Gone with the Wind (1939) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Drama | None | |
Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1939 | ||
Running Time | 223:40 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | FLIPPER (103:45) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Victor Fleming |
Studio
Distributor |
Selznick Intrnationl Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Clark Gable Vivien Leigh Leslie Howard Olivia De Havilland |
Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
RPI | $36.95 | Music | Max Steiner |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.37:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English French Italian Spanish German Romanian Bulgarian Italian for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
The film opens with a 2:25 minute Overture and then launches immediately into the opening credits. I can tell you that the moment the famous name began scrolling across the screen accompanied by one of the great musical film scores of all time I felt truly excited. The next 4 hours or so slipped by as easily as if I was watching any other 90 minute film and the majesty of the story, the characters and the emotions carried me along until the final scene.
It would seem to be more than a little silly to set out the plot of such a film here. For a start, it is not a simple story line and, given its length, I could be here forever. Moreover, it is a story that should be seen to be properly enjoyed. Suffice it to say that this is the film of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel (in fact the first novel!) of Margaret Mitchell written during the 1920s. The core strand of the story involves the love affairs of the beautiful southern belle Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh, selected after the single largest casting assignment in history) before, during and after the Civil War. Of course the climax to those affairs involves Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a popular scoundrel with more genuine honour than he might care to generally admit. The entire cast is magnificent (I won't single any of them out here), and it is the characters, their complex personalities and their relationships that make the film what it is. This is ably borne by the remarkable plot which never wavers from its path. Perhaps it is all a big soap opera, but if so then it's in a league all of its very own.
The film really gives us a huge amount to absorb. On one level, it's an image of the glory days of "the Old South" before the American Civil War, and the aftermath of that war. On another it's an analysis of human character, but seemingly without generalization or caricature. The more obvious themes are on the subjects of love - unconditional, selfish, jealous - honour, duty and avarice. But since these are real people their emotions are rarely pure; we are also presented with the real world complications of doubt, temptation and failure. There are even parallels between Scarlett's behaviour and that of Goethe's Faust, to the extent that she virtually sells her soul for the riches she craves.
I don't want to wear out the word in this review but, simply put, the transfer is magnificent. Stunning. I literally pushed myself forward in my chair to get closer to the screen because, frankly, I didn't think the picture I was seeing was possible. If only films a tenth of the age of this always looked so good. I understand that the transfer was taken from the recently restored version of the film. We can be thankful that the effort that went into that work can now be preserved forever.
The transfer essentially maintains the film's original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, being presented in Full Frame. Of course it is not 16x9 enhanced.
If there is one aspect of the transfer that suggests the film is not modern, it's the occasional slight softness of the imagery, especially some of Scarlett's early scenes. The film never attains the razor sharp clarity of new films but I, for one, have no complaints on this score. I'm sure we are seeing everything exactly as it was created. Shadow detail is superb, again not quite as good as the best of recent films, but still very good and a great deal better than we have any right to expect. There was never any low level noise.
The colours on show are absolutely superb and are probably the strongest suit of the transfer. This is nigh on a perfect replication of Technicolor films of that vintage, with bright and fully saturated colours. There is never any colour bleeding or other faults discernible. Facial tones radiate real warmth and beauty. External scenes, especially early on before the start of the war, are lush with marvellous contrast between greens and blues, and some of the sunset scenes are just magical. Costuming is a real high point and is almost on a par with the quality on display in My Fair Lady.
During the entire 4 hours of the film I picked up only a single MPEG artefact, involving some posterization of a dark background at 14:28. There was no aliasing to be seen and no nasty edge enhancement - it simply wasn't necessary. A single, very stark case of a film artefact, comprising a persistent black vertical line through the entire picture lasted several seconds at 3:39, but it was quickly forgotten. I also noted several places where there was a certain "judder" in the picture (e.g. at 2:35), almost as if the odd frame had been omitted. I have no idea what the cause of this was or whether it was an original or modern fault. Otherwise the picture is just pristine.
The disc is a flipper. However in this case it is almost a welcome re-creation the original cinematic experience, since the break comes at the end of the Intermission at 103:45 and you are therefore forced to get up out of your seat as you would have done 60 years ago. At this point, the sumptuous beauty of the Old South has been destroyed and the War has come to an end. There is a necessity for you to pause to consider what has occurred up to this critical turning point and prepare for the remainder of the film.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
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Overall |
Dialogue is clear, except for some of Prissy's lines that I find are delivered in an unnaturally squeaky voice and are at times a little indistinct. Audio sync is never a problem.
I've already made some mention of the wonderful music. I would imagine writing a musical score for a 4 hour long film, especially this film, must have been like writing a small opera. The recording is obviously a reflection of the technology available at the time so we are never given hi-fi quality. I don't find this alters the enjoyment of the music in any way.
The remastered surround channels were not aggressively used to place any action, but they did enough to create a certain sense of atmosphere and lifted the sound out of a simple 2 dimensional soundstage. At most this assisted in localizing some of the sounds of cannon-fire. The low frequency effects channel was very satisfying in adding some depth to the musical score and was obvious in cannon and other explosive sounds.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Toshiba SD-K310, using S-Video output |
Display | Pioneer SD-T43W1 (125cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Pioneer VSX-D906S |
Speakers | Richter Wizard (front), Jamo SAT150 (rear), Yamaha YST-SW120 (subwoofer) |