Gone with the Wind (1939)

Gone With the Wind (1939) follows the life of Scarlett O’Hara, a young woman living on Tara Plantation in Georgia during the Civil War and Reconstruction. It was directed by Victor Fleming, and based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel of the same name, published in 1936. The film was released during Jim Crow segregation in the South and just a few years before World War II. It quickly became very popular, and won eight out of the thirteen Academy Awards it was nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Interior Decoration, and Best Editing.

The Civil War had a devastating impact on the South, with 1864 proving the most deadly year for Georgia. Union General William Sherman captured the cities of Atlanta and Savannah in quick succession and left a path of destruction in his wake. As the war ended and the South moved into the period known as Reconstruction, plantation owners found that much of the infrastructure upon which they had previously relied, such as railways necessary to carry goods to market, had been destroyed by Union troops. The damages, together with the abolition of slavery, left the South profoundly changed and left white southerners struggling to rebuild and refashion a regional identity in the post-bellum world. American audiences in the midst of the Great Depression found the story of Scarlett’s efforts to stave off hunger incredibly compelling.

The filmmakers depicted Scarlett O’Hara as a young, vivacious woman trying to maintain her life and economic and social standing while the Civil War is taking place around her. The story focuses around her life and love interests with the decline of the American South as a backdrop. Gone With the Wind romanticizes the antebellum South with sweeping scenes of Tara Plantation, wealthy women and men attending fancy balls in stylish clothing, and docile enslaved people. After the war, the movie shows a changed but strong Scarlett, defending her land.

Though the United Daughters of the Confederacy had originally objected to the choice of British actress, Vivien Leigh, for the role of Scarlett, the film faced few critiques from contemporary white audiences. African Americans, however, critiqued the film while in production, urging its producer, David O. Selznick, to avoid author Margaret Mitchell’s use of the word “nigger” and other racist representations. Selznick agreed that he wanted his film to portray African Americans in a respectable light and accordingly substituted the word “darkie,” but the film retained Mitchell’s stereotypical portrayals of African Americans as reflected in the characters of Mamie and Prissy.