"Gone With The Wind"

Title: "Gone With The Wind"

Director: Victor Fleming
Producers: David O. Selznick
Editing: H.C. Kern and J.E. Newcom
Composer: Max Steiner
Starring:
- Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara
- Clark Gable as Rhett Butler
- Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes
- Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes
- Thomas Mitchell as Gerald O'Hara
- Barbara O'Neil as Ellen O'Hara
- Evelyn Keyes as Suellen O'Hara
- Ann Rutherford as Carreen O'Hara
- George Reeves as Stuart Tarleton
- Fred Crane as Brent Tarleton
- Hattie McDaniel as Mammy
- Oscar Polk as Pork
- Butterfly McQueen as Prissy
- Victor Jory as Jonas Wilkerson
- Everett Brown as Big Sam

Plot and Critical Review:

Part 1

The film opens on a large cotton plantation called Tara in rural Georgia in 1861. Scarlett O'Hara is flirting with the two Tarleton brothers, Brent and Stuart, who have been expelled from the University of Georgia. Scarlett, Suellen, and Careen are the daughters of Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara and his wife, Ellen O'Hara, who is of aristocratic French ancestry. The brothers share a secret with Scarlett: Ashley Wilkes, whom Scarlett secretly loves, is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. The engagement is to be announced the next day at a barbecue at Ashley's home, Twelve Oaks.

At Twelve Oaks, Scarlett notices that she is being admired by a handsome but roguish visitor, Rhett Butler, who had been turned out of West Point and disowned by his Charleston family. Rhett finds himself in further disfavor among the male guests when, during a discussion of the probability of war, he states that the South has no chance against the superior numbers and industrial might of the North. Scarlett sneaks out of her afternoon nap to be alone with Ashley in the library, and confesses her love for him. He admits he finds Scarlett attractive, and that he has always secretly loved her back, but says that he and Melanie are more compatible. She accuses Ashley of misleading her to think that he did love her and slaps him. Ashley silently exits and her anger continues when she realizes that Rhett, taking an afternoon nap on the couch, overheard the whole conversation. "Sir, you are no gentleman!" she protests, to which he replies, "And you, miss, are no lady!" Nevertheless, Rhett promises to keep her secret. Scarlett leaves the library in haste, and the barbecue is disrupted by the announcement that war has broken out. The men rush to enlist. As Scarlett watches Ashley kiss Melanie goodbye from the upstairs window, Melanie’s shy young brother Charles Hamilton, with whom Scarlett had been innocently flirting, asks for her hand in marriage before he goes to war. Despite not loving Charles, Scarlett consents in order to get close to the family and make Ashley jealous. They are married before Charles leaves to fight.

Scarlett is quickly widowed when Charles dies from a bout of pneumonia. Scarlett's mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta to cheer her up, although the O’Haras' outspoken housemaid Mammy knows she is going there only to wait for Ashley’s return. Scarlett and Melanie attend a charity bazaar in Atlanta. Rhett, now a heroic blockade runner for the Confederacy, makes a surprise appearance. Scarlett shocks Atlanta society even more by accepting Rhett's large bid for a dance. While they dance, Rhett tells her of his intention to win her, which she says will never happen as long as she lives.

The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg in which many of the men of Scarlett's town are killed. Scarlett makes another unsuccessful appeal to Ashley’s heart while he is visiting on Christmas furlough, although they do share a private and passionate kiss on Christmas Day.

Eight months later, as Atlanta is besieged by the Union Army in the Atlanta Campaign, Melanie goes into a premature and difficult labor. Staying true to a promise Scarlett made to Ashley to "take care of Melanie", she and her young house servant Prissy must deliver the child without medical attendance. Scarlett calls upon Rhett to bring her home to Tara immediately with Melanie, Prissy, and the baby. He appears with a horse and wagon to take them out of the city on a perilous journey through the burning depot and warehouse district. He leaves her alone on the road leading to Tara. She repays him rudely with a slap, to his bemusement, as he goes off to fight with the Confederate Army. On her journey home, Scarlett finds Twelve Oaks burned out, ruined and deserted. She is relieved to find Tara still standing but deserted by all except her parents, her sisters, and two servants, Mammy and Pork. Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of typhoid fever and her father's mind has begun to crumble under the strain. With Tara pillaged by Union troops, and the fields untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself, exclaiming, "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"

Part 2

Scarlett sets her family and servants to picking the cotton fields. With the defeat of the Confederacy and wars end, Ashley returns from being a prisoner of war. The dispirited Ashley finds he is of little help to Tara, and when Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie. Gerald O'Hara dies after he is thrown from his horse. Scarlett is left to support the family, and realizes she cannot pay the rising taxes on Tara implemented by Reconstructionists. Knowing that Rhett is in Atlanta and believing he is still rich, she has Mammy make an elaborate gown for her from her mother’s drapes. However, upon her visit, Rhett, now in jail, tells her his foreign bank accounts have been blocked, and that her attempt to get his money has been in vain.

As Scarlett departs Rhett in jail, she encounters her sister’s fiancé, the middle-aged Frank Kennedy, who now owns a successful general store and lumber mill. Scarlett lies to Kennedy by saying Suellen got tired of waiting and married someone else. After becoming Mrs. Frank Kennedy, Scarlett takes over his business, and with the profits buys a sawmill which becomes very profitable during the rebuilding of Atlanta—in part because she is willing to trade with the despised Yankee carpetbaggers and use convicts as laborers in her mill. When Ashley is about to take a job with a bank in the north, Scarlett preys on his weakness by weeping that she needs him to help run the mill; pressured by the sympathetic Melanie, he relents. One day, after Scarlett is attacked while driving alone through a nearby shantytown, Frank, Ashley, and others make a night raid on the shantytown. Ashley is wounded in a melee with Union troops, and Frank is killed.

With Frank’s funeral barely over, Rhett visits Scarlett and proposes marriage. Scarlett accepts, partially for his money. After a honeymoon in New Orleans, Rhett promises to restore Tara to its former grandeur, while Scarlett builds the biggest mansion in Atlanta. The two have a daughter. Scarlett wants to name her Eugenie Victoria, but Rhett names her Bonnie Blue Butler. Rhett adores her as a symbol of the spirited girl Scarlett was before the war. He does everything to win the good opinion of Atlanta society for his daughter’s sake. Scarlett, still pining for Ashley, lets Rhett know that she wants no more children and that they will no longer share a bed.

When visiting the mill one day, Scarlett listens to a nostalgic Ashley, and when she consoles him with an embrace, they are spied by two gossips including Ashley's sister India, who hates Scarlett. They eagerly spread the rumor and Scarlett’s reputation is again sullied. Later that night, Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett out of bed and to attend a birthday party for Ashley. Incapable of believing anything bad of her beloved sister-in-law, Melanie stands by Scarlett's side so that all know that she believes the gossip to be false.

At home later that night, while trying to sneak a drink for herself, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk. Blind with jealousy, he tells Scarlett that he could kill her if he thought it would make her forget Ashley. Picking her up, he carries her up the stairs in his arms, telling her, "This is one night you're not turning me out." She awakens the next morning with a look of guilty pleasure, but Rhett returns to apologize for his behavior and offers a divorce, which Scarlett rejects. Rhett decides to take Bonnie on an extended trip to London. However,one night, when Bonnie cries in a nightmare and asks to be reconciled with her, Rhett realizes that Bonnie still needs her mother by her side. Rhett returns with Bonnie, and Scarlett is delighted to see him, but he rebuffs her attempts at reconciliation. He remarks at how she looks different and she tells him that she is pregnant again. Rhett tells her "Cheer up. Maybe you'll have an accident." Enraged, Scarlett lunges at him, falls down the stairs and suffers a miscarriage. Rhett, frantic with guilt, cries to Melanie about his jealousy, yet refrains from telling Melanie about Scarlett's true feelings for Ashley.

As Scarlett is recovering, little Bonnie, as impulsive as her grandfather, dies in a fall while attempting to jump a fence with her pony. Scarlett blames Rhett, and Rhett blames himself. Melanie visits the home to comfort them, and convinces Rhett to allow Bonnie to be laid to rest, but then collapses during a second pregnancy she was warned could kill her. On her deathbed, she asks Scarlett to look after Ashley for her. Outside, Ashley collapses in tears, helpless without his wife. Only then does Scarlett realize that she never could have meant anything to him, and that she had loved something that never really existed. She runs home to find Rhett packing to leave her. She begs him not to leave, telling him she realizes now that she had loved him all along. However, he refuses, saying that with Bonnie's death went any chance of reconciliation.

As Rhett walks out the door, planning to return to his hometown of Charleston, she pleads, "Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?" He famously answers, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

What could I possibly say about this movie that hasn't been said a hundred times over? I'd like to give the floor to Roger Ebert, who says it pretty well in this excerpt from his Sun Times review:

"As an example of filmmaking craft, ``GWTW'' is still astonishing. Several directors worked on the film; George Cukor incurred Clark Gable's dislike and was replaced by Victor Fleming, who collapsed from nervous exhaustion and was relieved by Sam Wood and Cameron Menzies. The real auteur was the producer, David O. Selznick, the Steven Spielberg of his day, who understood that the key to mass appeal was the linking of melodrama with state-of-the-art production values. Some of the individual shots in "GWTW'' still have the power to leave us breathless, including the burning of Atlanta, the flight to Tara and the "street of dying men'' shot, as Scarlett wanders into the street and the camera pulls back until the whole Confederacy seems to lie broken and bleeding as far as the eye can see.

And there is a joyous flamboyance in the visual style that is appealing in these days when so many directors have trained on the blandness of television. Consider an early shot where Scarlett and her father look out over the land, and the camera pulls back, the two figures and a tree held in black silhouette with the landscape behind them. Or the way the flames of Atlanta are framed to backdrop Scarlett's flight in the carriage.

I've seen "Gone With the Wind'' in four of its major theatrical revivals--1954, 1961, 1967 (the abortive "widescreen'' version) and 1989, and now here is the 1998 restoration. It will be around for years to come, a superb example of Hollywood's art and a time capsule of weathering sentimentality for a Civilization gone with the wind, all right--gone, but not forgotten." (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980621/REVIEWS08/401010323/1023)

My Rating: 9/10

Content to Caution:
V-2 - Quite a bit of slapping and some street-violence as a result of war-related looting.
L-1.5 - Southern sophistication manages to divert too much cursing.
DU-2.5 - Many of the characters (especially men) drink and smoke. In Part 2, several characters drink in order to forget their troubles.
RT-2.5 - In a movie set before and during the Civil War, it is impossible to avoid racial themes, but there is little outright slander against or mistreatment of African Americans. Their portrayal as slaves (and more importantly, as members of the family) seems accurate.
H/S-1 - No comment.
CH-2 - No comment.
S/N-1 - You got your kisses on the forehead, kisses on the hand, and a few kisses on the lips.

The "Reel Revelation": "The Greatest Ever"

No doubt you've been asked, "What's your favorite movie?" As a musician I'm often asked what my favorite song is, or musical, or composer. Try as I might to give an answer reflecting my feelings, I'm sure to give a different answer to the same question were I to be asked again a week later. I'm fickle like that. We are fickle like that. Our fancies change so often it's a wonder can keep track of what it is we do and don't like. But there are some things that most people are willing to agree on..."The Greatest Ever". "Gone With A Wind" is one of the very few films that has won this title. Other films stand beside it, for in the cinematic world multiple films can share in the everlasting glory of stardom, but it is rare to see such consensus on any subject when it comes to "The Greatest Ever." So why is it that "Gone With The Wind" has lasted so long and become a treasure to lovers of film all over the world? It might help to look at over films which have also gained "Greatest Ever" status. Let us employ AFI (American Film Institute) for some help. In 2007, AFI updated their Top 100 Films Of All Time list, and here's how the Top 10 unfolded:

1. "Citizen Kane"

2. "The Godfather"

3. "Casablanca"

4. "Raging Bull"

5. "Singin' in the Rain"

6. "Gone With The Wind"

7. "Lawrence of Arabia"

8. "Schindler's List"

9. "Vertigo"

10. "The Wizard of Oz"

What is the common thread? We've got everything from German concentration camps to talking apple trees to horse heads to guerrilla warfare and some nice fella singing during inclement weather. It doesn't seem like there's any common thread here at all! But there must be...there must be something in all of these films that has caused them to reach such heights of popularity and fame. Since we must try and find something common in all of them, we'd better start with what is most obvious:

Love - This is at the least the easiest of plot devices to locate. Even in the horrific scenes of "Schindler's List" we see a love enduring all persecution and suffering. Love abounds.

Coming of Age - It might be a stretch in a couple of the Top 10, but "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Godfather" have strong coming-of-age elements, and we almost always identify with characters who have to suffer the trials of adolescence. This is also why actors who portray said characters become so endearing...we see ourselves through their performances, even if we never grew up in mafia families or were transported to parallel realities.

Good v.s. Evil - This plot device might be easier to discover than love. You know it when you see it, and you almost always feel the fight inside of you as you watch it taking place on the screen.

Truth - All of these films deal with the pursuit of truth. They may do so in different ways and to different ends, but it's certainly there. Just as our personal search for truth can sometimes end in frustration, some films get quite near the presence of truth but withhold an obvious revelation.

We're likely to relate to/identify with these four elements above all others because they permeate every part of human life. We find ourselves involved in these different emotional experiences at all times. We're always falling in and out of love, discovering ourselves as we continue to grow and mature, struggling against the forces of evil in the world while trying to do good for God's Kingdom, and we are ever searching for what is true and will remain true forever.

But even films (love them as we do!) fall short of what is truly "The Greatest (Story) Ever"...the story of Jesus, the Messiah. His life was wrapped in these elements from the very beginning. He was born out of God's love for humanity, and was Himself the incarnation of the most righteous and brilliant love of all. Jesus "came of age" in human form, that we might know and believe in a god who cares for and understands us, not a distant god who doesn't sympathize or care about our sufferings and challenges. Jesus walked this earth and died upon the cross to settle the score and end the battle raging between good and evil. Though that battle still rages on, the victory has been confirmed and Jesus is our heavenly champion. And Jesus spoke words of truth that had never been heard before, words of revelation and challenge, both admonishing us to faithful service and instructing us in the way to live. But he did not only speak the truth, for he said "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6a)

There may be great movies, and great songs, and great heroes, and great events, and great inventions, but there will never be another Greater than He who overcame death and the grave for our sake. He is Jesus. Worship Him today, my friends, and give Him thanks and praise.

"Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,

And His greatness is unsearchable." (Psalm 145:3)

See you Monday - E.T.

P.S. - My apologies for getting this post up a day late. I felt I needed the extra time when dealing a motion picture as monumental as this one is.