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The Sound of Music & Gone With The Wind: Similarities

Two of the most popular films of all time are Victor Fleming's (1939) Gone With The Wind and Robert Wise's (1965) The Sound of Music. The films share many similarities in that they exhibit top-notch production values, are highly entertaining, and tell good stories well. However, they also exhibit numerous differences, like Gone With The Wind being fiction and The Sound of Music based on the real Trapp Family Singers and the former being shot primarily on sound stages with the latter shot mostly on location in Austria. Because of the demands of the production on Gone With The Wind, its producer David O. Selznick remained the visionary creative force behind the film. In his review of the movie, Roger Ebert (1998) notes, Selznick "understood that the key to mass appeal was the linking of melodrama with state-of-the-art production values" (p. 2). Both films are highly appealing for this reason. This discussion will provide a comparative analysis of a number of filmmaking elements in Gone With The Wind (GWTW) and The Sound of Music. A conclusion will discuss why these films continue to retain mass appeal to contemporary audiences.

There are a number of elements in these two films that are similar. GWTW features a story of the South before, during, and after the Civil War. The Sound of Music features a story of Austria prior to and during its occupation by the Nazis on the verge of WWII. GWTW features a strong-willed woman, Scarlet O'Hara, who challenges the conventional role and norms of womanhood in the mid-nineteenth century South. The Sound of Music features a headstrong nun/governess, Maria, who also challenges the role and norms of women in the early twentieth century in Europe. Adding to these similarities, each film features a romantically involved pair of leads played by actors who offer exceptionally strong performances. In GWTW, Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable play the fated lovers Scarlet O'Hara and ...

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The Sound of Music & Gone With The Wind: Similarities. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 15:25, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2000221.html