Reviewing Movies

GONE WITH THE WIND

Here is a movie worthy of one of the few remaining Grand Ole Theatres. In 1939 computers were barely the stuff of Science Fiction so that railway scene of thousands of wounded soldiers represents real extras, those warehouses really did burn and collapse, those boxcars blew up. Movies still rivalled live theatre productions and began with a Musical Prelude, had Intermission Music at the 2 hour mark and ended with Exit Music. I’d forgotten that the movie title was blown across the screen in full-size letters.

I’d also forgotten that Scarlet O’Hara was Katie-Scarlet. Again that Southern predilection for double names: Sue-Ellen, Jim-Bob, Billy-Bob, Billy-Ray—a child knew it was in real trouble when addressed as William-Robert. There is also the iconic Mammie and Prissey who epitomizes the name. The actress who played her just died. Aunt Pit-a-Pat shows she’s a real Southern Lady by fainting at any provocation.

Like the gracious South it portraits the movie unfolds in unhurried fashion. Never-the-less it manages to encompass the five years of Civil War and the twelve years of Reconstruction that followed. Although historical background is provided by onscreen lettered commentary the movie concentrates on the social, economic, and physical cost to the people involved. When Scarlet returns to Tara and finds her Mother Dead from Typhus with a cow in tow her two remaining faithful slaves declare—we don’t know how to milk, we’s house slaves. However the House Slaves remained because they had more personal ties with their Masters.

The second half of this movie—yes, it is 4 hour long—is on Disk 2. It follows the lengths to which Scarlet will go to protect her beloved Tara. The emphasis here is not on the Reconstruction but how it affected Scarlet. Like Scarlet herself the movie shows how the people around her serve to meet Scarlet’s motives, they are never important for themselves. Scarlet loses her Mother and the loss of his wife drives her Father mad. Although she develops a shrewd business sense Scarlet never matures beyond her self-centred, indulged, petulant teenage self. Totally lacking in any moral sense save her over-arching desire to protect her beloved Tara she will stop at nothing in its defence. Incapable of feeling love for anyone but herself she maintains a childish obsession with her neighbour Ashley who cannot be faithful to his wife save in a technical sense.

It is Mammy who holds the story together and it she who summons Melanie after the death of the Butler’s daughter, not for Scarlet but for the Master. When the strain of that visit leads to Melanie’s death it is Scarlet’s exit from the death chamber into the arms of Ashley rather than her nearby husband that provides the final provocation. The movie ends with Rhett’s famous line, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”. Somehow I get the sense that the writer/director couldn’t come up with anything to truly complete the story after that bombshell. Did I say I found the ending unsatisfying and incomplete?