Films that are similar to Gone With The Wind?
December 31, 2023 5:00 PM   Subscribe

I am a huge fan of Gone With The Wind, and the culture of its time (minus the pro-slavery, of course). Yet, I love the acting in the film, the scenery, the dialogue, and the wonderful character development. And Vivien Leigh, as beautiful as she was, she is brilliant and shines though, and her acting blows me away each time I watch the film. Are there any similar films from that time era or even present? And films from the Old Southern feel?

I am a fan of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and I do see similarities between Cat On A Hot Tin Roof film GWTW and I am a huge fan of Tennessee Williams the Southern writer as well (I haven't seen Suddenly, Last Summer yet!).
posted by RearWindow to Media & Arts (15 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I wouldn't say that Suddenly, Last Summer has much in common with Gone With the Wind, at all. So you might not get that vibe from the film.

Based on what I've seen and read about. Here are a few that might scratch the Gone With the Wind itch, if you're looking for something that feels "Southern" (quality varying, of course): Jezebel (1938), Raintree County (1957), Giant (1956), Band of Angels (1957 -- also starring Clark Gable), Bright Leaf (1950), God's Little Acre (1958), Home From the Hill (1960), Hurry Sundown (1967), The Long Hot Summer (1958), Parrish (1961), Splendor in the Grass (1961), The Big Country (1958)
posted by VirginiaPlain at 5:11 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]


What about the 1985 miniseries North and South?
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:33 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]


You might enjoy Cold Mountain, also The Beguiled, of which there are two versions. I am partial to the 1971 Clint Eastwood version, myself, but the Sofia Coppula remake is also quite good.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 7:52 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]


I love it’s a wonderful life - Jimmy Stewart’s acting, his chemistry with Donna Reed, the character of George who is no saint, the turn of the century period etc. Not southern but definitely a lot of “expected manners”. Not sure if that helps.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:58 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: @St. Peepsburg It's A Wonderful Life is one of my favourite films of all time. I love Jimmy Stewart. There are similarities in the family dynamic and mannerisms for certain. The ending makes me teary-eyed every time.
posted by RearWindow at 8:01 PM on December 31, 2023 [1 favorite]


For the same lush feeling with a beautiful actress, a dashing leading man, great supporting characters, Saratoga Trunk (1945). Starts out in New Orleans. Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper. I’d swear the version I watched was in color/colorized.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:09 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]


You might like The Little Foxes?
posted by less-of-course at 11:31 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]


Not Southern in the slightest, but for Romantic, sweeping, big-emotions storytelling, you might enjoy:

• Wuthering Heights (1939)
• Rebecca (1940)
• Doctor Zhivago (1963)
• Anna Karenina (1948) [with Vivian Leigh, btw]
posted by Mournful Bagel Song at 4:33 AM on January 1, 2024 [4 favorites]


Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in Giant. It’s the West and not the South but has that huge, sweeping, feel to it.
posted by pearlybob at 4:35 AM on January 1, 2024 [6 favorites]


It isn't southern by any stretch, but I feel as strongly as you do about GWTW about Out Of Africa. Spectacular photography, acting, story, music score.

A film definitely more southern than Out of Africa is Steel Magnolias. It is charming in its own right.
posted by jtexman1 at 6:25 AM on January 1, 2024 [5 favorites]


Not U.S. southern in the least, but try South Pacific.
posted by gudrun at 9:11 AM on January 1, 2024 [2 favorites]


Seconding Jezebel - it's the movie Bette Davis made when she lost out to Vivien Leigh for GWtW.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:28 AM on January 1, 2024


GWTW is super melodramatic, and for my money the best melodramas are the domestic epics of Douglas Sirk. Imitation of Life, Written on the Wind, and All That Heaven Allows might scratch your generational societal epic itch.
posted by infinitewindow at 12:32 PM on January 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


^ and Magnificent Obsession.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:17 PM on January 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


The Fugitive Kind (1960)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
As I Lay Dying (2013)
posted by perhapses at 1:42 PM on January 1, 2024


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