On the Road to Tara

by Aljean Harmetz

Book Overview

Written with the aid of access to the private archives of producer David O. Selznick, as well as other collections, this is the story of the making of Gone With the Wind. It sets out to reveal how a bestselling novel was transformed into one of the most celebrated of all films, and describes how decisions were taken on topics such as how Tara should look, how Scarlett should wear her hair, how the burning of Atlanta should be captured on film, and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810936844
• ISBN13: 9780810936843
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 3.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 9.5" x 11.3"
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

On the Road to Tara

Fabulous! Fantastic set illustrations from a classic. Interesting background info. A treat. I want to frame some of the pages.

good overview with complex characters

Overall, ON THE ROAD TO TARA gives dozens of wonderful anecdotes about the making of the epic film GONE WITH THE WIND, using Selznick as the focal point. The real life characters seem much larger than life here, and not the one's you'd expect. Issues of that time resonate in our own, including racism, Hollywood's role in shaping national morality, ageism, drug addiction, homophobia and meglomania. Unfortunately, David Selznick is a very unsympathetic character. He's troubled, undisciplined, unwittingly cruel, irrational-and those are his endearing qualities! Though the author takes pains to show that Selznick was always apologetic after he flew off the handle, there is no soft side to warm this character up a bit. He is reminiscent of Charles Foster Kane but with no love interest but a wife who stays completely out of sight. Vivien Leigh is just as complex, living a life filled with scandals-she was living out of wedlock with Laurence Olivier, which had to be kept a complete secret from press and public. She was British, and many thought it a crime that a non-Southerner, let alone a non-American play Scarlett. But her determination closely mirrors Scarlett O'Hara's in single-mindedly getting just what she wanted. Over all, a good overview of the making of a classic.

Burning The "Bridges"...

Finally, a new and interesting book on the film Gone With The Wind! For years a certain Gone With The Wind "Authority" has published book after book containing the same fuzzy and out-of-focus photographs...many mislabeled !Furthermore, Aljean Harmetz provides the reader with FRESH & NEW information...and does not, as other's have done, plow the same old field of familiar"facts" regarding this film .BRAVO to Ms. Harmetz for giving the readers and collectors something FRESH & NEW !