Woahmygod.
Most. Epic. Book/Movie Experience. EVER.
I cannot think of a better book that has been turned into a better movie. Gone With The Wind is simply amazing and epic. There are no other words for it. I had started reading GWTW during the school year until I realized that I would not get any studying done while trying to finish it, so I put it on my summer shelf until this weekend when I brought the book along with me up north. I was only about 100-150 pages in (it’s 959-1054 pages, depending on if you read the hard cover or paperback) and in two days, I was done and renting the movie on dvd.
The movie adaption is possibly one of the best “movie-based-on-a-book” movies out there. Even when I was reading the book I had no trouble whatsoever picturing Clark Gable as Rhett Butler (who I am now in love with, Gable too).I could relate to Scarlett O’Hara in some of her ways, such as the “I’ll think about that later” way of thinking. And Ashley. Ugh, Ashley. Yes, he’s charming and attractive but he just cannot compare to Rhett and I started getting really sick of Ashley. I probably shouldn’t say anymore on the Ashley-Rhett plotline since I don’t want to ruin the book/movie.
While the movie is amazing and is a classic, the book needs to be read before seeing the movie since it is also fantastic. There are many things that are in the book that are not in the movie, seeing as they couldn’t write a 900+ page screenplay, even though the movie is four hours long. Maybe it’s just me but the movie did not seem terribly long to me. Maybe that’s because I knew what would happen, from reading the book, or maybe it’s because I was just enjoying it so much that I didn’t realize how much time had actually passed.
I just wish that Gone With The Wind was available on dvd right now. It’s only available through Ebay and Amazon’s “Used and New” sellers because there is a GWTW Special 70th Anniversary (1939) Collector’s Edition coming out on December 1st (just in time for the holiday season) and apparently they’ve taken the old Special Collector’s Edition out of stores until the new one comes out in 5 months. I will, of course, be buying it and until then- who knows? Maybe I will get one from an Amazon seller although I do have my recorded version from Turner Classic Movies on my DVR, but it’s such a great movie that who knows, I might just have to have two copies….
And a little old movie trivia (and I know this because I read the book as well as saw the movie and I happen to love TCM): The line “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” appears in the book as “My dear, I don’t give a damn”, Clark Gable added on the “Frankly” and created a line that is No.1 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes list. Oh Clark and Rhett…
A bientot.
