Best Actress: Vivien Leigh I
Frankly, my dear, I love this performance...
...while also totally disavowing myself as supporting the content or standing behind the messaging of the film. Gone with the Wind has always had a checkered, controversial veneer and I think you have to be nuanced about supporting the actors, all of whom deliver career-defining performances, especially Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel (the first Black actress to win an Oscar). Smarter people than me have spoken about Gone with the Wind's legacy, so I'm not going to attempt it, and I think Jacqueline Stewart's opinion piece for CNN is a worthwhile read on why the film can't go away while also being a strong condemnation of it and what it represents.
So let's talk about Vivien Leigh in this film, because this was the performance, in my mind, of all the actress who won Oscars in the 1930s. [Jess from the future: I wrote that line and now I'm like: "Claudette? Norma? Katharine?" so I'm hitting publish without letting myself get into the weeds. I'll do a longer ranking post when I reach the end of this.] To so thoroughly embody and transform into the character of Scarlett O'Hara to the point that you've become a cultural lightning rod as her versus for your own merits as an actress, of which, let's face it, Vivien Leigh had plenty, must stand for something. I mean, it took David O. Selznick years to find a suitable actress for Scarlett and he auditioned everybody for the role before Vivien Leigh waltzed onto the set and won the role.
For the whole four-hours-and-change that this movie runs, there's not a scene that Vivien Leigh doesn't totally command—and in a stacked cast that also includes Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Howard, Butterfly McQueen, and so on and so on—except for when she's sharing the scene with Hattie McDaniel. They're perfect scene partners, giving and taking and elevating each other. If there's any success worth still claiming from this movie, it's the strength of these two Oscar winners.
And for that success, as it relates to Vivien Leigh, despite this being arguably the biggest film of the 1930s in terms of spectacle, exposure, endurance, scale... none of it exists without a compelling and perfectly-cast actress in that role.
But honestly, what a stacked batch of actresses, and film, in 1939. There's a reason it's widely considered the greatest year in film. But let's be clear: it was always Vivien's Oscar to win, there was no chance that she was going to lose it. But consider the nominees: Bette Davis (Dark Victory), Irene Dunne (Love Affair), Greta Garbo (Ninotchka), and Greer Garson (Goodbye, Mr. Chips). Who do you think the runner-up was? Can we FOIPOP the ballots? Is that a thing? I don't even know who I'd pick for second place...gut's saying Greta Garbo, so let's move on before I turn this into a Survivor confessional!
DID I LIKE GONE WITH THE WIND? It's hard to say that you like something with such a dark legacy. But I do like Vivien Leigh and think she's a master of the craft.
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Did you like Gone with the Wind? What are your thoughts on Vivien Leigh's first Oscar win?
Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here.
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