Of the many new DVDs released in anticipation of this holiday season, few have garnered as much anticipation and discussion as the Warner Brothers' release of Gone with the Wind. The DVD set of four packed disks and a replica souvenir pamphlet from the film's premiere is a wonderful tribute to this complex, groundbreaking, controversial film from Hollywood's Golden Age.Based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, Gone with the Wind follows southern belle Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) as she fights for love, land, respect and survival in the American South during the Civil War era. The film-produced by Hollywood's notorious control-freak, David O. Selznick (who would later produce Hitchcock's first American films)-is a testament to the glory-days at the peak of the studio system's power, when production values were high, schedules were tight and film still had to prove its worth as a new, popular art form.

Pristinely shot in Technicolor, a process which was barely four years old at the time of the film's release, Gone with the Wind arrives in this DVD set newly restored to its original vibrancy.

The film -with a running time of four dramatic hours-spans two discs and includes a version with commentary by film historian Rudy Behlmer, who discusses the history of the film, the stars, early Hollywood and the historical and fictional accounts of the Civil War. For film buffs and students of sound design, the DVD also provides the option of seeing the film with its original monophonic sound, rather than the updated stereo presentation.

The third and fourth discs in the set include a great deal of fascinating material for cinemaphiles and other curious folks. Disc three focuses on the history of the film. It includes a feature-length documentary which covers the film's rough beginnings, difficult production and sensational reception, focusing primarily on the vision of the hard-to-handle Selznick. A shorter documentary chronicles the most recent digital restoration process that the film went through, which allowed the movie to be released so vividly on DVD. Other material includes the original theatrical trailer, footage from the premiere and the 1939 Academy Awards, which the film swept. Disc four focuses on the film's cast - a collection of some of the most powerful Hollywood personalities of the time. Clark Gable (Rhett Butler) was MGM's biggest, most profitable star in the late 30s.

Samuel Goldwyn lent him to Selznick for Gone with the Wind in a surprising change of habit-MGM rarely let their contracted players work for other studios. Gable, aware of his clout, was more demanding than most of the other stars. He initiated the replacement of George Cucor, the film's initial director, with Victor Fleming, who-of the four directors that would spend some time on the project-would eventually receive the sole directorial credit.

Vivien Leigh (Scarlett O'Hara), unlike her many co-stars and supporting actors, was a new name to the movie-going public. She was selected out of thousands of women who auditioned to play the part of Scarlett in a casting stunt that was designed more to generate hype than to result in a filled role.

Reviewing the DVD set only a month or so after having discussed with my film students another film sympathetic to the losing side of the Civil War-D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation-I expected the commentary and bonus material for Gone with the Wind to more heavily address the issues of racism that are inherent - whether overt or subtlein tales of the Civil War's South. The topic comes up in several of the bonus features, but to my surprise, Gone with the Wind was somewhat groundbreaking for its time, rather than regressive like The Birth of a Nation.

Selznick took the critiques of African Americans very seriously, and made sure to cut out sections of narrative that had been criticized in the novel. He also worked very delicately with the black actors and actresses, who in the late 30s were very nervous about returning-even in the fictional world of film-to the roles of slaves.

By modern standards, Gone with the Wind is, of course, racially problematic, but the story behind its creation contains admirable moments of insight, especially on the part of Selznick, who-despite his unbounded, often destructive ambition-seems to have had more sensitivity than historians popularly ascribe to him.