Gone with the Wind Blu-ray

Gone with the Wind

 (1939)

Drama | History | Romance | War



Adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, this dazzling epic stars Vivien Leigh as the tempestuous Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable as the dashing Rhett Butler. Forever linked by passion and separated by pride and self-delusion, these unforgettable screen lovers bring Mitchell's immortal saga vividly to life, set against the stunning backdrop of a time and place forever "Gone With the Wind".

Bonus CD Soundtrack Sampler

For more details about Gone with the Wind on Blu-ray, see the Gone with the Wind Blu-ray Review

Starring: Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel
Director: Victor Fleming

Gone with the Wind Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Warner has taken its catalog titles more seriously than perhaps any other major studio currently releasing its classics on Blu-ray. If they haven’t always hit things completely out of the ballpark (How the West Was Won, a triple play but just shy of a home run), they’re out there swinging for the fences and more often than not connecting big time and providing film lovers repeated reason to celebrate. The recent Blu-ray upgrade of The Wizard of Oz in its Collector’s Edition is just the latest example of Warner going the extra mile in their restoration efforts, and Gone With the Wind stands proudly next to Oz as one of the sharpest looking high definition images of a classic film title yet delivered to the public. Encoded via VC-1, Gone With the Wind’s original 1.37:1 image is a marvel to behold, with a beautifully rich and complex lifelike film texture that has noticeable but never overwhelming grain. Colors are astoundingly brilliant throughout this film, with gorgeous saturation and at times breathtaking hues. Scarlett’s scandalous red dress has never been more crimson, and Leigh’s eyes sparkle and shine with depth and luster as never before. I will say that some videophiles may find the Technicolor registration just a tad on the yellow side, which is noticeable mostly in the skin tones. But just take a gander at the deeply saturated Technicolor reds in some of the screenshots I’ve provided and you have a good indication of how spot on the bulk of this film’s color is. As mentioned below, this film underwent one major scrubbing a few years ago for its 4 disc DVD release, and the new 8K re-do for this release is simply amazing. Depth of field reveals a level of detail in backgrounds and matte paintings as never before, and items at the forefront of the image simply are astoundingly well detailed. Warner has done itself proud with this release and I doubt there will be any major complaints from even the most demanding viewers.

Gone with the Wind Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Gone With the Wind offers both the original mono track as well as a repurposed Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix, which is rather conservative in its surround ambitions, but which cleans and clarifies the source material rather dramatically at times. A lot of purists decry these surround reimaginings, but I have a hunch few will argue about the propriety of this particular renovation. Dialogue is almost inescapably in the front center channel. Surround channels kick in where you’d expect them to, in such bombastic segment as the Civil War battles. Steiner’s score typically also fills all the channels. I was rather impressed with the opening up of the sound itself. Too often Dolby tracks, even lossless high def iterations, sound to me like they’re overly compressed, especially on the high end. You’ll notice quite a bit more hiss on the mono track, but that noise reduction in the TrueHD track does not mean a loss of the high end, which is to be lauded. This is a subtly repurposed 5.1 mix that preserves the front and center soundfield of the original soundtrack while gently nudging it into the surround channels at appropriate times. While even the TrueHD re-do can't completely overcome the technical limitations of the original recordings (you'll hear this in the somewhat boxy sound of the music mostly), this is really quite an excellent upgrade that should delight even the most discriminating listener.

Gone with the Wind Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Gone with the Wind 3-Disc Scarlett Edition Blu-ray Announced - February 17, 2010


• Gone with the Wind Single-Disc Blu-ray Goes Wide - January 21, 2010


• Deal Alert: Gone with the Wind UCE Blu-ray $39.99 - December 22, 2009


• Today on Blu-ray - November 17th - November 17, 2009


• More Target BD Exclusives Beckon: GWTW, Goonies - September 25, 2009


• Gone With the Wind UCE Blu-ray Detailed - August 10, 2009


• Gone With the Wind and Wizard of Oz Coming to Blu-ray - March 13, 2009

Gone with the Wind Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

Topic

Replies

Last post

» Show more forum threads