Frankly My Dear...

#6—Gone with the Wind

Throughout the ages, people have been drawn to the tales of tragic love. Shakespeare was the master at attracting audiences to his tragic plays like Romeo & Juliet. Thanks to author Nicolas Sparks, people in the modern age can be sucked in to more tragedy with books and films like A Walk to Remember and The Notebook. All of those are classic love stories, but AFI’s #6 film is the granddaddy of them all.

Gone with the Wind is an epic story that follows a southern belle through the American Civil War. Scarlett O’Hara is a beautiful young woman and has the attitude to show it. Scarlett is pursued by many a suitor; however she only has eyes for one. Ashely, however, is bound to be married and Scarlett is not happy about it one bit. Scarlett does not care; she is still going to love Ashley even when Rhett Butler walks into her life.

Hailed as one of the best love stories ever to be told, I will admit that I was a little confused. The movie follows Scarlett throughout the war, how she loses her family’s plantation, rebuilds it, marries a man that is not Ashley, builds up his merchant business, then marries Rhett. All this time she still loves the one man that she cannot have, Ashley. However, at 3 hours and 30 minutes (the film is 4 hours long), when the one obstacle that was standing between Scarlett and Ashely is gone, she realizes that she really does love Rhett. I had always thought this film was a love story between Scarlett and Rhett, not her chasing a married man.

From the beginning of this film, the filmmakers make this production to be very grand. The sets and the costumes are very lavish and elegant. I assume because this film was one of the first to be in color, they wanted to show off the vibrant colors. Rhett is always dressed in colorful suits and hats, along with Scarlett and her dresses. The only time that Scarlett is not in color is when two of her husband’s die and of course, she is in black. The sets are in even colorful, the inside of her plantation to even the outside backdrops.

Vivian Leigh plays the very ‘confidant’ Scarlett O’Hara. Leigh does an amazing job bringing out Scarlett’s manipulative side and even her intelligent side when it comes to raising her family’s plantation back from nothing and building her second husband’s merchant store to a profitable store and lumberyard. Clark Gable plays the infamous scoundrel Rhett Butler and does a decent job. I honestly have nothing to compare his performance to because this is the first film I seen of his. Though again, this is where my misunderstanding of the film comes in, Rhett plays the pursuer. Rhett professes his love for Scarlett from the beginning and tries through the whole film to have her fall in love with him. Gable does a great job being coy and mischievous, but when it comes to scenes with Scarlett, he becomes the opposite.

I liked the film from a filmmaker’s standpoint because as I pointed out, this film was very well produced for its scale. I felt that is was more of a ‘girl power’ film than an actual love story. As much as Scarlett is manipulative, she uses that gift to make something of herself and take what she wants. This is a very character driven film with very little ‘action’ to help the story along. All of that coupled with the films length, I would suggest only viewing this film once just to say you have seen it.

Verdict: Worth Your Time (Once)