第十二届奥斯卡最佳影片（1940） Gone With The Wind 乱世佳人

第十二届奥斯卡最佳影片（1940）
片名：Gone With The Wind
中文：乱世佳人
出品：美国米高梅影片公司、美国塞茨尼克影片公司
年份：1939
导演：维克托·弗莱明
制片：戴维．塞尔兹尼克
男主角：克拉克·盖博
女主角：费雯·丽
主演：奥利维亚·德·哈维尔兰德 、芭芭拉·奥尼尔 、伊夫林·凯斯 、莱斯利·霍华德 、海蒂·麦克丹尼尔 剧 情 简 介：
这部传世经典影片讲述的是在美国南北战争期间郝思嘉与白瑞德之间的爱情故事。郝思嘉美丽而富有活力。她想得到阿什利，但阿什利却要和他纯洁的表妹梅兰尼结婚。在十二橡树将要举行大型舞会，很多年轻人都要参加，保姆警告郝思嘉在舞会上要举止得体。舞会这一天恰好南北战争爆发，舞会上出现了一个新面孔——白瑞德。后来两个人历经磨难，郝思嘉一直不承认自己对白瑞德的感情，直到南北战争结束后，白瑞德最终离开她时，她才意识到自己内心深处其实是爱白瑞德的。本片的宏大场面和豪华气派可谓是开一时之先，而克拉克．盖博和费雯．丽的精彩演出也早已成为影史经典 。

GONE WITH THE WIND is without doubt a great, great film. It has probably been seen by more people than any other film in history. I saw it for the first time in a theater in 1968, when, on its re-release, it was playing to capacity houses.

I saw it again on its re-release in 1971 and again in 1976. In both instances it was again playing to full theaters. When the movie was released in 1939, the average movie ticket was probably around fifty cents. Today, if the average price for a movie ticket is nine dollars, it is easy to calculate that GONE WITH THE WIND is the most fiscally successful film in history, and the reason for this can only be because it is one of the most beloved.

And with good reason. This is a magnificent cinematic achievement, whether by the standards of 1939 or of any other year. I would take it any day over the computer-generated nonsense being churned out today.

It is probably the most written-about movie ever, with the exception of CITIZEN KANE, so there isn't much to add to it except a few personal observations:

1. Watching the film again recently, it seemed that every single scene was perfectly written, directed and acted. There isn't a moment I would like to see discarded.

2. Many people think that the sexiest moment in movie history comes when Scarlett is shown the morning after she's been taken forcibly up the stairs to the bedroom of her husband, Rhett Butler.

3. The character of Scarlett is the most memorable heroine in film history and quite likely the greatest feminine role ever adapted for the screen from a novel. Vivien Leigh's performance is no less than spectacular. It was Miss Leigh's great fortune to have played not only Scarlett but A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE's Blanche DuBois, who is arguably the greatest role ever written for a stage play.

4. The character of Rhett Butler was probably written with Clark Gable in mind, and he brings a stalwart virility to the role which is exactly what is needed. But does it matter whether Gable or Gary Cooper (who was certainly considered) or anyone else played Rhett? Anyone who played him would certainly have been deemed the definitive Rhett.

5. Olivia de Havilland's Melanie tends to remain a stereotype of a too-good-to-be-true counterpart to Scarlett, although there are a handful of scenes when she breaks away from the mold and shows true mental and moral fortitude. In the scene where Scarlett shoots the Yankee deserter on the staircase at Tara, Melanie, appearing from above with a sword almost too heavy for her to lift, quickly assesses the situation and shouts to the family that Scarlett had just been tinkering with the gun when it went off. Later, she covers for Rhett in the scene where be brings the wounded Ashley home from the raid on Shantytown, pretending that Ashley had been with him all evening at Belle Watling's. Her best moment comes when she approaches Scarlett at Ashley's birthday party after rumors of an affair have been circulating; her face is eloquently neutral, as though she were ready for all-out warfare, and we wait for the worm to turn. It doesn't. Instead, she embraces Scarlett and asks her to help her receive her guests. She never sees the bad in anybody. She is a true lady.

6. The early scenes in the movie are relatively light and frothy as the principals emerge and the atmosphere is established. The first change of tone comes from the reading of the Gettysburg death list--and it's a shocker. From a shot of the hushed crowd waiting outside the newspaper office, the camera zooms to a list of the names of those killed in action as cries of horror penetrate the soundtrack. We see Scarlett and Melanie breathlessly scanning the list in fear that Ashley's name may be among the casualties, and then there is a shot to the mournful crowd and finally to the pitiful band who defiantly strike up "Dixie" as tears flow down their anguished faces.

7. The atmosphere is convincing throughout, as in the scene with Melanie in labor and Scarlett conversing inconsequentially to drown out the thoughts that the Yankees are approaching. The movie puts you right there with those women in that horrible bedroom, and you can almost feel the heat of the surroundings.

8. The final scene with Scarlett on the staircase is almost Shakespearean, with an ambiguous suggestion of uplift. Scarlett has found consolation, and she is too strong not to triumph. The end of the movie presents a valid speculation as to what endures and what is really meaningful in life.

9. In 1946 the producer David Selznick released DUEL IN THE SUN, which he unabashedly modeled on GONE WITH THE WIND and billed as "the movie with a thousand memorable moments." (It had one or two, courtesy of Jennifer Jones' flamboyant performance.) GONE WITH THE WIND could have been billed that way and it wouldn't have been an overstatement.

10. GONE WITH THE WIND, made in 1939, is one of film's strongest reverberations to Scarlett's contemplation as to what endures and what is really meaningful in movies.