Gone with the Wind | Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil | Never in my life have I known you to have...

Gone with the Wind | Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil | Every view is a pleasure

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Gone with the Wind

	Gone with the Wind Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil MGM (Video & DVD), 1998 average customer review:based on 713 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Never in my life have I known you to have a handkerchief.

Nothing more can be said about this film, the most successful independent film of all time, and this DVD release is eye-popping to behold. But the 5.1 mix has flopped channels and I'm astounded that no one else has mentioned it here. Do most people, who claim to be movie-lovers, just plop the discs in the player and sit there stuffing their faces and yelling at the kids while the movie flickers helplessly across their televisions, without noticing that the left/right channels are flopped? First example: the little boys swinging the bell at the beginning - the bell swings to the left, the ring is to the right, and vice versa. Scarlett's flung vase shatters on the right, when she throws it to screen left.

This is not a problem with my set-up; all other films I pump through the speakers are perfect. I've even tried it on the earphones and it's awful. It would be nice to switch over to the original mono mix, mostly because I'm a purist and it's a better mix anyway, but that apparently was just slapped onto the DVD set without any sweetening and is so grating to the ears as to be painful.

There. My one complaint in this review is not about the film, but about the DVD release. I have no complaints about the film; accusations of racism are justified, but pointless. It was 1939. Get over it. And anyone with any historical intelligence can sit there, watch the film, and see that the South, the white South, is portrayed as a bunch of yammering, racist, ignorant small-town fools who deserved to lose everything. Rhett says this over and over again and Scarlett herself comes to realize it. So the film has many layers - romance for the Old South, realization that it was a very, very bad idea. By the end, it isn't about war or slavery, it's about two people who loved each other so much, it hurt them.

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Every view is a pleasure

Every viewing of this treasure brings new insights and appreciation of the production of this movie. The extras helped me see the familiar characters in a brighter light. The tinny sound of past releases that I have seen is gone and in its place is a fuller more pleasant aural experience.

I am not going to say it

Since this is one of the all time great movies, most tickets sold, a gazillion amazon reviews, etc., I will not say what the Amazon reviewer said about the first half being excellent and the second half somewhat drags. I will not say it since it has already been said. Too bad the condensed book division of Reader's Digest did not put out a 3 hour version of this movie. I had to wait nearly four hours to hear Clarke Gable utter his famous line, "Frankly my dear, I did not build that dam."

I did enjoy the movie, especially the first two hours. I did make it thru the flik, less about a 20 minute nap during part two (just like what happens to me each time I attempt Dr. Zhivago).

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