I understand the popularity of the novel, which, though engaging, is just a pocket romance, and not a good one. What made the book interesting was the Southern belle slant on Post-war Georgia. I wonder what her second novel might have been if not for the bus that hit Margaret Mitchell. I have seen the movie umpteen times, put off by the ‘happy slave scenes’ the slightly overacted performances and the subject of the civil war in general. We are faced with two problems in appreciating Gone with the Wind. First, the times and events depicted, and the attitudes and social milieu of the time when the movie was made. Much has changed in the interim to make this movie outdated. It must have been socially acceptable to portray black people as ‘happy go lucky’ in a slavery situation, as well as being intentionally loyal to their enslavers. It has never been acceptable to me, and I have found it hard to get past it, to even watch the movie.
Margaret Mitchell paints a benevolent portrait of plantation owners, and paints the American South as the sole victim of the brutality of war. Well in war, things are tough all over. The war wasn’t fought over honour. Cineastes have got their head out of their mind. The war, like all wars, was fought for money. If a way of life and graceful living departed in the South, keep in mind that it was a way of life which only the rich Southern plantation owners could enjoy.
But the film isn’t really about the civil war. The war was merely happening at the time. Gone with the Wind was about Rhett Butler and Scarlet O’Hara. It chronicles their relationship and follows a familiar pattern in failed marriages. It is about love, passion, anger and hardship, and ultimately, the failure to communicate.
I still find Clark Gable one of the sexiest movie stars ever to grace the screen. Vivien Leigh was a completely believable Scarlet, and her personality characteristics must be part of the early education of women here in the South, because every woman here seems to be a little like her. Manipulative, charming, flirtatious. conniving, Southern Belles. Max Steiner puts together a respectable score and the themes play at the right moments. The photography is quite beautiful although the repetition of the black silhouettes against the sunsets gets a little old. There are some impressive scenes of Atlanta burning. The two best performances were from Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy, and Butterfly McQueen who played the lovable, shrill and slightly demented maid, Prissy.
Many viewers would hate racism and war today. Today’s crime and cop movies in Hollywood may have reconditioned viewers. Does today’s street walker ever defer to polite society? Would today’s black culture stand for the self effacing black roles in this movie? I think not. In the south it still is a good old boy, and old money, class structure that rules. Rhett Butler is no more likely today to join that elite circle than he was then.