Gone with the Wind (1939) – As the Civil War sweeps through the nation, southern gentility are faced with the end of the life they have known. In the middle of it, Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and Scarlett O’Hara (Vivian Leigh) collide in every manner possible.
I need to be upfront about this movie. It has always borne the brunt of my disdain. I’ve always viewed as an overblown soap opera, a romance novel blasted across the face of the screen, beloved by the corps of Scarlett O’Hara fan girls. Over the years I had seen the entirety of the movie in bits and pieces. What had impressed me most was the paucity of likable characters.
In short, I wasn’t a fan.
Over Valentine’s weekend, one of the local theaters offered it on the big screen. The one thing that had always struck me was the visual grandeur of the movie. Add in that my lady wife was a member of the corps of fans and the decision was pretty much made. We would go an see the movie. I would see it beginning to end and larger than life.
So, um, I, uh. Well.
Wow.
It’s still melodramatic romance. A soap opera of the most operatic sort. Turns out that that is one of the movie’s greatest strengths. It doesn’t try to shy away or control the operatic sweep of the story. “Gone with the Wind” embraces who and what it is. If it had done anything else it would never have the staying power that this movie has shown over the decades.
It. Is. Epic.
Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t changed my opinion of most of the characters. I find nothing desirable about Scarlett O’Hara. Yes, she is Vivien Leigh and therefore stunningly beautiful. But she turns away from every opportunity to be more than simply beautiful. Her trademark line “I’ll think about it tomorrow, because tomorrow is another day” is the perfect example of the essential shallowness of her character. Like Rhett however, you feel that there is so much more just beneath the surface. A fully developed Scarlett would be a woman to not only fight for but who would stand by your side with naked blade in one hand, a pistol in the other and a withering witticism on her lovely lips.
Um.
Excuse me, I seem to have gotten carried away there.
It’s hard not to be. Gable and Leigh are incredible in this movie. Visually this movie is simply…stunning. This is another movie that truly needs to be seen on as big a screen as you can find. The color, the depth of the images, the (again) grand opera scale of it all make it something truly spectacular. Three directors contributed to the making of the film, George Cukor, Victor Fleming and Sam Wood (though only Fleming gets screen credit). It is a love letter to the beauty of the antebellum South and plays a wonderful counterpoint to the vapid personalities who play in front of it. All of that has the iconic soundtrack by Max Steiner. In its entirety it is a cinematic confection almost beyond compare.
Yes, my opinion of the characters hasn’t changed much. Scarlet is Scarlett. Rhett brings a pirate’s swagger to everything he does but in the end, he’s not a very nice person. The Tarleton twins (one played by TV’s Superman, George Reeves!) are airheads and the much sought after Ashley Wilkes is a whimpering shell of a man. In fact the two best “people” here are a slave and the operator of a bordello. Mammy, played with Oscar winning excellence by Hattie McDaniel, is the true soul of the O’Haras and their beloved Tara. It is Belle Watling, operator of the local house of ill repute and played by Ona Munson, that may be the most decent person in the story.
In the end, seeing the entire movie and seeing it as it was originally intended to be viewed, made a huge difference for me. I’m stilll not sure I’d ever want to watch it all again (the movie runs 235 minutes all told), but I do need to reassess my opinion.
Rating – **** Recommended
Stories Are My Life 
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