12th Academy Awards · 1940
Gone with the Wind
Directed byCooked up by Victor Fleming
“The greatest romance of all time!”
“Scarlett said 'tomorrow is another day' and fumbled again 💀”
The storyThe lore 📖
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
Scarlett O'Hara is a spoiled, self-centered Georgia rich girl who spends YEARS delulu over Ashley, who is married to someone else 💀. When the Civil War wrecks her world, she gets ruthless about surviving, scheming and steamrolling everyone, even marrying her sister's fiancé for his money. Rhett Butler sees right through her, but she keeps fumbling. Also, the movie's old-school view of the South has not aged well.
What critics & audiences sayThe receipts 🧾
Tomatometer
90%
Fresh
#57 of 98 winnersFamous linesLines living rent free
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
After all...tomorrow...is another day!
As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!
Scarlett: Sir, you are no gentleman!
Rhett: And you, miss, are no lady.
No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how.
Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war; this war talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring.
Why, land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts.
I believe in Rhett Butler. He's the only cause I know.
With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.
All we've got is cotton, and slaves and...arrogance.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Filming locationsWhere they shot it 📍
-
Selznick backlot ("the back forty")
Culver City, California
Most filming happened here: Tara was just a plywood facade, and old sets were dressed and blown up for the burning of Atlanta.
-
Los Angeles County
California
Most of the film's location scenes, as opposed to backlot work, were photographed in Los Angeles County.
-
Ventura County
California
Neighboring Ventura County supplied the remainder of the film's California location photography.
Fun factsFacts that go hard 🤓
- The burning of Atlanta was staged by building new façades in front of old abandoned sets on the Selznick backlot, with David O. Selznick himself operating the explosives. That same night, he met Vivien Leigh for the first time.Wikipedia · Filming
- Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Academy Award, yet she was segregated at the ceremony, made to sit with her escort at a separate table at the back of the room.Wikipedia · Academy Awards
- Ben Hecht was woken at dawn by David O. Selznick and Victor Fleming to rewrite the script without having read the novel. They worked 18–20 hours a day for seven days, and Selznick banned lunch, providing only bananas and salted peanuts.Wikipedia · Screenplay
- Selznick's nationwide search for Scarlett interviewed 1,400 unknowns and cost $100,000. It failed to find a star but created 'priceless' publicity. Paulette Goddard almost won the role until controversy over her marriage to Charlie Chaplin changed Selznick's mind.Wikipedia · Casting
- Hattie McDaniel and the other black cast members were barred from the Atlanta premiere by Georgia's Jim Crow laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott, but McDaniel persuaded him to attend.Wikipedia · Preview, premiere, and initial release
- When George Cukor was fired after less than three weeks of shooting, Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland marched into Selznick's office in full costume to beg him to change his mind. Cukor kept coaching them privately anyway.Wikipedia · Filming
- Contrary to legend, the Hays Office never fined Selznick $5,000 for Rhett's 'damn'. Instead, the Production Code was amended on November 1, 1939, to allow such words in proper historical or literary context.Wikipedia · Filming
- In early 1942, Japanese military officers in Tokyo watched Gone with the Wind and Snow White, both obtained after Singapore fell. The films' quality reportedly caused despair, with viewers questioning how Japan could defeat a nation capable of such cinematic achievements.Wikipedia · Audience response
- Adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind remains the highest-grossing film in history. Guinness World Records put its adjusted gross at $3.44 billion in 2014, and it has sold an estimated 200 million-plus tickets in the US and Canada.Wikipedia · Audience response
- Screenwriter Sidney Howard died in a farm-tractor accident before the premiere and became the first posthumous Oscar winner.Wikipedia · Academy Awards