Matinee Monday: Gone with the Wind (1939)

Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel star in this classic epic of the American South.

On the eve of the American Civil War, rich, beautiful and self-centered Scarlett O'Hara (Leigh) has everything she could want--except Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard). But as the war devastates the South, Scarlett discovers the strength within herself to protect her family and rebuild her life. Through everything, she longs for Ashley, unaware that she is already married to the man she really loves (Gable)--and who truly loves her--until she finally drives him away. Only then does Scarlett realize what she has lost and decides to try to win him back.

Considered one of the greatest classic American movies, Gone With The Wind won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, Hattie McDaniel, the first Oscar awarded to an African-American actor, but Hattie was racially segregated from her co-stars at the awards ceremony at the Coconut Grove; she and her escort were made to sit at a separate table at the back of the room.

The film has been criticized as historical negationism, glorifying slavery and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy myth, but it has been credited with triggering changes in the way in which African Americans were depicted cinematically. 

Intermission half way through.