1939: Two Classics 70 Years Later

[klunderbunker]

A big deal has been made over the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz being this year. However, a far better movie came out that year as well that you may have heard of known as Gone With The Wind. Running at a mind blowing 3 hours and 42 minutes, after being adjusted for inflation this movie has made more money than any film of all time, surpassing films such as Star Wars, Dark Knight and Titanic. However, from the few people I've talked to about it on here, hardly anyone has seen it, yet I'm fairly sure that almost everyone has seen Wizard of Oz, which to be fair is a children's film and about half as long.

That being said, which of these two films is more important to film history? We have a film that is the definition of an epic movie and considered one of the best films of all time and then we have Wizard of Oz which is considered one of the greatest children's movies of all time. All things considered, which means more?

 

[X]

Quite the random thread here KB. I was hoping you'd mention a film like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or Jamaica Inn, but alas, they unfortunately aren't as famous as the two films you've mentioned, The Wizard of Oz & Gone With the Wind.

Wizard of Oz is definitely a classic, no argument there from me. It's influence on American culture has been simply huge, with Wizard of Oz airings still doing great ratings every Thanksgiving on TV, and still being a very hot commodity on stage and in sales, even after all of these years.

Gone With the Wind on the other hand, I've always found to be overrated. It's good, but it's hardly the masterpiece it was and has been hailed as in my opinion. There are better Civil War films, and there are certainly better romance films. Romance and war films usually shouldn't be mixed anyways in my opinion, really takes out of the realism of the combat and the experience of the soldier that they're trying to sell to us. Gone With the Wind, while heavily acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time, simply has not had the same cultural impact that The Wizard of Oz has had however. They don't have a special day per year that they air Gone With the Wind on TV and everyone tunes in, do they?

To answer your question, The Wizard of Oz was more important simply because of the impact it had on pop culture. But if we're talking about the impact it had solely on the film industry, well it definitely was very influential in the genres of musicals and fantasy films, but overall, there were more important films released in 1939 in terms of influence and impact specifically in the film industry. Mr. Smith Goes to Washingtonf or example, which launched both James Stewart (one of the greatest actors of all time) and Frank Capra's careers into hyper-drive.

Personally I'd say Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, or perhaps Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn were better films than the both of these, but in terms of cultural impact, undoubtedly The Wizard of Oz is the correct answer.

 

[NSL]

As far as importance to movie history, I have to go with Gone With The Wind. "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" is the greatest line in cinematic history, and every filmmaker tries to live up to it. The cast was phenomenal, and there wasn't a second of the film that I would consider boring.

As far as personal tastes, I'd go with The Wizard Of Oz. It's only on TV once in a while, and I can never find it to buy, so I make sure to give it a watch every year when it's on. In fact, I even went out and bought Wicked, the follow-up to the movie.

 

[stingerlegends]

Gone with the Wind is a more than a bit racist, so I don't want to go there.

But I think The Wizard of Oz showed Hollywood and everyone else how imagination and fantasy could be a seller.

Gone wth the Wind may have set standards, but it didn't open doors.

 

[NSL]

Gone with the Wind is a more than a bit racist, so I don't want to go there.

The movie was made in 1939...And based in the South during the Civil War. What the hell did you expect? Black guys to show up for dinner with a rich white woman?

But I think The Wizard of Oz showed Hollywood and everyone else how imagination and fantasy could be a seller.

I personally feel the doors to those were opened during silent films, when monsters like Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster came to be. They showed what power imagination has, and they were obviously set in a fantasy world (albeit a sick one).

Gone wth the Wind may have set standards, but it didn't open doors.

Setting standards is opening doors, just in a different way. It didn't need to be different, it just needed to be the best. After that people set out to mkae films as good as that.

 

[Shadowmancer]

The movie was made in 1939...And based in the South during the Civil War. What the hell did you expect? Black guys to show up for dinner with a rich white woman?

Good of you to mention another classic film there that has significant cultural ramifications as Sidney Poitier being in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

As for the topic at hand I would have to go with Wizard of Oz as the more conducive to lasting within modern society as a better film. Both of them get my definition of film rather than being called a movie. At least one of the songs from Wizard of Oz is well known and is one of the great songs of the twentieth century. Judy Garland was brilliant in it, Wizard of Oz also had midgets in it. Does Gone with the wind have them? No I don't think so. But the stories that occur around Wizard of Oz are just as interesting if not more so than the film itself. It is also a very optimistic film going into a very dark part of human history.