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, Scarle

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cially in the famous opening overhead shot of Julie Andrews singing "The Sound of Music" on a mountaintop. The shot required the use of a helicopter. The Austrian scenery is breathtaking, and the "Do Re Mi" number is edited to show Maria and the children singing in various parts of Austria that serves as a gorgeous travelogue. In GWTW there is a convincing sweep to the editing that gives a real feel for the passage of time before, during, and after the Civil War. Though shot in a studio, the film has a realistic look to its scenes of Tara, Twelve Oaks, and Atlanta. Camera work is spectacular as in the scene where Scarlett escapes in a buggy as the flames of Atlanta are used as backdrop. One of the most powerful uses of camera work in the film is a spectacular crane shot where Scarlett stumbles out into the street and the camera continues to pull back and up until it appears that most of the Confederate Army is lying in the street maimed or dead. Music is a highly integral part of both films, but it is much more significant to The Sound of Musical since GWTW is a drama and not a musical. However, the score for GWTW by Max Steiner is superior in its impact on viewers. The GWTW theme is engaging, memorable and haunt

Category: Film - T