Gone With the Wind: 1939

Where do I begin with this film...it's an epic at nearly four hours long, a classic film frequently spoofed or quoted, and a story about one woman who defines selfishness for most of her life. Other than knowing a few of the famous lines and a couple plot points, I didn't really know Scarlet O'Hara's story, and the film really is just that it: her story. Clark Gable as Rhett Butler is certainly part of the film, but it isn't Rhett's story: Rhett is only involved when he's connected to Scarlet. Whatever I was expecting, it wasn't a story so focused on her, especially since she, in many ways, is an incredibly unlikable character.

Vivien Leigh portrayed Scarlet, and although I haven't seen her in anything else, she truly captures Scarlet's flirtatious, deceptive, selfish, determined nature. For most of her life, Scarlet believes she is in love with her childhood sweetheart, Ashley Wilkes, and when he marries Melanie, a woman who actually likes Scarlet, the world seems to end for Scarlet. She ends up marrying Melanie's brother Charles, and we learn later in the film that she only does this to make Ashley jealous (and, of course, that doesn't work). This marriage is one of three for Scarlet, and while marrying Charles does take him away from another woman, the marriage doesn't seem as despicable as her second when she takes her sister's love and marries him to get the money to save her beloved home Tara.

Being set during and after the Civil War in Georgia, I gained a new perspective of a war that I learned about in school. I knew the war crushed the South, but in Gone With the Wind, I actually saw that devastation, including the burning of Atlanta, the destruction of land, and the dead and wounded soldiers. One particular tragic scene is when Scarlet, Prissy, Melanie, and Melanie's baby are in a wagon trying to get to Tara. All they can see are dead soldiers littering the fields, and in some areas, they must go over the bodies on the road. This image showed just how much death this war brought, and the looks on the characters' faces shows that seeing these fields makes them realize just how terrible the war was. But the only ones who seem to realize that the war should never have been fought is Scarlet (because it ruined her life), Rhett (because he knew they would lose), and Ashley (because he now sees what happened). The other characters in the war continue to blame the Yankees, even more so when the carpetbaggers arrive and set up camp, making life even more difficult.

Would I spend another four hours to watch this film again? No. I enjoyed watching the first disc (yes, it was on two DVDs), but about halfway through the second, I'd had enough of Scarlet. The film itself (the first film in color to win an Oscar) was gorgeous, the soundtrack was perfect, but Scarlet grows more and more selfish until the very end, and even then, I'm not sure she redeems herself. I do wonder if Scarlet even did win Rhett back. The film ends with her claiming that she will, and considering how the first of the film went, she usually gets what she wants. But Rhett has always been different, which makes me think this may be the time in her life when she truly learns what it means to be unhappy.