Enlarge image
Vivien Leigh, Clarke Gable in "Gone with the Wind": Masterpiece and deeply racist concoction
Photo: ddp images / ddp
The historian David Vincent Kimel is actually a specialist in the history of antiquity, he is writing his dissertation on orgies in the Roman Empire.
But the man is also very, very familiar with the classic film »Gone with the Wind«.
He collects memorabilia from the film and stumbled across an old screenplay that was offered by a renowned auction house.
Kimel paid $15,000 for it – but it wasn't until he flipped through that he realized what a treasure he was holding in his hands.
The version is one of the legendary "Rainbow Scripts", screenplays named after the colored paper they were written on.
Producer David O. Selznick had requested countless revisions of the story, and it was rewritten again and again until the end of filming.
The copy Kimel bought belonged to casting director Fred Schuessler, who was responsible for casting small supporting roles.
Comparing this version to the final film reveals how the writers and powerful producer argued over the portrayal of slavery.
In an essay for the online magazine »The Ankler«, Kimel describes how two teams formed: one wanted to show the brutality and inhumanity of slavery, the other was out for a romanticizing image of the American southern states.
Even the use of the word "Negro" was hotly debated.
Many scenes of the screenplay version that was found showed the brutal behavior of large white landowners towards slaves, including beatings and emotional violence.
In one scene it was implied that the main character Rhett Butler wanted to commit suicide.
Those scenes were all removed in favor of the version that influenced the sugarcoated, mendacious view Americans had of slavery for decades.
The film is still considered a masterpiece of color photography.
The streaming service HBO Max, which has the film in the program in the USA, took it off the platform for two weeks in 2020.
It is now available again, with comments to classify it.
The screenplay version that has now been found illustrates how the makers of the film got into arguments about topics that are more relevant today than ever.
kae