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The most famous blockbuster ever
Anyone remember blockbusters? Those major film releases that were eye-wateringly expensive to produce and required a colossal amount of time and resources, and which were so popular with audiences – helped, of course, by the appearances of the most popular actors of the day – that they became defining moments in pop culture?
They epitomised a typically Hollywoodian approach to cinema, designed to appeal to people of all backgrounds. Since the turn of the millennium, blockbusters have slowly disappeared, and people are now starting to look back at them with a certain amount of nostalgia (and some criticism too).
Gone with the Wind, the 1939 film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, is probably the quintessential blockbuster, and the pinnacle of American popular cinema. It was the highest grossing film in the world, won eight Oscars, and is responsible for perhaps the most famous lines in film history.
So today we’re going to explore this untraditional love story – after all, it finishes with a farewell, followed by the film’s most-cited line, ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’ – but from our perspective. That is, looking at the sentimental posters that have accompanied the film since its initial release.
Here, then, are the most beautiful, meaningful and interesting posters for Gone with the Wind!
The poster for Gone with the Wind with the first kiss
Gone with the Wind was famous before it even made it to the big screen, with all the elements needed to make a big impression on the public. It was a film adaptation of one of the era’s bestselling novels, which had been released a few years earlier. It brought two iconic actors – Clark Gable and Viven Leigh – to American cinemas. And it was preceded by a lengthy and troubled production process, which brought with it plenty of gossip.
To get an idea of the the hype surrounding Gone with the Wind, just consider that three days of national holiday were announced to coincide with its preview in Georgia – the American state where the film is set – along with an epic parade and a hugely popular fancy-dress party.
This was the poster that accompanied the film’s release in almost every corner of the globe – a world, remember, that in 1939 was on the brink of war:
The poster depicts a passionate kiss between the film’s two main characters and was the first in a series of ‘schmaltzy’ posters accompanying the release. On the one hand, you have Scarlett O’Hara (played by Vivien Leigh): beautiful, privileged, stubborn and wealthy as a result of a cotton plantation and a society that is rapidly disappearing, swept away by the American Civil War. And on the other hand is Rhett Butler, a captivating, cynical and unconventional gentleman, played by the unforgettable Clark Gable.
The love story in Gone with the Wind is actually far from romantic, at least in conventional terms. For almost the entire film, Scarlett is in love with another man – Ashley – but he rejects her approaches, and so she gets hitched twice before finally marrying Rhett Butler, whom she had met years earlier, for purely financial reasons. Only when Rhett decides to leave her (and utters his famous words of farewell) does Scarlett realise that she has always loved him.
The Gone with the Wind poster that everyone knows
Gone with the Wind is a truly timeless film, proven by its incredible eight cinema releases over the decades. One of these came in 1967, and its poster is probably the image that instantly comes to mind whenever someone mentions Gone with the Wind to you:
The pose of Rhett taking Scarlett O’Hara in his arms has become almost as iconic as the famous quotes. The image is inspired by the first poster, but is much more passionate and sensual: a blockbuster-worthy embrace!
The burning backdrop evokes one of the film’s most spectacular scenes: the burning of Atlanta. This was an extremely challenging scene to shoot for the era, and involved deliberately burning down old film sets, including the one used for King Kong.
The poster design was curated by art director Tom Jung, famous for creating other renowned illustrated posters, including designs for Doctor Zhivago, Star Wars and Once Upon a Time in America. For the poster of the re-release of Gone with the Wind, Jung called on illustrator Howard Terpning, whose favourite subject was native Americans and who had produced the poster for Lawrence of Arabia a few years earlier.
Tom Jung described the result as ‘notable for its schmaltziness’, and the iconic pose was copied on many subsequent occasions. The art director himself borrowed it for the poster for the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back, but with Han Solo and Princess Leia instead of Rhett and Scarlett.
Here’s an interesting nugget of information for you: Tom Jung was also asked to produce the poster for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, but in the end the executives chose Richard Amsel’s drawings instead [we discussed Amsel in our article on Indiana Jones posters]. The reason given was that Tom Jung had drawn Indiana with a pistol in his hand, and the film’s bosses wanted to show him with nothing but his trusty whip.
Myriad sentimental poses from Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind does not just recount the love story between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler; it is also a film about the American Civil War (the industrialised world’s first, terrible war) and how the conflict swept away all traces of the old society that had gone before.
Nevertheless, almost all the posters that accompanied the film’s release across the world put Scarlett and Rhett’s complicated love story front and centre.
Here, for instance, is a French poster designed for the 1950 re-release. There are no overwhelming flames this time; instead the artist chose to adopt an idyllic pastel-coloured background.
Two posters in Spanish for Gone with the Wind used brighter colours. The one on the left is from the 1950s, while the one on the right is an Argentinian poster from the 1970s that includes the iconic, sensual image of the two stars.
The background of the poster for the film’s first release in Belgium in 1939 (on the left in the image below) depicts Tara, the famous colonial house and cotton plantation around which the events in Scarlett O’Hara’s life revolve. The foreground shows another kiss between the two lead characters.
But Gone with the Wind‘s most famous kiss – and one of the most famous kisses in cinema history – takes place during Rhett’s marriage proposal to Scarlett, as depicted in the poster for the film’s Swedish 1987 local re-release (right).
Russian audiences had to wait a long time to see these kisses: they were only able to watch the film in 1990, once the Cold War had ended. Here’s the poster!
Two Japanese posters from the 1970s and 1980s, meanwhile, have an unusual element in common. As well as the ubiquitous passionate kiss between Rhett and Scarlett, they also feature a large northern red oak tree. In the first poster the tree dominates the background, while in the second it features in a detail at the bottom, pre-empting the female lead’s eventual solitude.
In the film, these majestic trees are found on the estate of Ashley Wilkes, the powerful southern landowner whom Scarlett loves, but without her feelings being reciprocated.
Finally, there are a few rare posters that not only do not feature the kiss between Scarlett and Rhett, but don’t even depict the couple together, instead portraying Scarlett inside her house at the centre of Tara. Here are two examples, from Italy (left) and Yugoslavia (right), both from 1939.
Although marketing managers (and romance fans) may not agree, these posters arguably provide the best description of the film’s plot: the human (and essentially lonely) story of the anti-hero Scarlett O’Hara, one of cinema’s most controversial characters. Scarlett will go on to take the reins of the cotton plantation and her beloved land, showing her ability to manage her own destiny and face the new world emerging in America. After all, tomorrow is another day!
What do you think about the posters for Gone with the Wind? Do you prefer the cheesy ones or the few that tried something different? Might the two characters’ poses provide inspiration for one of your graphic design creations?