A rare shooting script for the beloved but controversial 1939 movie “Gone With The Wind” was recently unearthed. It has exposed the internal conflict and debates over depicting slavery during its production.
The big-budget blockbuster, set against the Civil War and Reconstruction backdrop, has long been criticized for its sanitized view of slavery. However, historian David Vincent Kimel’s examination of the 301-page script has revealed that several writers pushed for a more realistic and harsh portrayal of the mistreatment of enslaved workers, which ultimately did not make it into the finished product.
According to Kimel, the script is a mosaic representing the perspectives of numerous screenwriters, revealing that rival groups of “Romantics” and “Realists” emerged during the creation of the script. Fitzgerald, who was eventually fired from the production, belonged to the “Romantic” camp and wanted to push the “romance of the old South.”
In contrast, screenwriters Sidney Howard and Oliver H.P. Garrett, who belonged to the “Realists” camp, pushed for gritty and uncompromising scenes that were often cut.
The script includes less-than-flattering scenes that did not make it into the final cut, such as Scarlett hitting house slave Prissy with a rod and her being far crueller to maid Mammy than in the movie’s final cut. Kimel also uncovered correspondence between producer David O. Selznick and publicist Val Lewton, in which Selznick expressed his hope to use the n-word in the movie. Still, it didn’t make it into the final cut.
Overall, the unearthed script sheds light on the internal conflict and debates over the depiction of slavery during the movie’s production, and underscores the sanitized view of slavery that the movie portrayed, despite some of the grittier scenes that were cut from the final product.
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