Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Sweeping Epic
The Story: Scarlett O'Hara is the daughter of a rich plantation owner in Georgia and, to her, the world revolves around balls, garden parties, and convincing Ashley Wilkes, the rich neighbor's son, that she is the wife for him. Then, the Civil War intrudes, and Scarlett must find a way to survive numerous obstacles. Along the way, she becomes a deeper, better person (with a view side-trips into manipulation and deviousness and mischief).Commentary: This is a very big story, set in an important part of American history, and involving good character development, a plot with many twists, good acting, bold colors, and an uncompromising sense of style. While somewhat condensed from the novel, it remains pretty faithful to Margaret Mitchell's only novel (but not her only published work; see "Lost Laysen").
Rating: - Gone With the Wind: The Epic Standard
GONE WITH THE WIND is the movie epic by which all other movies are judged. During its nearly four hours, the audience can see several movies in one: a love story, a war epic, a portrait of a self-driven woman to succeed regardless of cost, an historical saga, and the need of a displaced formerly proud people to regain their roots. Much of the sweep of Margaret Mitchell's novel is retained while losing only extraneous material. Director Victor Fleming presents a vision of the South that existed only for a precious, priviliged few. The first half centers on this ante-bellum image of a julip drinking South peopled mostly with polished gentlemen and marriage-hunting women. The dramatic focus of both halves is, of course, Scarlett O'Hara, played by Vivien Leigh in the role of a lifetime. Scarlett shows none of the monomania for success that drives her later on. Here, she is vain, flirty, and totally self-centered, except for her obsession for Ashley Wilkes, who as played by Leslie Howard, comes off as the last of a dying breed of Southern gentlemen. She throws herself at his feet, promising to love him eternally. When he rejects her, she slaps his face, now promising to despise him. As fine an actor as Leslie Howard is, he cannot set himself up as her power equal. For that, Clark Gable enters as Rhett Butler, a man who sees the world as it is and people as they are. In nearly the same scene, he announces to all the Southern gentlemen present that their beloved South has no chance to win the war. Moments later, he informs Scarlett that he will have her as surely as the South will lose the war.
As the first half proceeds, the audience can see the proud South slowly crumble under the might of the industrial North. This crumbling is measured in blighted landscapes and human lives lost. One of the most powerful scenes in any movie is the one in which Scarlett leaves the Confederate hospital because she is too spent to care for the constant influx of dead and dying men. As she emerges into the sunlight, the camera lingers on a few bodies lying in the street, then expands into a vast panorama of thousands more waiting helplessly for women like Scarlett to tend to them. It is this vision of a dying way of life that propels the first half into Scarlett's return to Tara.
Her metamorphosis from vain party girl to a driven monomania for money is punctuated by the impossibly dramatic silhouette of Scarlett ripping out shrubs and eating them raw, all the while shaking her fist at God promising Him that she will prevail.
Following the intermission, the pace of the film slows and becomes less sweep and more soap opera. Events happen in a whirl. Scarlett has one husband, then another, a child is born, a child dies, a husband leaves her. The finale of Rhett storming out into the night with his now cliched 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn,' is the final lesson that Scarlett has to learn. She has stepped on those whose only offense was to love her. Ironically, as she gains the riches that she thought she wanted more than anything else, she now sees those riches as hollow as the magnificent but empty mansion in which she now lives quite alone.
The amount of pity that the audience feels for Scarlett is a function of how they evaluate her justification for the pursuit of wealth. Scarlett may be wounded at the end, but if the audience feels a lack of pity for her, then surely they also see a woman whose bravado has stood her in good stead often during past crises. Her new solitary existence promises to be the most severe test yet of that bravado.
Rating: - Southern Mythology at its Most Memorable
In the years since it debuted, GONE WITH THE WIND has taken a beating from film critics and historians alike. The characters are often described as cardboard-ish; portions of the film are described as excessively melodramatic; some of the special effects (most notably the film's occasional use of rear-view projections) have dated. There is some truth to all of these comments, but by far the most serious accusation hurled at the film is that it is racist.One's perception of the film as racist rather depends on whether you look at the film within the context of its era or from a purely modern standpoint. At the time, GONE WITH THE WIND was a major advance in the portrayal of blacks on screen, for the two major black characters--Mammy and Prissy--are a far cry from the obnoxious "Stepin Fetchit" stereotypes so common in the 1930s. In later years, both Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen would be derrided for their participation in the film and accused of perpetuating stereotypes, but in fact their performances were anything but stereotypical at the time--indeed, their very power led Hollywood into a repetition of similar characters, and it was that repetition that later caused the originals to read as cliched. The real problem with GONE WITH THE WIND is that it, like the novel on which it is based, buys into the myth of great plantations, lovely Southern belles, gallant gentlemen, and a paternalistic form of slavery. These concepts have some basis in fact, but the vast majority of southern whites did not own plantations, much less own slaves, and those who did rarely practiced "paternalistic" slavery by any stretch of the imagination. But GONE WITH THE WIND is the myth, not the fact--and once we accept it as a highly romanticized vision of the South as it never really was, the film becomes incredibly entertaining and can still cast its spell upon the modern viewer. The most powerful thing about the film is that it moves. Over the course of its very long run, the episodic story of the beautiful and willful Scarlett O'Hara and her rapacious drive to insulate herself from the hardships of the war never significantly drags. And the cast, from the leads to the bit players, is superior. Margaret Michell might have created Rhett Butler with Clark Gable in mind; Vivien Leigh, a remarkable beauty and a very fine actress, was scarcely known outside England--but amazingly, when one considers the tremendous anticipation surrounding the casting of the role, she plays Scarlett with incredible success. Granted that the characters of Melanie and Ashley are rather unbelievable, but both Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard carry them off with conviction. And although they have already been mentioned, Hattie McDaniel's formidable Mammy and Butterfly McQueen's passive-aggressive and frequently hysterical Prissy are brilliant creations and more than worthy of a second mention. True, advances in cinema technique have made some of the special effects seem dated, but the production values and art design are brilliant from throughout, and the film offers a multitude of iconographic moments: Rhett standing at the bottom of the staircase at Twelve Oaks; Scarlett caught up in a the panic during the seige of Atlanta; the tattered flag waving above the fallen troops at the train yard; the kiss between Rhett and Scarlett after the fall of Atlanta--these, yes, and many, many more. GONE WITH THE WIND will no doubt become increasingly controversial as attitudes continue to change re race, slavery, and the Civil War--but in terms of pure cinema it is a remarkable achievement for all involved and it remains a landmark to this day. The DVD currently available offers a pristine picture and high quality sound, but I must note that the DVD has no great advantage over the current VHS release; a trailer aside, there are no bonus materials of any kind, and both are of equal quality. Strongly recommended, but with a warning: do not mistake it for fact. As I noted earlier, this is a South that never was, built on a form of slavery far removed from the slavery that actually existed. Enjoy it as a beautifully made and epic romance with a host of powerful performances--but not as history.
|
