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Gone with the Wind: The Screenplay
Celebrating the golden anniversary of an American film classic, here is the original screenplay for Mitchell's Gone with the Wind--complete with a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at how the script became The Greatest Motion Picture Ever Made!
262 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Sidney Howard
45 books6 followersSidney Coe Howard was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay in 1940 for the screenplay for Gone with the Wind. This was the first time a posthumous nominee for any Oscar won the award. He had been twice previously nominated for his adaptations of the Sinclair Lewis novels
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 19, 2023
Fiddle-dee-dee!
This was really charming…I really liked the movie, as well as the book. It’s such a classic story and has such an interesting take as from the point of view from the South side of the Civil War. The movie also, I thought, was really well done (and fittingly cast). This was definitely on my list of screenplays, but took me only five days to read, not ten.
This was really charming…I really liked the movie, as well as the book. It’s such a classic story and has such an interesting take as from the point of view from the South side of the Civil War. The movie also, I thought, was really well done (and fittingly cast). This was definitely on my list of screenplays, but took me only five days to read, not ten.
June 24, 2025
Gone With The Wind by Sidney Howard, based on the magnum opera by Margaret Mitchell, which is reviewed on my blog, along with hundreds of other chefs d’oeuvre, the best take is here https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
10 out of 10
It is a rare achievement when the motion picture inspired by a masterpiece is itself a great work of art, and even more remarkable, this film has long been acclaimed as one of the best, there was some push back, due to what happened around the making of it, and then there is the racism and some other complex issues
Some say that it could be seen as honoring a lifestyle that was abusive, heinous, Scarlett O’Hara, the main character, is the scion of a rich family and they have been slave owners, indeed, the heroine herself, though kind to Mammy and other servants, will still be the quintessential representative of the South
In other words, it could look like if you follow Scarlett, get fond of her or worse, then you endorse what she symbolizes, and that was the South, defeated in the Civil War, which was about the abolition of slavery, though some forget it https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
The Orange Fool that leads the free world now – unless it is the other weirdo, despicable Musk – said that ‘the Civil War could have been avoided’, but then he talks nonsense almost all of the time – when he does not, it is just ‘give me the food’ and other such inuendo, and I see him as the new standard of stupidity
Otherwise, Gone With The Wind is a great chef d’oeuvre and the heroine is more than impressive, if we set aside the above, the assumption that, as slave owner, she must have been racist, if kind to Mammy and the other help, perhaps it is even more challenging to discern, see the conflicts in the narrative and then
- See the facts in the context
It does not mean ‘white washing’ or anything, it is just understanding that there were different standards, appreciate that, as opposed to others, Scarlett was magnanimous, strong, intelligent, courageous, determined, perseverant, but also complex, she is jealous of Melanie, in love with the wrong man
This would also be a grandiose bildungsroman, the protagonist starts with timidity, she has weaknesses, wants Ashley Wilkes as her man at all cost – later she would realize her mistake, spoiler alert a bit after the fact – and acts as a spoiled teenager, but this makes it ever more impressive when we see her rise like…
The Phoenix, this pampered young woman has had not preparation, everything had been handed to her on a silver platter – literally – by slaves, and now, with the Civil War coming to Atlanta, she has to face destitution, to make clothes from the curtains, to work as hard as any other, and manage things, lead others
She becomes a role model, pushing the others to survive through his ordeal – ‘Happiness Activity No 6: Developing Strategies for Coping-practicing ways to endure or surmount hardship or trauma’ this is from a quintessential psychology book https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
I was thinking about the way the latest ‘Civil War’ has ended, this is hyperbole, evidently, but the American elections seem to show that the White Man has won, or at the very least, The Orange Man – by the way, look at the color of this brute, as seen over the past few days, and consider how they fight Diversity Equity and Inclusion
They attack drag queens reading books and they have the ultimate cross dressing, make up abusing leader, but that is just the smallest thing, the monster will sell Ukraine for peanuts and praise, he admires dictators and insult friends, tariffs for Canada, EU and welcome for the mass killer at the White House, presto
The Orange Clown has said he will make peace in 24 hours, end the war even before he is in the White House – and they have voted him, after they had seen him in power for four years – and then it was 100 days, and now, what he does is adopt the Putin line, it was wrong to exclude them from the G7, Ukraine should not have been at war…
As if it was not his buddy, the mass killer who invaded his neighbor, they talk about Ukraine excluded from NATO, having to lose territory, and as one former ambassador said ‘you do not negotiate in public, without Ukraine, and you do not give away anything, until you have received something in return’ there it is, simple
Bob Woodward https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and others have written about this lunatic – there is no doubt in my mind that the election of this stupid, disgusting chap shows that humanity’s progress is relative, we have advanced so much, and yet, we are still cave men
The cruel, abominable behavior is something you could expect in hereditary monarchs, you could not choose to have them, but now, in the ‘greatest democracy in the world’, to agree to get this idiot up there, and after you have seen what he does, his selfishness, arrogance, stupidity, disloyalty, artificial coloring - the last is to try and laugh at what is catastrophic, to me this is unpardonable and reflects on the decay of societies
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
10 out of 10
It is a rare achievement when the motion picture inspired by a masterpiece is itself a great work of art, and even more remarkable, this film has long been acclaimed as one of the best, there was some push back, due to what happened around the making of it, and then there is the racism and some other complex issues
Some say that it could be seen as honoring a lifestyle that was abusive, heinous, Scarlett O’Hara, the main character, is the scion of a rich family and they have been slave owners, indeed, the heroine herself, though kind to Mammy and other servants, will still be the quintessential representative of the South
In other words, it could look like if you follow Scarlett, get fond of her or worse, then you endorse what she symbolizes, and that was the South, defeated in the Civil War, which was about the abolition of slavery, though some forget it https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
The Orange Fool that leads the free world now – unless it is the other weirdo, despicable Musk – said that ‘the Civil War could have been avoided’, but then he talks nonsense almost all of the time – when he does not, it is just ‘give me the food’ and other such inuendo, and I see him as the new standard of stupidity
Otherwise, Gone With The Wind is a great chef d’oeuvre and the heroine is more than impressive, if we set aside the above, the assumption that, as slave owner, she must have been racist, if kind to Mammy and the other help, perhaps it is even more challenging to discern, see the conflicts in the narrative and then
- See the facts in the context
It does not mean ‘white washing’ or anything, it is just understanding that there were different standards, appreciate that, as opposed to others, Scarlett was magnanimous, strong, intelligent, courageous, determined, perseverant, but also complex, she is jealous of Melanie, in love with the wrong man
This would also be a grandiose bildungsroman, the protagonist starts with timidity, she has weaknesses, wants Ashley Wilkes as her man at all cost – later she would realize her mistake, spoiler alert a bit after the fact – and acts as a spoiled teenager, but this makes it ever more impressive when we see her rise like…
The Phoenix, this pampered young woman has had not preparation, everything had been handed to her on a silver platter – literally – by slaves, and now, with the Civil War coming to Atlanta, she has to face destitution, to make clothes from the curtains, to work as hard as any other, and manage things, lead others
She becomes a role model, pushing the others to survive through his ordeal – ‘Happiness Activity No 6: Developing Strategies for Coping-practicing ways to endure or surmount hardship or trauma’ this is from a quintessential psychology book https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
I was thinking about the way the latest ‘Civil War’ has ended, this is hyperbole, evidently, but the American elections seem to show that the White Man has won, or at the very least, The Orange Man – by the way, look at the color of this brute, as seen over the past few days, and consider how they fight Diversity Equity and Inclusion
They attack drag queens reading books and they have the ultimate cross dressing, make up abusing leader, but that is just the smallest thing, the monster will sell Ukraine for peanuts and praise, he admires dictators and insult friends, tariffs for Canada, EU and welcome for the mass killer at the White House, presto
The Orange Clown has said he will make peace in 24 hours, end the war even before he is in the White House – and they have voted him, after they had seen him in power for four years – and then it was 100 days, and now, what he does is adopt the Putin line, it was wrong to exclude them from the G7, Ukraine should not have been at war…
As if it was not his buddy, the mass killer who invaded his neighbor, they talk about Ukraine excluded from NATO, having to lose territory, and as one former ambassador said ‘you do not negotiate in public, without Ukraine, and you do not give away anything, until you have received something in return’ there it is, simple
Bob Woodward https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and others have written about this lunatic – there is no doubt in my mind that the election of this stupid, disgusting chap shows that humanity’s progress is relative, we have advanced so much, and yet, we are still cave men
The cruel, abominable behavior is something you could expect in hereditary monarchs, you could not choose to have them, but now, in the ‘greatest democracy in the world’, to agree to get this idiot up there, and after you have seen what he does, his selfishness, arrogance, stupidity, disloyalty, artificial coloring - the last is to try and laugh at what is catastrophic, to me this is unpardonable and reflects on the decay of societies
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
June 19, 2014
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.
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.
June 16, 2011
Is it silly that I read a screenplay I had memorized? Still, a must-have.
March 14, 2021
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.
November 30, 2010
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.
February 14, 2012
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
Some terrific 'on the set' pictures.
And some of the on screen text of various sections is sooooo wonderful
February 18, 2023
Though the screenplay leaves out of much from the book, this is still a good adaptation.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews