Oh, yeah. I'm going there.
Gone With The Wind was the biggest movie ever without aliens in it. There are a couple of Yankee carpetbaggers in there, though. Anyway, it still holds the record for having sold the most tickets of any film ever. It runs 3 hours and 44 minutes and has a 15 minute intermission. It was produced by David O. Selznick who was making long movies that ran well over budget long before James Cameron ever latched on to the idea.
The film was a popular culture phenomenon before its release, its basis on a successful novel and the epic nature of its production having been in the news for some time. Gone With The Wind continues to live on in pop culture and as far as I can tell remains part of a rite of passage for young women from the south, myself included. Watch the movie, read the book and decide if you actually like Scarlett or not.
If you don't know the story, where the hell have you been? Okay, I'll humor you. It follows Scarlett O'Hara the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner in Georgia. Let's get to the point, either you like Scarlett or you think she's the biggest bitch ever. The latter by no means hinders your enjoyment of the film. She is in love with Ashley Wilkes who is set to marry his cousin, Melanie (insert southern inbreeding joke here). She's rejected by Ashley at a barbecue on the eve of the Civil War where she meets Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable. Oh, my God, I just realized how long it will take to explain this story. This may come off as lazy, but here's a 30 second version with bunnies that is pretty accurate:
The script was compressed from the novel which is twelve hundred or so pages long as I recall it. It had multiple writers and a lot of the lines in the film were lifted directly from the novel. Scarlett has two other kids in the book that just get completely dropped in the film. Oh, nobody will miss you Wade and Ella. Also, the film had multiple directors: First, George Cukor, then he got fired. Victor Fleming and then Sam Wood took over for a couple of weeks when Victor Fleming was too exhausted to direct.
The film is an accomplishment simply because of it's length, but also because of its detail. Selznick spared no expense in making as lavish a production as possible. I am particularly fond of the expressive use of color, in depicting the splendor of the antebellum south, the terror of war, the hardship of Reconstruction and ultimately in the fog used in the Scarlett's realization. Also, just look at a sequence like the burning of Atlanta or Scarlett walking through the war wounded. Or even a lighter sequence like the dance at the bazaar. You're going to have to go to YouTube and search for those things because someone over there decided to disable embedding.
There's also Scarlett O'Hara, one of the most memorable film heroines ever and also one of the most divisive. Leigh's performance is a very committed one and she evokes either a love or hate response. On the one hand, you can admire her will to survive. On the other, she is obsessed with a love for Ashley Wilkes. How much can you like someone that is still hung up on the guy she liked when she was seventeen? It's this that hinders her and she never has a real clue about this until the very end of the film. She never figures out that it is not just the acquisition of something isn't the only thing, there's also how and how you treat people. She never examines anything.
How bad ass is Clark Gable in this movie? He's the only one that seems to realize what a bitch Scarlett is, which is ironic since he's in love with her. He gets to be a rogue, gets all the best lines and even what I, along with the American Film Institute, would call the best line ever. You'll have to settle for this clip someone clearly recorded off their TV because once again people are embedding disabled happy.
You know what I've never understood about this scene? I swear Rhett must still be in the front yard when Scarlett starts in on the, "I'll think about it tomorrow" thing. Is she just a hopeless procrastinator? Just walk out there, you idiot! We've all been watching this movie for four hours! GO AFTER HIM, DAMN YOU!
Let's also not forget Olivia de Havilland as Melanie, who gives one of the most compelling and varied performances of the film, somehow managing to portray gentleness, grace and a quiet inner strength as a a foil against Scarlett.
I have to discuss the portrayals of the African American characters in the film. This is the movie that Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for, the first African American to do so. The characters are portrayed as largely one dimensional, mostly unintelligent and somehow loyal to the white people who enslaved them after the war. I would just think that Mammy would take emancipation as an opportunity to get the hell away from Scarlett. Mammy is not as bad as the part of Prissy which is just a groan inducing part. I was just thinking as I watched the film recently that she had to have to some kind of mental disability. There were hardly any african Americans in films, these were the parts to be had and it does suck that Prissy has to be one of the ones available.
I think Mammy's character, which is worth examining, is best understood as someone who has an emotional investment in the O'Hara family. Why not? She's cared for Scarlett since she was an infant. She cares for her as much as her own mother and in some ways is even wiser than her mother as regards Scarlett's true capriciousness. She's just powerless to deal with her, just as most of the other characters in the film are, save Rhett Butler and eventually he just gives up on her ass. Take one of Mammy's lines when Rhett comes calling: "Captain Butler's here. I told him you was prostrate with grief." Mammy is going to voice her displeasure, even though she can't do anything about it. One of the bits I've always enjoyed in the film is the camaraderie between Rhett and Mammy. Mammy disapproves of Rhett and he wants to win her over, calling her "One of the few people whose respect I'd like to have." I recently found out that Clark Gable was actually friends with Hattie McDaniel before the film and put her up for the part.
On a lighter note, here is the famed Carol Burnett show parody of Gone With The Wind.
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