War! What Is It Good For? Apparently, Extremely Compelling Films…

9. Gone with the Wind

9. Gone with the Wind
Image Source: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images

A set of three directors — along with some tortuous Hollywood deal-making — lay behind David O. Selznick’s magnificently overblown, multiple award-winning Civil War blockbuster, Gone with the Wind. Vivien Leigh plays Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara in a lavish historical melodrama which overly romanticizes the slave-owning Old South. However, it also features the first African-American Oscar-winner in Hattie McDaniel. It was re-released periodically throughout the 20th century, and thus became ingrained in popular culture.