4) Gone With The Wind (1939) (Dir. Victor Fleming)
Many people consider Gone With The Wind to be the most ambitious film of them all, and it’s not difficult to see why. The rights for the book alone were purchased for $50,000 (the highest amount paid for such things back then), and the production itself went on for years and years as the right stars were sought out.
As for the story, Gone With The Wind is truly a movie about everything, and might be best-described as being a motion picture about the entirety of life itself. Couple that with several truly astounding sequences, thousands of cast members, and a sense of scope that was unheard of at the time, and Gone With The Wind simply reeks of hard work and dedication. What’s more, it has shown itself to be a timeless picture that genuinely deserved its lavish adaptation – despite the obvious reservations one might’ve had at the time.