Well, on one level I was right to dread Gone With the Wind (Oscar Best Picture #12). It is a heinous piece of Confederate propaganda. The entire thing is nothing but an argument for how great things were in the South if the war hadn't ruined it all. The poor stupid black people were happier as slaves anyway, says this movie, and the few smart ones kept right on loyally serving their white betters whether they were "free" or not. A privileged white woman like Scarlett could have lived out her life as the spoiled, vapid rich girl she was always meant to be with her pretty little head never troubled by deprivation or worse, business. The war is blamed for ruining everything innocent and robbing everyone of the happiness they should have had if them mean ole Yankees hadn't wrecked Paradise itself where everything was beautiful and everyone knew their place.
Scarlett O'Hara is of course the high-spirited, conniving bitch for which the character name has become synonymous. I actually sympathized with her more than I thought I was going to, at least in the middle of the movie when she was the only one who had the inner strength to keep going when everything was falling apart. She actually managed to turn her flaws into virtues. The rest of the time she was very hard to like. She was cruel, shallow, proud, spiteful, and breathtakingly selfish. She didn't deserve anyone's loyalty, and yet had everyone else dancing to the tune of her fiddle. Like the spoiled child she was she only wanted something when told she couldn't have it.
Rhett Butler is a rapist and this movie is probably responsible for a lot of rape fantasies for both men and women. It typifies the "if the woman says no in no uncertain terms, she secretly wants the man to force her" attitude because that's the crux of every interaction Rhett and Scarlett have. Rhett also seems to serve as a weird spokesperson from the future, predicting everything that the filmmakers knew in hindsight actually happened but someone in that time wouldn't know. For example, he correctly sees Gettysburg as the turning point of the war before the battle even happens, when in reality the armies meeting at Gettysburg was an accident and he in Georgia couldn't have known there was going to be a battle there at all, let alone whether the outcome was important. It bugged me even though I knew it was a storytelling device.
All that aside, the production itself is incredible when compared to all the Oscar winners that preceded it. It is such a huge leap forward in every way. It's in color. It's almost four hours long, and I was never bored. The shots were all gorgeous, especially the ones with the characters in silhouette. I can see why people in 1939 were swept off their feet by the sheer scope and spectacle of the thing. It and The Wizard of Oz, which came out the same year, are true cinematic achievements. Even if I find the subject matter of this particular piece utterly despicable.
Watched: September 16, 2017
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