Gone With the Wind (1939)

 

            “Gone With the Wind” is possibly the most famous American movie.  It was based on the biggest bestseller of its time.  For an entire generation, it created the image of the South in the  Civil War and Reconstruction.  The production was problematic.  David O. Selznick paid $50,000 for the rights to the book.  (Years later, Margaret Mitchell was given a $50,000 bonus.)  It took two years to begin shooting because Selznick wanted Clark Gable (after Gary Cooper turned down the Rhett Butler role because he was sure the film would be a flop).  1,400 women were interviewed for Scarlett.  31 were screen-tested.  It came down to Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh, who was little known in America.  Goddard’s scandalous affair with Charlie Chaplin nixed her.  The screenplay was a problem as well.  The book is over 1,000 pages.  Sidney Howard wrote the original script but it came in at a 6 hour movie.  Several screenwriters were brought in for revisions, but Howard still retained credit and won a posthumous Oscar.  (He had been killed in a farm tractor accident.)  Even with the rewrites, it still became the longest movie to win Best Picture.  The movie had 50 speaking roles and over 2,000 extras.  The scene with the Confederate wounded had 800 extras and 800 dummies.  George Cukor started as director, but was fired early for a disputed reason.  Most likely was because he did not fit the material.  Victor Fleming, fresh off “Wizard of Oz”, directed the film to 12 Oscar nominations.  It won for Best Picture (the first color film to win), Director, Actress, Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel), Art Direction, Adapted Screenplay, and Cinematography.  It was a huge hit and is the highest grossing American film if you adjust for inflation. 

            The movie begins with the first of Scarlett’s four “fiddle dee dees”.  It is the eve of the Civil War and all the young men are enthusiastic about the chance to prove their manhood in combat.  Better hurry and enlist because it’s going to be a short war.  What with the fact that one Southerner could whip twenty Northerners.  Rhett Butler (Gable) poops on the party by pointing out the North’s advantages in manufacturing and naval forces.  But this movie is not going to be about the war.  It is more of a biopic of a fictional character, Scarlett O’Hara.  Specifically, it deals with her unrequited love for Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard).  Unfortunately, the saintly Ashley is in love with the equally saintly Melanie (Olivia de Havilland).  To spite him, Scarlett marries Hamilton before he goes off to see the elephant.  He has “dead meat” tattooed on his forehead.  Butler becomes a glamorous blockade runner and pursuer of Scarlett.  He can have any woman, but he prefers this bitch who treats him like dirt.  He’s going to eventually get her, but not until Reconstruction. 

            The Civil War section includes the famous burning of Atlanta, one of the most famous scenes in movie history.  This is followed by Sherman’s March which gives the plucky Scarlett a chance to shoot a bummer in the face!  The war ends with Tara, Scarlett’s plantation, relatively untouched.  Here come the carpetbaggers.  Camera zooms in on a carpet bag.  The slaves are not comfortable with freedom, until they get promised “forty acres and a mule”.  Scarlett’s life is no longer one of attending dress balls.  Speaking of dress, she is forced to make a dress out of a curtain (a development mocked by Carol Burnett in a famous skit).  She is also forced to marry her sister’s beau to get money to save Tara.  Another dead meat.  At this point Scarlett is a widow twice over and still is pining for Ashley.  She settles for Rhett.  Theirs is a dysfunctional marriage which includes a marital rape scene that caused no controversy in 1939, but is squirm-worthy today.  The opposite would apply to Rhett’s “frankly dear, I don’t give a damn”.  (Chosen by AFI as the greatest quote in movie history.) 

            I originally saw GWTW in a theater (but not in 1939!) and was not impressed.  It took me decades to rewatch it because I finally convinced myself it is a war movie.  I’m still not impressed.  It is certainly a gorgeous movie with wonderful cinematography.  The acting is a strength and Gable and Leigh create indelible characters.  Scarlett O’Hara is one of the great characters in cinema.  She may be despicable, but she is more fascinating than the perfect Melanie.  The dialogue has been criticized, but I did not find it overly sappy.  It does have some great quotes. 

            Although the movie is a war movie because of the Civil War, there is little of the war in it.  It does start strong by portraying the naïve enthusiasm for the war, but why it was naïve is not depicted. We learn little of what Scarlett and Brett are doing in the war.  There is no exciting blockade running scene.  In fact, Rhett disappears for long stretches.  The movie spends more time and effort on Reconstruction.  It presents the Southern view of that period.  Carpetbaggers are evil.  Freedmen were treated worse than when they were slaves.  The upper class were downtrodden.  Boo hoo!

            I was surprised to find that the movie was not as offensive as it’s reputation.  It is not in a league with “The Birth of a Nation”.  All of the slaves are house slaves, so their depiction as loyal to their masters is not far from historical accuracy.  They are all happy.  Hattie McDaniel’s Mammy is not stomach-churning.  Most of the house slaves were Uncle Tom’s and McDaniel did not deserve condemnation.  She famously responded with:  “I’d rather make $700/week playing a maid than $7 being one.”  The movie does not use the n-word, but we do get “darkie” and “negro”.  The film does warrant criticism for not having any field slaves.  The movie does deserve the criticism for perpetuating the Lost Cause and the unfairness of Reconstruction.  It is a classic example of historical negationism which is the falsification and distortion of history.  But it did not create false history, instead it passed it on to viewers.

            GWTW is a must-see, but not a must-resee.  It is not a great war movie.  There is little of war in it and the home front scenes do not accurately reflect the South in the war and Reconstruction.  It does accurately reflect what the South thought the Civil War and Reconstruction was like.  The movie was highly entertaining for that time and thus attracted huge audiences and did more than any history book to perpetuate the Lost Cause.  I do not recommend it be shown in American History classes, but to ban it from TV is unwarranted.  It’s not a statue of Robert E. Lee.  And Scarlett O’Hara is not Varina Davis. 

GRADE  =  B-