As important as mise-en-scene is because of the design of the set and items used to create the vision and feeling of the scene, the most important will be the actors. An actor will usually be the primary focus of the audience and if the actor is a star, this is often enough to create reasons for viewers to see the film.
In Gone with the Wind, there are several excellent actors, some nominated for Oscars, others who won, and others receiving neither nomination nor award but were nonetheless, actors of merit in their own right. I chose three actors who each represent a particular type of actor: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and Thomas Mitchell.
Thomas Mitchell was a highly regarded and sought after character actor seen in various movie genres throughout his long career. He won an Oscar for his performance in Stagecoach (1939), the same year he portrayed Gerald O’Hara, Scarlett’s Father, in Gone with the Wind (1939). He was also in It’s a wonderful Life (1946), as well as many other classic movies. In his role of Gerald O’Hara, his own Irish heritage came into play, as his character was Irish, complete with the accent and speech patterns. In the scene on top of the knoll with Scarlett, he tells her that anyone with a drop of Irish blood has a love of the land in his Irish accent. (Paraphrased, Selznick, 1939) Character actors are in high demand because they are capable of portraying different types of roles, making them important assets for their versatility and adaptability of roles, and often considered as invisible because they seamlessly fit into a wide variety of characters and are not well known for some time.
Vivien Leigh, Scarlett O’Hara, in the film was an English actor and not well known here in the States. However, she won the Oscar for her portrayal of Scarlett. In the book and on the screen, Scarlett is a strong-willed, self-centered young woman of the Old South before, during, and after the Civil War. Vivien Leigh’s portrayal was, in my opinion, the only actor that could portray her; she defines her as she was written. In a scene she tells Rhett she wants to go home to Tara, he tells her she cannot because there is fighting around Tara, she shows that her will is stronger than fear but cries as she tells him, “I want my Mother! (paraphrased, Selznick, 1939). She was a Wild Card actor not typecast from one role to another. In other roles she performed, Blanche DuBois of A Streetcar named Desire (1951), a woman not grounded in reality, Caesar and Cleopatra, she portrays Cleopatra, a real Queen of Egypt, as a woman, a force to be reckoned with.
Clark Gable was a Personality Actor and obviously, a leading man. He was a strong personality in all of his films just as he was in life. Clark Gable was picked to play Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind because of his personality and that of Rhett Butler. In the scene before the dance, he bids for Scarlett (now the widow, Mrs. Charles Hamilton) to dance, Dr. Mead refuses but he insists, Scarlett refuses to be displaced and accepts, action that delights Captain Butler who likes a woman with spunk. (Paraphrased, Selznick, 1939). In the description in our text, it states “Personality actors are, at some level, playing themselves (at least that is the perception).” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2011). A side note, it is said that Clark Gable, in the role of Rhett Butler, was nominated but did not receive the Academy Award for Best Actor because he was just playing himself. (I cannot give this as a quote but is something I read somewhere years ago; this is my favorite movie.). In other movies of different genres and eras, he was always a star with a strong presence, and the personality actor who effortlessly portrayed a man with “a way with women”, was a man’s man, and never portrayed a weakling, physically or emotionally. Two of his other films, It Happened One Night (1934) directed by Frank Capra, this one he won an Oscar for his performance and The Misfits (1961)directed by John Huston, were filmed at different times of his career but his characterization was always the personality actor. The Misfits was his last film and released after his death in 1960.
http://movieclips.com/SgQHa-gone-with-the-wind-movie-bidding-for -Scarlett/
Still of Scarlett and Gerald O’Hara: http://www.imdb.com/media/m415136176nm0593775?ref-=nmmi_mi_all_sf_15#
References:
Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C.P. (2011). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Selznick, D.O. (Producer) & Zukor, G., Fleming, V. & Wood, S. (Directors). (1939). Gone with the Wind [Motion Picture].Country of Origin: Selznick International Studios.
Movie Clip. (n.d.) Gone with the Wind-Bidding for Scarlett. http://movieclips.com/SgQHa-gone-with-the-wind-movie-bidding-for -Scarlett/
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