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Reviews
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Greatest Film of its Time, and All Time
I believe that when one views a film, one should consider the context in which it was made.
Barely 10 years after talking pictures were first created; less than that after the first full-length color feature film was created; near the end of the greatest depression this country ever experienced, and in which pretty much the only entertainment available to most was radio or the movies; David O Selznik decided to turn the biggest pot-boiler blockbuster novel into a movie.
And what a movie. Stunning color, the most popular mail actor of his time, perfect music score, incredible action scenes, story line only 70 years removed from when it happened, and on, and on. Can you imagine what a store-clerk or a farmer, or a teacher experienced in that world, seeing Gone With the Wind? What was there to compare with? 1939 was a watershed year for great movies, and this one was the greatest produced. Try watching this movie as if there were no TV, no DVD's, only a few radio stations, spending maybe the second to the last quarter you owned, never having seen such a movie before, and you get what I mean. Masterful for its time, and still timeless today.
The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (1944)
The Best Shakespeare Film
This is the best of any of Shakespeare's works rendered on film. Olivier deftly weaves the play, which begins as a stage production, played at the Globe Theatre with nervous actors, miscues, an audience, food vendors, a rain storm, and all that probably accompanied any Shakespeare play when it was contemporary, into a dramatic film.
The play literally turns to "real life", as the actors and locales change before our eyes into the photo-play. All that is technique, but good as it is, the "play's the thing" as Shakepear's work comes to life before our eyes. Great production values. Great story line (thanks to W.S.). Great presentation all-around.
This 1944 version is far superior to the mud and gore version produced later in the late 1980's.