATH JAMES McCREE (Vero Beach, FL USA)
WHAT'S THERE TO SAY. IT'S GONE WITH THE WIND. PROBABLY THE BEST FILM EVER PRODUCED. NOTHING HAS SURPASSED IT SO FAR, EXCEPT IN SPECIAL EFFECTS, TITANIC HAS COME VERY CLOSE AND IN STORY LING BROKEBACK HAS COME CLOSE.
I GOT THE REGULAR BLURAY EDITION AT TARGET, WHERE THAT EDITION WAS ONLY AVAILABLE.
IF YOU CAN LAST THE 3 HOURS, YOU WIL NOT FORGET THEIS LEDGEN.
 Epic November 19, 2009
JNCOBBS
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
One of the greatest films of all time, GWTW is a fascinating depiction of Southern life during and after the Civil War. This review, however, is for the product, not the film. I give the product four out of five stars for the following reasons:
1) This edition comes with many extras, even a recreation of the program used 70 years ago. Also included is a sample of the original motion picture soundtrack and roughly eight hours worth of bonus features, including documentaries, commentary, and more. While the product description mentions ten 5"x7" water color pictures (which it does include), it also comes with recreated telegrams, letters and more from the cast, crew and production company.
2) The film transfer is beautifully done. The film flows smoothly and is featured on two DVDs. While that is rather annoying, having to get up and change DVDs or wait as the player automatically shifts between the two, that sacrifice for the beauty of the film is well worth it.
3) The price is rather high for what you get. I love the film and had no problem paying the money for it, but the price is still rather high. Taking into account all the facts that there are only 150,000 copies out there, the price seems rather reasonable for such a "rare" item. Even with that, it's still rather high.
All in all, definitely worth the value you put into it. One quick side note here before I finish. The film IS presented in original format, which is FULLSCREEN. Films prior to 1953 were not shown in theaters in what we now know as WIDESCREEN. This was developed in the early fifties during the television boom to help add to the experience movie-goers wanted. EVEN WITH THAT IN MIND, the set is great and I highly recommend it.
(CAPS WORDS are used for emphasis, not yelling.)
70th Anniversary Collector's Edition Blu-ray WOW! November 19, 2009
J. Baltazar (Los Angeles, CA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I usually don't like purchasing collector's edition boxes as I don't usually care for the extra items and they are bulky to store. The boxed set of Gone With The Wind impressed me though. It is elegantly packaged in red velvet box and the extra items are awesome as well, like the David Selznick memos about choosing among Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and Errol Flynn for the role of Rhett, the hardbound photo book and souvenir program reproduction. The price at Amazon was also almost half the regular price, so the purchase was well worth it. Best of all, I got the set yesterday on the day of release, even though I used the free-shipping option. I noticed that Amazon is now using Ontrac for delivery and the orders seem to arrive much quicker.
Now for the blu-ray itself...the transfer is simply awesome. The color correction and clarity are breathtaking. I actually noticed wrinkles on Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard's faces, which make you realize that they were actually older than the roles they played. The film is in the original 1.33 aspect ratio, which was common for movies in those days. I know some people are looking for the widescreen version, which this film was not originally shot in. If you have a good HDTV, the solution is simple by viewing using wide zoom to fill the screen. You lose part of the top and bottom details, but there's usually not much there. I do mind when they crop the sides to make widescreen fit regular screens (pan & scan) as you lose lots of details on the sides. However, if you want to see this movie in its original glory with all the details, then watch it in the original aspect ratio. I also like that the whole movie is in one disc for continuous viewing without having to change discs. You know how long it sometimes takes to load a blu-ray disc, but this one loads fast as they don't have the elaborate menus to slow it down.
There are many extras on the second disc and the only one I viewed so far was the restoration process, which is always fascinating to me because of the age of the movie.
Overall, this collection is well worth the purchase. I just wonder what they will come up next for the 75th anniversary. Maybe by that time HDTV's can display at 8000p and we'll end up seeing more details than available now.
"And you, miss, are no lady!" November 18, 2009
William Sommerwerck (Renton, WA USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
As with the "Wizard of OZ" BD set, the GWTW set is elaborated -- and made "spendier" -- with the addition of material that might not be absolutely necessary for one's enjoyment. The box is covered in red velvet flocking (green would have been more appropriate and amusing -- qv, Carol Burnett). There's a CD "sampler" of Max Steiner's score, running a measly 45 minutes. Given that Max took excessive scoring to the max (Bette Davis had some pointedly unkind things to say about it), a "sampler" could have filled two CDs, and still not have exhausted the music (though the music might exhaust you). *
As with "OZ", there's a 52-page hard-backed book that's largely content-free, plus reproductions of some of the watercolor set-design paintings (in their own little envelope), and various memoranda sent to and from David O. Selznick. I was expecting a reproduction of Gerald O'Hara's pocket watch, but it likely would have been of even poorer quality than the kiddie watch in the "OZ" box.
The best bonus is a reproduction of the 25-cent (expensive in 1939) souvenir booklet. It includes pieces by the principals, notably one from Clark Gable telling how badly he wanted to play Rhett Butler and much he enjoyed every minute of making the film. (He didn't want to appear in "costume" films (having had bad luck in a film about Irish revolutionaries), was afraid to take on a role the public had such definite ideas about, and got along poorly with the first director, George Cukor.)
As I write this, I haven't viewed all the supplemental material on the second disk. (There's a lot.) The third disk duplicates the "When the Lion Roars" feature included in the "OZ" box -- though the package labeling suggests it's unique to GWTW.
GWTW was always unsharp and muddy-looking -- until the Ultra Resolution transfer of the original three-strip negatives a few years ago. It was a major improvement, and the DVDs showed the film as it had never been seen.
This edition apparently uses a new Ultra Resolution transfer, at twice the resolution (8k versus 4k) of the previous. Some scenes -- such as Ashley escorting Melanie to the balcony of Twin Oaks -- are breathtaking, far superior to what the DVD offered (and /that/ wasn't exactly chopped liver). The best Technicolor films, properly transferred, push HD to its limit.
What most surprised me, though, was the awareness of how the film's color balance is adjusted to produce specific effects. Many scenes have an appropriately warm, "burnished" coloration that /does not/ carry over to the scene's subtle colors. For example, at the fund-raising bazaar, there's a bottle of pastel-colored candies (which you'll probably never notice in the SD edition) that retain their correct colors, "unromantized" by the rest of the image's warmth. Similarly, in the scene outside the hospital where Belle Watling makes a donation, her costume is vividly colored (there's no question about her profession!), even though everything else is drab.
Several sequences are outstanding, particularly the one where Scarlett returns to Aunt Pittypat's home to tend to Melanie. It's a model of Technicolor photography, one that any cinematographer would be proud of -- as good as anything being done today. In earlier transfers of poorer prints, this sequence is flat and two-dimensional. You can't see how magnificently lit and photographed it is.
At its best, the Technicolor resembles large-format, ultra-sharp Polacolor. That's a compliment! If you're fortunate enough to have a large display, you'll gasp at some of the images.
One of the most-startling moments occurs when Scarlett goes to the train station to look for Dr Meade, one of the most-famous scenes in movie history. Hundreds, if not thousands of injured men lie on the ground, waiting for medical attention that will likely never come. There weren't enough extras, so dummies were used. And for the first time, you can actually /see/ which of the "extras" are dummies! You can probably tell better than the camera operator!
In short... The BD edition is a major improvement over the excellent DVD edition. It gives the impression that the movie makers were able to manipulate Technicolor to get specific aesthetic effects. ** And it shows just how /beautifully photographed/ this film is, something even the original Technicolor prints never fully revealed. The DVD probably captured most of this (I no longer have it for comparison), but you'll never see it in standard definition on a "small" screen. Looking at excerpts in the supplmentary material /not/ taken from the Ultra Resolution transfer is a reminder of just how "messy"-looking the original GWTW was. It no longer is. I've never enjoyed watching it so much.
It's becoming apparent that an HD transfer, shown on a big display, is not the best way to watch a movie at home, but the best way to watch a movie, period.
The sound is so-so, of limited range and not particularly clean. (Disney does a much better job cleaning up the audio of its classic films.) The reviewer who said it filled the room as well as any modern soundtrack most own Bose 901s. It would sound better in a theater, with big horn speakers that started rolling off above 5kHz. If GWTW was recorded in RCA multi-track, the stems don't appear to have survived. (Those for "OZ" exist and have been used, though not, apparently in the Blu-ray.) Music and dialog are mono throughout, but individual sound effects (particulary explosions) are panned to the side or rear when appropriate. The music sometimes seems too loud for the dialog, and the overall level is by far the lowest of any Blu-ray I've yet auditioned. I had to really crank up the volume, far, far beyond 11.
This is an expensive set, but it represents such a significant improvement over the last DVD edition (as good as it was) that it's worth seriously considering. Even if your BD player has a good scaler, the DVD won't look anywhere nearly this good on your HD monitor. Highly recommended.
PS: Just because a film is a classic doesn't mean it's suitable for everyone in your family. The G rating is ridiculous. GWTW is at least PG, containing, as it does, women of questionable virtue, a fair amount of violence (including a scene in which Scarlett is attacked, and another in which she shoots a Yankee, practically blowing off his face), and Rhett dragging Scarlett up the stairs to "molest" her. The MPAA ratings board is nothing if not inconsistent.
PPS: Though Vivian Leigh and Hattie McDaniel received Oscars, I consider Butterfly McQueen's performance as Prissy the best in the film. Though she hated the role (it's too easy to interpret Prissy as representing slaves in general, rather than one in particular), she showed great courage in taking it, and delivers a finely nuanced performance.
* Max Steiner wrote the first great film score for a talky - "King Kong". It epitomizes his style -- "Mickey-Mousing" almost every screen action, and the heavy use of Leitmotivs for characters and events. (Note how Melanie's motive appears every time she does, and how Rhett's is played -- breaking the scene's mood -- when he leaves Scarlett for the last time.) He was also the first sound-film composer to underscore almost the entire length of a film -- this is not a recent development. It's worth noting that GWTW, despite some memorable music, did not win "Best Score" for 1939 -- Herbert Stothart's for "Wizard of OZ" did. I find it considerably more imaginative and appealing.
** The Technicolor print uses dye transfer, in which each color is layed down separately from its own gelatin matrix. This allows a great deal of flexibility in controlling the contrast and color balance -- if you're willing to put out the time and money. According to the supplementary material, the color balance /was/ adjusted on scene-by-scene basis for GWTW, just as it is for modern films - that's what the "color timer" person does. A high-quality print from 1939 was found, and guided the restorers in adjusting color balance.
Blu-ray 70th Anniversary Limited Edition Shines Bright! (11/17/09) November 17, 2009
Michael C. Smith (San Francisco, CA United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
What is there to say about "Gone With The Wind" that has not been said. So I will concentrate on this 70th Anniversary Limited Edition.
David O. Selznick would be beaming with pride at this incredible presentation in blu-ray, Gorgeous, lush and Deluxe all the way with a beautiful picture so incredibly fresh and new. The sound is magnificent and fills the room with depth and breadth of a modern film.
The extras are a huge treat to any fan of the film. The magnificent "M.G.M. When the Lion Roared" documentary is superlative, as is the "1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year". There are hours and hours of enjoyment for any fan of the movies of a long gone era.
What a treat too to discover the old T.V. film, "Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War." In my estimation one of the few great films about the history of Hollywood ever made.
Note that only the film is Blue Ray and all the extras are regular DVD resolution, but no problem there for me. I am just thrilled to have this in my collection. AND it was a birthday present to boot so I am doubly surprised and thrilled by this incredible gift (in more ways than one)
Showing reviews 1-5 of 750
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