Gone with the Wind: The Screenplay by Sidney Howard

Gone with the Wind: The Screenplay Reviews

• 
  James-clifton

  Eek. If Hollywood had decided to stick with Sidney Howard's original screenplay for Gone with the Wind and had filmed it in its entirely, moviegoers would have had to pack an overnight bag, a sleeping bag and call in sick to work just to sit through it.
  
  Not to say that it wouldn't have made a fine movie, but as Scarlett O'Hara's father would have said, "God's Nightgown! This movie is lasting longer than the War itself!"
  
  Still, this is an interesting book, if for no other reason than seeing what was originally submitted --- Howard's screenplay, which was edited from the work of several writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, is fascinating not only because it truly, truly tried to be faithful to Margaret Mitchell's book, which more likely would have made a better TV miniseries, if such things had existed back in 1939. But for people who can recite the final product from memory, it's also an example of how an impossibly long script can be pared down to a reasonable length for filming. You have to ruthlessly cut characters (Scarlett's first two children, for example, and her parents' backstory) and condense expositional dialogue into title cards.
  
  Recommended for aspiring screenwriters and hardcore fans of the film.
• 
  tinkerbell *ೃ༄

  ~~~~~~~~~~~
  ౨ৎ I was scanning my bookshelf the other night trying to decide what to read, & this book jumped out. I like to read cozy things at night, & this is definitely cozy. I have all the lines memorized and could picture the film and hear all the actors’ voices while reading. So it was pretty much like watching the movie.
  
  This is the screenplay of my favorite novel. I’ve only ever read one other screenplay:
  The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film. xx It was the same experience. Like watching the movie all over again, & getting the inside scoop from the director. I’m one who LOVES watching the director’s commentary on a favorite film. I’ve just finished reading
  Cold Mountain and now have a pull to rewatch the movie with the director’s commentary on. :)
  
  When I was reading this screenplay, I was thinking about how crazy it is that they fit a novel as long as Margaret Mitchell’s
  Gone With the Wind into four hours. Some scenes, which take up PAGES in the novel, go by in just a couple lines in the screenplay. They really had to condense some tension to fit it into four hours screen time. For example, the giant conversation that ends the novel? Eight pages in the screenplay. The result is that they tended to select scenes that highlighted the key actors (Clark Gable & Vivien Leigh), & left off a lot of the deeper writing — the subtext and certainly the exquisite prose from the novel. The focus in the film is more melodramatic and hurried than the novel. Rhett’s scenes in the film are more frequent, and I’d say more powerful, than they are in the novel. Whole sections go by in the book without a mention of him; in the film he seems to be a co-star rather than one of many forces effecting Scarlett’s life. Also, two of Scarlett’s children are missing, & so is Dilcey.
  
  IT MADE ME FEEL LIKE I WAS SPYING ON SELZNICK (the producer of Gone with the Wind the film). I LOVE READING DIRECTOR’S NOTES: how to stand, how to feel. He offers very few. Usually, he sprinkles Margaret Mitchell’s actual prose from the novel throughout the screenplay. For example, when he wants the actors to understand the mood within a certain scene, he pastes Mitchell’s prose directly into the script & lets her describe it, sometimes in whole paragraphs. One can see that he admired Mitchell’s novel & didn’t want to intrude on her vision with his own. His aim was to reproduce rather than to create. I have heard he tried to do the same when he filmed David Copperfield, & was pretty well-known for making an enormous novel somehow fit accurately into a much shorter film. My, I’d have loved to be on set as he decided what to keep & what to cut! I don’t think I’d have been at all annoyed by all his scene changes, though having to memorize new lines after spending the night on a scene he ultimately cut would be rather maddening. But it would be thrilling to watch his process! I think it’s interesting to consider how one takes prose and makes it visual. His choice of film score, for example — what perfection! Max Steiner, the film’s composer, somehow captured Mitchell’s prose BEAUTIFULLY in music.
  
  I’ve read a lot of Mitchell’s responses to Selznick’s letters throughout the filming of Gone with the Wind. He clearly sought her advice during filming (which she almost always refused, preferring to have her name associated with her novel rather than his film. He also tried to give her his Oscar, which she also refused.) It’s clear he admired her work and thought it best to involve her wherever possible to render her novel authentically on film. Still, he added his own magic to the film version, which I think Mitchell rightfully declared his own work. For example, he added the “frankly” to the final “My dear, I don’t give a damn.” Somehow, that one word adds just the right punch. He also came up with the final scene, when Scarlett is remembering the men in her life telling her to go home to Tara. I think it works well in the film.
  
  THERE ARE DELETED SCENES IN THE SCREENPLAY. It is clearly very much a work in progress even as I’m reading it. Selznick apparently updated the script so often people couldn’t keep up. The earliest version was written by Sidney Howard, but he died in a farming accident before the script could be finalized. The final version was written over five days when Victor Fleming took over the directing (having just finished The Wizard of Oz). He found the script madness & refused to go forward until it was finalized. Apparently Selznick, Fleming, and writer Ben Hecht locked themselves in a room until it was finished. Hecht had no knowledge of the story, & couldn’t make sense of the current script, so Selznick and Fleming acted it out for him: Selznick played Scarlett and Ashley, and Fleming played Rhett and Melanie while Hecht typed! {PS: I read a play about the finalizing of the GWTW script a couple years ago, called
  Moonlight and Magnolias - Acting Edition.} On the fifth day, Fleming popped a blood vessel in his eye, and Selznick collapsed in what the introduction of this book calls a twelve-hour coma. BUT THEY HAD FINALLY PRODUCED WHAT WE KNOW OF TODAY AS GONE WITH THE WIND the film version. I assume the version I read is the fairly final copy, but I still saw bits of scenes he must have decided to cut in the final version.
• 
  Angelina

  Is it silly that I read a screenplay I had memorized? Still, a must-have.
• 
  Robert LoBiondo

  
  
  I am such a fan of the film and book and used to have this book.
  
  It's a combo of various screenplays, chiefly the great Sidney Howard's; not every filmed scene is in here but it's still a fascinating thing to read.
• 
  Michelle Llewellyn

  Oh joy! When I discovered my small-town library collection included a copy of this script after reading everything else about my favorite movie I could get my hands on yes, that was a good day for me.
• 
  Scott Fuchs

  Fascinating. Includes scenes cut from original script/film.
  Some terrific 'on the set' pictures.
  And some of the on screen text of various sections is sooooo wonderful
• 
  Susan

  Though the screenplay leaves out of much from the book, this is still a good adaptation.