HF Gone with the Wind Review

Historical-Fiction

hanna260

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Came across this: thought it had some interesting points- though I don't necessarily agree with all of it.

"Ultimately, the only man responsible for making Gone with the Wind look and talk like Gone with the Wind is Selznick himself; and if the film is a pure nightmare for us auteurists, at least you can plainly tell that it has a guiding mentality, even if his guidance was largely a matter of "make moments as over-the-top glitzy as you can". Even its most emotionally true moments are stunningly overwrought: the shot of Scarlett, in a a tawdry, gorgeous red dress (insisted upon by Fleming), standing in fiery isolation as cross-cut with the gaggle of plain "proper" women who like to gossip about her; or the repeating motif of Scarlett in silhouette, standing with her back to us, looking into the sunset (the only argument you'll ever need to prove that Technicolor is the best thing in the history of motion pictures); or the film's crowning moment, a truly unfathomable crane shot over the bodies of hundreds of extras, a dead field that stars in a medium shot of Scarlett and tracks back and back and up and up until we can just barely pick her out among the casualties, before she finally disappears behind a tattered Confederate flag (this magnificent shot was proposed by Val Lewton, later the famous producer of RKO's brilliant horror movie B-unit in the 1940s). The only thing that Gone with the Wind ever needs to do, it does: present imagery that is gorgeous, and present it with conviction. The mere fact that Fleming and Wood weren't terribly gifted directors can't stand in the way of Selznick's money."

http://antagonie.blogspot.com/2010/01/1939-tomorrow-is-another-day.html

And here's some discussion of the best shot and the clip he's talking about.

http://antagonie.blogspot.com/2014/08/best-shot-gone-with-wind-first-half.html


Thoughts? This is a terribly important and popular movie, and I know @kepi posted a thread on this movie too recently- but hey, can never have too much discussion, right? :wink:
 
Here's some more of the review.

"What the movie has to make up for all of that is Vivien Leigh, who makes Scarlett one of the most vivid, living characters in all of motion pictures, perhaps the best performance ever to win an Oscar. When I am not watching the movie, and bathing in its rampant opulence, but only recalling it from a distance, it's always Leigh's acting that I recall: she fully commands every scene she is in and most of the ones she's not in, letting all the torrid emotion of the story play across her nervous eyes set in a chiseled marble face. We are not supposed to like Scarlett; she is a wicked woman who violates all the nice rules that nice people set up for nice society, all out of a selfish love of money and another woman's husband. But I can't help myself from adoring her completely, not only because most of the people she stands opposed to are morally bankrupt ex-slave owners, but because Leigh demands my adoration. Her Scarlett is a strong, unflinching figure who knows that the world will not do her any favors, and **** the world because of it; a modern woman in a film made when modern women were looked at askance, set in a time when modern women were as the devil himself, but it's exactly that take-no-prisoners, to hell with propriety attitude that makes her so exquisitely appealing; and that's all Leigh. On the page, she's just a *****. The resolve and the strength and the intelligence, all those come from the performance, and even as Leigh also mixes all those virtues with incredible blindness and childlike greediness, I can't love her character any less."
 
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Interesting. It doesn't appear anyone is dead. They are all wounded and moving. Lol a real nightmare for the stretcher bearers. Thanks for posting hanna!
 
If that shot doesn't make you feel the scale of the thing, in which one woman's difficult labor is swamped beneath a sea of human suffering, I don't know what would.

I think the hand-wringing of the first post you linked to is a bit much, and I couldn't disagree more with the writer's contention that the book is more racist than the movie. In the book, Scarlett is clearly an unreliable narrator, and we see only glimpses - startling to self-involved Scarlett - of the true thoughts and motivations of the family retainers around her. Uncle Peter thinks Scarlett is no better than she should be. Mammy thinks she's a mule in horse's harness. And it's strongly implied that Prissy's agonizing slowness and incompetence is deliberate rebellion, sabotage, and a total lack of interest in whether one whiny white woman dies in childbirth. This is no paean to the Peculiar Institution, as the article calls it. It's a specific perspective of a specific person, and that person is by no means applauded.

In the movie, on the other hand, we see Prissy with our eyes. Her squeaky little voice and ridiculous mannerisms are a matter of fact, not opinion. That, to me, makes the movie overwhelmingly more racist than the book.
 
I first saw GWTW when I was 9 years old, at a drive-in theater. So those big horizon shots were enormous. Two scenes gave me nightmares: the amputation and the train yard. I had just begun reading about the Civil War and the human cost had not begun to occur to me until those moments. I saw it on the big screen again last winter. The train yard made me cry, right there in public. Masterful. Starts with that close up of Scarlett, then pans out as she walks and is engulfed by the living sea of wounded. By the time the fluttering battle flag makes it's appearance, she's almost beyond spotting. It just doesn't get any better than that.
I brought my kids and bribed them with endless snacks to watch it. Our 16 year old African-American daughter (who's seen GWTW before) really resonated with Mammy's character, especially when she gets Melanie after Bonnie Blue died. The strength of Hattie McDaniel's acting is so powerful, even in a stereotyped role. Then there's our 9 year old boy. His response to the red dress? "Wow..." I think I heard his voice change.
Just a couple reasons why, despite all I know about history, culture and that film, GWTW is still one of my favorite films.
 
In my teaching I often showed clips of movies to my students. From Gone With the Wind I showed the opening scene where Rhett warns the South that the North has cannon foundries and a fleet to bottle up our harbors and the South little more than cotton and arrogance. Then the Virginia reel scene with the huge Stars and Bars on the wall. Next the part where the news of Gettysburg hits Atlanta and lastly that outdoor hospital scene in the rail yard. It's about thirty minutes of the movie but it is very good for creating the ambience of the South during the war. Since I showed the whole of Glory and about half of Gettysburg (I had a very tolerant department head) I wanted something that dealt with the Southern home front and despite some its flaws it served that purpose very well.
 
If that shot doesn't make you feel the scale of the thing, in which one woman's difficult labor is swamped beneath a sea of human suffering, I don't know what would.

I think the hand-wringing of the first post you linked to is a bit much, and I couldn't disagree more with the writer's contention that the book is more racist than the movie. In the book, Scarlett is clearly an unreliable narrator, and we see only glimpses - startling to self-involved Scarlett - of the true thoughts and motivations of the family retainers around her. Uncle Peter thinks Scarlett is no better than she should be. Mammy thinks she's a mule in horse's harness. And it's strongly implied that Prissy's agonizing slowness and incompetence is deliberate rebellion, sabotage, and a total lack of interest in whether one whiny white woman dies in childbirth. This is no paean to the Peculiar Institution, as the article calls it. It's a specific perspective of a specific person, and that person is by no means applauded.

In the movie, on the other hand, we see Prissy with our eyes. Her squeaky little voice and ridiculous mannerisms are a matter of fact, not opinion. That, to me, makes the movie overwhelmingly more racist than the book.
For one, maybe I am just an Arkansas hick but I had a hard time following the review, to many big words for this country boy. whew!
 
I think the hand-wringing of the first post you linked to is a bit much, and I couldn't disagree more with the writer's contention that the book is more racist than the movie. In the book, Scarlett is clearly an unreliable narrator, and we see only glimpses - startling to self-involved Scarlett - of the true thoughts and motivations of the family retainers around her. Uncle Peter thinks Scarlett is no better than she should be. Mammy thinks she's a mule in horse's harness. And it's strongly implied that Prissy's agonizing slowness and incompetence is deliberate rebellion, sabotage, and a total lack of interest in whether one whiny white woman dies in childbirth. This is no paean to the Peculiar Institution, as the article calls it. It's a specific perspective of a specific person, and that person is by no means applauded.

I've only seen a bit of the movie, but I have read the book. I'll admit- my experiences reading the book didn't really match up with this guy's. I'm definitely with you on some of the more objectionable parts of the book as far as racism and even historical misconceptions being chalked down to Scarlett's status as a unreliable narrator.

For one, maybe I am just an Arkansas hick but I had a hard time following the review, to many big words for this country boy. whew!

Never fear! I had a rather hard time getting through it too. He can be rather pretentious in the review, can't he?

To the rest of you: it's clear that GWTW had a very real impact on people both then and now, and even on society at the time. I don't think any movie now could really be compared.
 
Never fear! I had a rather hard time getting through it too. He can be rather pretentious in the review, can't he?

I sure am glad it wasn't just me then.
 
I've only seen a bit of the movie, but I have read the book. I'll admit- my experiences reading the book didn't really match up with this guy's. I'm definitely with you on some of the more objectionable parts of the book as far as racism and even historical misconceptions being chalked down to Scarlett's status as a unreliable narrator.



Never fear! I had a rather hard time getting through it too. He can be rather pretentious in the review, can't he?

To the rest of you: it's clear that GWTW had a very real impact on people both then and now, and even on society at the time. I don't think any movie now could really be compared.

Took me forever to read GWTW--I found it tiresome. My mother graduated from high school in the mid 1930s and saw the movie early on--she was always a big movie person. Her statements about the movie were pretty much confined to "Clark Gable." She did say, "We were all shocked when Clark Gable said dam*."

I'm not sure she could name any of the other actors. The reviewer seems not to have noticed that Clark Gable was in the movie.

And his adoration for Scarlett--please, the woman spends the entire novel and movie trying to steal her best friend's husband. A best friend who has truly been nice to her for Scarlett's entire narcissistic life. Some of us have had best friends with the same boyfriend/husband stealing propensity as Scarlett, but they're not women I hold up as role models.
 
Took me forever to read GWTW--I found it tiresome. My mother graduated from high school in the mid 1930s and saw the movie early on--she was always a big movie person. Her statements about the movie were pretty much confined to "Clark Gable." She did say, "We were all shocked when Clark Gable said dam*."

I'm not sure she could name any of the other actors. The reviewer seems not to have noticed that Clark Gable was in the movie.
That's too bad you found it tiresome--do you feel the same way about the film?:confused:
 
Rhett,
This is my twin brother, we were separated at birth, I look just like him.

Clark.jpg
 
Took me forever to read GWTW--I found it tiresome. My mother graduated from high school in the mid 1930s and saw the movie early on--she was always a big movie person. Her statements about the movie were pretty much confined to "Clark Gable." She did say, "We were all shocked when Clark Gable said dam*."

I'm not sure she could name any of the other actors. The reviewer seems not to have noticed that Clark Gable was in the movie.

And his adoration for Scarlett--please, the woman spends the entire novel and movie trying to steal her best friend's husband. A best friend who has truly been nice to her for Scarlett's entire narcissistic life. Some of us have had best friends with the same boyfriend/husband stealing propensity as Scarlett, but they're not women I hold up as role models.
Melanie Hamilton was hardly Scarlett's "best friend"...Scarlett was indeed narcissistic, but she really didn't appreciate Melanie until the end.
 
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