Gone With The Wind

1.  While discussing Gone With The Wind, we learned that this film was actually based off of a novel written by Margret Mitchell. She wrote this novel in 1936 and it took her over 10 years to write. This was her only novel and she passed away in 1949 because she was struck by a speeding car. The leading characters were Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh playing Rhett Butler and Scarlet O'Hara. Vivian Leigh won an award for Best Actress and Clark Gable was nominated for Best Actor but unfortunately lost. Hattie McDaniel won an award for Best Supporting Actress and is also the first black woman to win an Oscar for her inspiring and loving role as Mammy. This was one of the longest films being 3 hours and 44 mins until 1939, and was also one of the first films shot in technicolor. Gone With the Wind is also still today the leading #1 film at box offices being the highest grossing film ever!

2. http://www.filmsite.org/gone.html
Within this article most of the information was discussed in class, but there was one thing that stood out to me. There was a lot of things in the film that were not represented from the novel. Like for example in the novel, Scarlett had two children before Bonnie. Also there was a lot of mentions of the KKK in the novel, but none was represented in the film. Which explains a lot about how movies today that are based of novels are created. Not every film can add every eccentric detail that novels have, and I believe that this film started that objective for other films to go by.

3. After reading this article, I didn't think about the film differently because I didn't read the novel. But I believe that the people who read the novel would be disappointed because in the article there was a lot of things mentioned that were not in the film. But if I did read the novel I think that I would be disappointed because I would be expecting the details that i first picked up on. But then I'd realize that when making films a lot of details would be left out and id have to accept that.

4. Before reviewing this film, I have heard of it before. It is a film that would always be noted as a film that stood the test of time and after watching the movie, I fell in love with it the same way audiences fell in love with it during this time period. The length of this movie was way to long for me but after understanding that Mitchell's novel was over a thousand pages long I understood why it was time consuming. The different stories all came together at the end and blew my mind. I never imagined Bonnie dying, as well as Scarlett's sister Melanie. I believe Gone With The Wind is an American classic and will always be the highest grossing film. The representation of the Civil War and staying home during that time while your loved ones are risking their lives is completely believable.  This film kept my attention the entire time and told a great story that I will forever remember.

Stagecoach

1. This film is set in the 1880's when a group of people with different backgrounds all travel together in a stagecoach. This film shows how people from different backgrounds have moral laws to keep just in themselves. Throughout the film all of their different backgrounds change: some for the better and some for the worse. No one even acknowledged the prostitute, but when the wife had her baby, the prostitute was a nurturing woman and helped her in her time of need. And the doctor showed that even though he had a great profession, he still had troubles within himself which he used alcohol to relieve those struggles. This films showed that everyone has a piece of humanity within them no matter what their profession is, and throughout the film it is portrayed perfectly.

2. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/91227/Stagecoach/articles.html
During this article, they discussed how they hired a veteran stuntman to do their ridiculous and risky scenes. One of the scenes included where their stuntman, Yakima Canutt had to be dragged under a team of horses and a stagecoach. This stunt was too much for John Ford to handle, when being ask if it was caught on film or not, Ford replied "Even if they haven't, I'd never shoot that again."Showing Fords care for the stuntman, risking his life for the films sake. Also Ford was known to poke fun at his actors on set and bully them as well.

3. This article related to the film because it shows Fords appreciation of his fellow workers, and how much he dedicated to making this film amazing. It also makes you appreciate it more because of the risk they took shooting certain scenes. The stunts are not like how they are shot today, so filming these scenes was really challenging and were performed exceptionally well for being shot during this time period. It really shows what true stuntmen are trained for.

4. This film was a bit boring to follow in the beginning, but once they started moving along on their journey and the characters started to develop then I could not keep my eyes away from the screen. After studying the characters traits during the lecture it was pretty cool watching them change throughout the film. I believe that this film was way ahead of its time. It had so many qualities movies today have, and this being one of Fords first talking films, he has done an incredible job of showing a difficult story line to an audience and make them learn a valuable lesson from it. This film has to be one of the best westerns and after watching it I can clearly understand why that is.