Gone with the Wind Film: Key Facts

Full title Gone With the Wind

Director Victor Fleming

Leading Actors/Actresses Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland

Supporting Actors/Actresses Hattie McDaniel, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O’Neil, Ona Munson, Butterfly McQueen, Alicia Rhett, Evelyn Keyes, Carroll Nye

Type of work Feature film

Genre Drama; war; romance

Language English

Time and place produced 1936–1939; California

Awards 1939 Academy Awards:Winner, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Vivien Leigh)Winner, Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Hattie McDaniel)Winner, Best Art Direction (Lyle R. Wheeler)Winner, Best Cinematography, Color (Ernest Haller, Ray Rennahan)Winner, Best Director (Victor Fleming)Winner, Best Film Editing (Hal C. Kern, James E. Newcom)Winner, Best Picture (David O. Selznick)Winner, Best Writing, Screenplay (Sidney Howard)—first posthumously awarded Academy AwardWinner, Technical Achievement Award (Don Musgrave)An honorary award for outstanding achievement in the use of color to enhance dramatic mood (William Cameron Menzies)

Date of release December 15, 1939

Producer David O. Selznick

Setting (time) The Civil War and first part of the Reconstruction Era

Setting (place) Atlanta, Georgia and the surrounding countryside; one scene in New Orleans and one in London

Protagonist Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara

Major conflict Scarlett struggles to survive and prosper during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

Rising action Part One: Scarlett sees the man she loves married to another woman and escapes to Atlanta, where she is forced to confront the horrors of the rising tide of the Civil War.

Climax Part One: Scarlett finally makes it back home to Tara only to find her mother dead, her father sliding into madness, and her beloved plantation a looted shell.

Falling action Part One: After seeing the full extent of the destruction, Scarlett swears she will do whatever she has to in order to never go hungry again.

Themes The permanence of the land; the real cost of war; self-reliance as the key to success; personal strength can lead to loss

Motifs Dreams; obsession; drastically changing circumstances

Symbols Tara; Rhett’s gun; Scarlett’s hats

Foreshadowing In Gerald O’Hara’s first scene the audience learns that Gerald has long been chided for the recklessness of his jumps. Later, it is one of these jumps that finally ends his life.