Gone with the Wind is arguably the best move ever to be made. Adjusted for inflation, it’s still the highest grossing film in history, and it achieved that status in the midst of a depression.

But here’s the thing: Gone with the Wind’s production was a shit show.

It went through so many rewrites there is a play about writing this movie.

Yes, the sets were built with such meticulous care that the columns are accurate to the period. But they also had no cielings.

They ran over budget and delayed the production. The whole thing had to wait on Clark Gable.

They had cast everyone except the most important character, Scarlett O’ Hara. On whom this entire production would rest. 

They started shooting without her. 

Through this all, the vision was what sustained the production. They were making history. On the way, they would make art, and they would make money, and they would make history. And since 1939, people have been trying to recreate Gone with the Wind’s success.

The movie is based on a book (it was better). And it was the Harry Potter of its day. It was a 40$ book. It flew off the shelves, despite being released smack in the middle of the Great Depression. Maybe because the message resonated with bootstrapping Americans at the time, maybe the glamour of the Old South was too romantic to resist. Gone with the Wind was the 1930s answer to a major blockbuster. 

The people who were making the movie tried to create this world for fans; they weren’t just tapping into the sentiment that made the book so popular. And they had to make movie magic as they went along. Inventing the train as it ran on its tracks.

And what was the secret? What was the magic?

Heart. 

The producer was determined to make this movie. He guided each new director through the vision. Yes, there was more than one director.

Vivien Leigh (the star) had something to prove. She was British and had to work with an accent coach to get that perfect southern twang to play iconic Southern Belle Scarlett O’Hara.

The editors colored each and every closeup to make sure Scarlett’s eyes were the right shade of green. The movie would go on to win an Oscar– the first movie to do so that was shot in color.

And everything came through the screen: The acting, the narrative, the sound, the full and intentional use of filmic language. Suggestions and motivations translated wonderfully into performances that remain resonant, despite being a product of its time. 

Gone with the Wind is a controversial watch now; its message is a difficult subject to parse, but the lesson it can teach us, as the best movie of all time, is that creativity is a team sport.

To make this art, they needed craftsmen and women, they needed intelligent and open actors. They needed to invent techniques and make it work within budget. They needed to move as one singular organism towards a goal: To create something that snipes at the human heart, that clenches it, makes it beat a bit faster.

Creativity is a team sport. We often forget that in our “do it all yourself”, AI-generated world. But the machines can’t make heart yet. It’s fair to doubt that they ever will.

One person pouring their entire self into a project is what makes heart. And an entire battalion of professionals bringing their expertise to the table can create something that overflows with heart, regardless of the production disaster that might have ensued. So many masters working together to create a singular masterpiece can only yield a classic.