On the Road to Tara [Hardcover]

Aljean Harmetz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996

A noted journalist has gained access to the Gone With the Wind producer's private archive, as well as several other large collections, to reveal prospective casting lists, more than one hundred photographs, and many more insights into the making of the blockbuster movie. BOMC.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Harmetz, who has previously chronicled the making of The Wizard of Oz and Casablanca, now turns to the Great American Movie: Gone With the Wind. With access to previously unpublished materials in David Selznick's private archives, she relates the film's history, from the endless revision of the script to the battle with the censors--not only over Rhett Butler's use of the word ``damn,'' but the less well known fight over the word ``niggers,'' which is used in the book but not in the movie. Heavily illustrated, the volume includes scene sketches for Tara and the burning of Atlanta, costume sketches, makeup stills, and more. (Abrams; $39.95; Nov.; 224 pages; ISBN 0-8109-3684-4; Book-of-the-Month Club selection) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1St Edition edition (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810936844
• ISBN-13: 978-0810936843
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #925,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good overview with complex characters, December 22, 2003

By 

JunkyardMessiah "jonkadane" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On the Road to Tara: The Making of Gone With the Wind (Paperback)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tops--or bottoms--"The Tara Treasury", February 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: On the Road to Tara (Hardcover)

Surprisingly, considering Harmetz's previous books, this volume is, without a doubt, the WORST book ever written on "Gone With the Wind." The text is riddled with mistakes, and many of the illustrations are mislabeled. Thank goodness, the book apparently has been a huge failure in the sales department, so there should be NO trade paperback edition. May it soon be "gone with the wind" ...

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burning The "Bridges"..., January 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: On the Road to Tara (Hardcover)

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 !