Scarlett, Rhett and the Old South at Their Most Colorful; Giving New Life to a Beloved but Faded Panorama of the Civil War
By BERNARD WEINRAUB
Published: June 25, 1998 on New York Times

HOLLYWOOD, June 24— ''Gone With the Wind'' has been released in theaters eight times since 1939, has been shown numerous times on television and has been a top rental at video stores for the last two decades.

So why spend $10 million to $12 million to pain stakingly restore and reissue the Civil War drama, which opens tomorrow in 200 theaters around the nation? The restoration project is largely the result of Ted Turner's passion for the classic. ''Ted just loves this movie,'' said Roger L. Mayer, president of the Turner Entertainment Company. ''He's the force behind it.''

What spurred its restoration was not just Mr. Turner's affection for ''Gone With the Wind,'' which the Atlanta-based media mogul acquired when Turner Broadcasting purchased the rights to the MGM film library in 1986, but more important, the huge successes of James Cameron's ''Titanic'' and the re-released ''Star Wars'' trilogy.

''It motivated us to consider another theatrical release of 'Gone With the Wind,''' said Mr. Mayer. Another motive was, quite simply, to one-up ''Titanic.'' Mr. Mayer said: ''There was all this talk about 'Titanic' being the most successful picture of all time. We knew if you updated the grosses to today's dollar, then 'Gone With the Wind' would have, in fact, grossed more and been seen by more people than 'Titanic.' We wanted to point that out. It was fun.''

In 1939, ''Gone With the Wind,'' at 3 hours and 40 minutes, was the longest movie ever made, and the most expensive, costing $4.25 million. An adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's saga about the old South, it starred Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland and was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard. The score was by Max Steiner. The film went through four directors, two cinematographers and 11 writers and, like ''Titanic,'' was initially derided in Hollywood as a disaster. The costs and various crises on the set stirred rival executives and others to call it ''David's Folly.''

Yet the staying power of the film, which won 10 Oscars, is underscored by the fact that nearly 60 years after it was first released, the movie's ticket sales, if adjusted for inflation, would make it the all-time box office champion. And just last week, the American Film Institute placed it fourth on its list of the 100 best American films.

Filmgoers have not seen anything quite like the restored ''Gone With the Wind'' in nearly 30 years, the industry executives and experts who worked on the project said. ''This is the way the picture was photographed and originally printed -- this is the way the picture was intended to be seen,''said Mr. Mayer, who is also a specialist in preservation and restoration. ''Add to that we have a new remastered digital soundtrack, which makes it sound like the picture was made recently. For many people this will be an entirely new way of looking at and hearing 'Gone With the Wind.' ''

Ron Jarvis, the president of Technicolor, which provided the nascent film-processing technology for Selznick's production and revived the dye-transfer process to restore the film, said: ''The images are sharper than they've ever been. The colors are more true. These prints are better than what people saw in 1939. In fact, look at it -- it looks as good or better than most of the stuff that we see today.''

As Mr. Jarvis spoke, he sat in a screening room at his offices in Universal City watching a dual screen that depicted scenes from an older version of the movie, a classic Civil War drama and love story, and from the new version. The differences were pronounced. Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) and Rhett (Clark Gable) -- as well as hundreds of Civil War soldiers -- are simply more vivid, almost three-dimensional, and far less grainy. The colors -- especially reds, greens and blues -- are sharp, almost brilliant.

Two years ago, Turner Broadcasting, which included New Line Cinema, merged with Time Warner. More recently, Mr. Turner met with Robert A. Daly and Terry Semel, the co-chairmen of Warner Brothers, and they agreed to restore ''Gone With the Wind,'' and asked New Line to distribute it. By all accounts, the three men believed that moviegoers, especially in the summer, might crave a lavish, escapist saga.

Reviving a Process Unused for Decades

The making of ''Gone With the Wind'' nearly 60 years ago was a saga in itself for Selznick and his production team, a complex film process involving special cameras fitted with mirrors and prisms and the synchronized exposure of three strips of film. It wasn't even color film. Three rolls of black and white film rolled through the camera, each registering cyan, magenta or yellow.

Restoration of the film, which had not been reprinted using Technicolor since 1961, meant the revival of the three-strip dye-transfer process. Computer technology allowed technicians and graphic artists to examine the negative frame by frame and repair about 12 1/2 minutes of footage by removing scratches and photochemical imperfections.

The dye-transfer method transfers dyes directly to the film itself in a photomechanical process similar to printing, as opposed to the conventional photochemical process that has been in use since 1974. That method involved a two-step printing and developing process in which the color dyes are chemically formed in the film itself.

Essentially, dye-transfer technology results in vivid contrasts between white and black, and clear separation of colors, especially reds, greens and blues. (The last time it was used in Hollywood was for ''The Godfather Part II'' in 1974).

The film will also be seen in its original aspect ratio (a term used to define the relationship between a film's projected height and width) instead of the wide-screen display that cuts off the top of the frame.

Mitch Goldman, New Line's president of marketing and distribution, said the new release involved an overture in movie theaters of the famed Max Steiner score as well as an intermission. ''Most people have not seen this in theaters, which is the way it's supposed to be seen,'' Mr. Goldman said.

Over the years, ticket sales for the film have reached an extraordinary $192 million: it is in 25th place in domestic revenues. But none of the 24 films that preceded it were made earlier than 1975.

The video, which came out in 1985, has also been successful. More than 1.5 million copies s have been sold at a hefty price, generally $88.98. The television rights to ''Gone With the Wind,'' were sold to NBC in 1976 for what was then the record price of $5 million.

A Busy History In Television

Three years later, CBS signed a 20-year licensing agreement for the movie. But less than 10 years after that, Turner Broadcasting bought the television rights, and the film has since aired on Turner Classic Movies, the Turner Broadcasting System and Turner Network Television.

''This is the only movie that seems to work in all media, but particularly in theatrical release,'' said Mr. Mayer, the Turner executive. ''It's a romantic, historical drama, based on a best seller that has continued to be a best seller for 60 years. There are very few pieces of material that can make that claim.''

Photos (Photographs by New Line Cinema) Chart: ''Restoring the Bloom To Vivien Leigh's Cheeks'' In its new version, which reaches theaters tomorrow, above right, Gone With the Wind will look brighter and more vivid than prints screened in recent years like the one above at left. Why? A long-standard coloring process that disappeared in 1974 has been revived to make new prints. Here is how the process works. 1. A negative is made from a positive image of the film. This film had been hand-restored in the early 1980's. 2. Using filters, the negative is separated into three positives sensitive to different colors. 3. Cyan, magenta and yellow dye in varying combinations and intensities are applied to the separations. 4. Each separation applies its dye to blank film, just as a printing plate on a press would, in a process called dye transfer. Together the three dyes create a range of colors.(Sources: Technicolor; New Line Cinema)