Gone With The Wind (1939)

Directed by: Victor Fleming/George Cukor/Sam Wood
Written by: Sidney Howard (among others)
Based on book by: Margaret Mitchell

The Civil War was a terrible time in American history. It’s no wonder that one of the great American novels AND one of the great American films is based around that time. It’s got everything: blood, guts, romance, brother killing brother, intrigue.

That novel is Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell and the film is, of course, David O Selznick’s adaptation of Mitchell’s weighty tome.

Now, I’ve never been a big fan of this film, but I will admit that most of that opinion came from an 8 year old kid forced to watch it during an assembly. For some reason, they showed this movie to us in school…twice! Because 8-10 year old really have the patience for a four hour movie about a time that they didn’t experience made in a time they never experienced. At least it was in color, though. If it had been black and white, it would have been all over.

When I found out that I would actually be in town and not busy for the Grand Finale of the Paramount Summer Classics Series, I figured that I would give the movie another chance. 25 years may just be enough time.

Luckily, I think it probably was. I can absolutely see why this is one of the best loved films of all time and why it took the world by storm in 1939. Gone With The Wind is STILL the highest grossing film of all time (adjusted for inflation). And that’s quite a feat, considering the fact that there were no multi-plexes in 1939. It couldn’t be shown on 12 screens in one town. It was pretty much one screen, played three times a day, if that. But it played forever because people never stopped going.

A lot has been written about this movie, so I’ll try to keep this short. (TOO LATE!!!) It was one of the most anticipated films of all time. The first blockbuster (although they certainly didn’t have that term yet). The biggest casting search ever, probably. Maybe even the first protests over having a British actress (Vivian Leigh) playing such an iconic American character. (And, yes, Scarlett O’Hara was already an icon only three years after the book’s 1936 publication.)

Like I said, it is an amazing film in many respects. It’s beautifully shot in vibrant Technicolor. The screenplay by Sidney Howard is very good and pretty natural for its time. (He had some help from the likes of F Scott Fitzgerald, Ben Hecht and John Van Druten.) The score by Max Steiner is perfectly Southern and has become an icon in itself. And, of course, the production design by William Cameron Menzies is absolutely amazing. (All you need to see is the famous scene of the field of wounded that Scarlet roams around trying to find the doctor. If there’s one scene that defines this movie, it’s that one.)

But what really keeps people coming back to this film are the characters. Scarlet O’Hara and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable in the role that has come to define him more than the Walls Of Jericho) are such well written characters that it’s hard not to take it for granted that they really existed.

And, considering the zeitgeist of the time, everyone was ready for a movie like this. There were still people alive who lived through the Civil War. This was basically the Saving Private Ryan of the Golden Age of Hollywood. While the movie wasn’t necessarily “about” the Civil War, it pretty much was. Just as there’s really no separating the story of a troop of men trying to find one guy in a European war, there’s no separating the story of these two people falling in and out of love during the Civil War.

The movie isn’t just about Rhett and Scarlet, either. It’s also about Ashley and Melly Wilkes (Leslie Howard and Olivia de Haviland), the man Scarlet thinks she is really in love with and his long-suffering, saintly wife. Ashley is a pretty non-descript guy who, yes, is a war hero, but he’s cowardly in every other respect. He can’t seem to make up his mind between his wife and this little girl who keeps throwing herself at him every few years. He keeps telling Scarlet that he loves her pretty much just to placate her.

Melly, though, is a courageous and amazing woman. She is just about the only truly redeemable character in the entire film besides Mammy (Hattie McDaniel, who was the first black person to win an Oscar, and deservedly so…she’s amazing).

Wait…seriously? There are two redeemable characters in this film? How is that possible?

And THAT is one reason why this film is not one of my favorite films. A lot of the characters, Scarlet especially, are horrible people. Not only is there the whole “they own slaves” issue, but they’re just awful people in general. (Although, I will say that these are some of the nicest plantation owners I’ve ever seen. More on that later.)

Let’s start with Scarlet. How on EARTH has this woman become an icon of female strength? Sure, she’s strong and does what she needs to to survive…but often at the cost of her family. She marries two men: one to make another man jealous and one for money. The funny thing about the second man is that he was going to marry her sister! What the fuck?! I don’t care what she got out of the marriage, that makes her a terrible person. She’s manipulative, conniving and just all-around pretty evil. It’s as if the first half of the movie shows her growing into a good person from being a total brat and the second half shows her becoming a bitch who would do anything for money…and she never gets out of that mode! She pretty much deserves everything that she gets. I kinda hated her.

And there are those out there who will say that I would not feel the same if Scarlet was a man. Yes, I would. SHE FUCKING MARRIED HER SISTER’S MAN!!! If Han Solo had married his brother’s girlfriend just for money, I would hate him.

Speaking of Han Solo, I think that he was probably based heavily on Rhett Butler. While Melly was the heart of the film, Rhett is the soul. Yeah, he’s a bastard and says whatever is on his mind, no matter what it does to Scarlet, he only does it to people who deserve it. (Read: Scarlet.) He’s the mirror that Scarlet needs, but ignores throughout the film. She does something awful, he calls her on it, she goes on with her life.

Yeah, there’s the whole “rape scene.” They fight, he grabs her, carries her up the stairs and, we figure, rapes her. The thing about this scene is that it reminded me of the bit from The Life Of Brian when Brian asks his mom, “You mean, you were raped?!” She says, “Well, at first…” Rhett and Scarlet are fighting bitterly, she heads for the stairs, he follows her, kisses her hard, she fights a bit. Then he picks her up and she pretty much stops fighting. She’s basically given in to him right there. The next morning, she’s well-fucked and happy. (Seriously. She’s all smiles and stretches.)

Maybe in the book it’s more against her will and there’s more fighting. I don’t know and probably never will know. I don’t think I’m going to break this giant of a book out any time soon. But in the film it looks like just about any other scene where a woman is hesitant at first and then falls for the guy from a kiss. There’s more to it in this movie because of their history and none of this makes it right or even realistic, but it doesn’t seem as harsh as some have made it out to be. I’ve seen it in hundreds of movies. Hell, it basically happens in Star Wars without the sex.

Besides, while I would never say that any woman deserves to be raped (it’s probably the worst thing that could EVER happen to anyone, female or male), it’s hard to be very sympathetic to her even in this situation because she’s so terrible to everyone, especially Rhett.

Other than that one thing, Rhett is the very definition of the rogue with a heart of gold. He’s incredibly nice and generous to everyone, except the one woman he really loves: Scarlet. He knows that she’s a bad person, so he treats her the way she needs to be treated: with snide comments and the occasional truly harsh words. Their banter is perfect and actually pretty funny. I had no recollection of this film being such a comedy!

He also realizes that the Confederacy is a losing proposition. He helps them, but not because he believes in “The Cause,” but because they have money. He seems to be more of a Yankee than anyone else.

Speaking of Yankees and Southerners, the other problem I have in thinking that this is the greatest film of all time is just the absolute inaccuracy of it. Sure, it was difficult to get it totally right in 1939 because of censors and the fact that we were just beginning the upward climb from the nadir of race relations and I don’t expect every movie to be historically accurate all the time.

BUT, the story perpetuates outright lies about the Civil War and the Confederacy. First off, the Confederacy are the good guys in this film. There’s no getting around that. The characters talk about how awful the Yankees are and how they rape and pillage the towns they go through. And they talk about Sherman and how he was a terrible person to burn the Southern towns as he went through them.

While some of that went on (I won’t deny it), the Yankees tended to be nicer to their prisoners than the Southerners and, guess what? Sherman didn’t burn most of the South! Yeah, he burned some of it, but the Confederate soldiers burned most of it to frame Sherman and make sure that he didn’t get anything! They touch on this a tiny bit when the soldiers burn an ammunition dump, but they still blame Sherman for most of the destruction. Along with the “Evil Carpetbagger,” this is a lie that needs to stop.

Another lie is the “Plantation Owner With A Heart Of Gold.” These basically did not exist. Mammy would have been beaten daily for her insolence and Prissy (“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies!”) would have been killed outright. Hell, Scarlet probably would have killed her herself after her first bout of laziness.

At one point, Scarlet’s father does say that they treated their slaves better than most, but these folks are nicer to their slaves than Terrance Howard was to his hoes. Sure, they got slapped on occasion, but there were no whips, no ropes and no real indignation at all.

If this movie was remade today to be more historically accurate, people wouldn’t be able to watch it. It would probably be more like Goodbye, Uncle Tom and the only redeemable character would be the Yankee soldier that Scarlet blows away.

Whew. I just did a LOT of bitching about this film. What’s funny is that I actually DID enjoy watching it this time around. It’s an emotional roller-coaster of a film that is by turns hilarious and heart-breaking. It’s an amazing film that, for the most part, deserves a lot of its accolades.

I just couldn’t help but make a LOT of observations about the time it was about and the time it was made. It’s not a film that I would go to for a good feeling in my soul because, really, there’s nothing to latch onto except for Melly. I sincerely felt like I had just spent four hours with people I would NEVER want to spend an hour with if they weren’t on film.