126. Gone With The Wind (1939)

Directed By Victor Fleming

Synopsis

Scarlett is a bitch, she is in love with this guy who is marrying his cousin. She marries her brother, who dies, Rhett falls in love with her. She marries another guy, who dies. She marries Rhett, has an abortion, their daughter dies, guy she loves' cousin/wife dies, Rhett leaves. Scarlett says tomorrow is another day.

Review

So I spent the afternoon watching this again, at almost 4 hours this is a respectably long film. And it is also a pretty amazing technical achievement, even if it can clash with or post-modern sensibilities today. The first big film of American cinema was D. W. Griffith's Birth Of A Nation, and this is really the second big film. Curiously they are both about the South and the Civil War and they are both big on ennobling the Southern cause.

This film is so very beyond Birth Of A Nation technically that it is very easy to forget that there's been no more than 24 years between the two films. The views on slavery, what the South was like and what the living conditions for black people were didn't really change that much. If in Birth Of A Nation this is actually quite easy to dismiss as primitivism form 1915 crude, silent cinema, the same doesn't happen in Gone With The Wind. Technical achievement is not equal to cultural development, however and although the film has a full orchestral score, is in colour and looks to all intents and purposes modern because there have been no major technical advancements except CGI since then makes it hard for us to distance ourselves from the opinions shown in the film.

I will however approach the appreciation of this film the same way I did Birth Of a Nation, leaving the plantation myth and exaltation of the South and Klan like groups of people taking lynchings into their own hands aside. This is therefore a very impressive film, and really a beautiful film. The visuals here are much beyond anything done before, the Technicolor enhances the fiery colours of the deep South making the film all the more moving. The plot is a bit soapy, but that is not a bad thing, even if the events towards the end seem to happen in too fast a succession after a long, drawn out first half, the film might actually benefit from being longer.

The acting is pretty good with the exception of Vivian Leigh, who comes across as a bit hammy when delivering her rousing speeches. Clark Gable is pretty brilliant here, however and Rhett Butler is one of the most lovable cads in the whole history of cinema for good reason. It is hard to imagine what audiences felt like looking at this in the cinema, but the technological jump is so astounding, and sustained for 4 hours that it can actually be compared to the impact of Birth Of a Nation a quarter of a century before. This is an essential film for anyone interested in the history of cinema, and it is a cracking good film as well. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Racial politics

Some have criticized the film for romanticizing, sanitizing or even promoting the values of the antebellum South, in particular its reliance on slavery. For example, syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts has referred to it as "a romance set in Auschwitz." But the majority of filmgoers back in 1939 expressed no concerns about this. In fact, the blacks in the film were generally portrayed in a better light than the black characters in the book.

Portrayal of Black characters

The character of Mammy, played by Hattie McDaniel, has been linked with the stock character of the "happy slave", an archetype that implicitly condones slavery. However, some, as in Scarlett's Women: Gone with the Wind and Its Female Fans by Helen Taylor, have argued that Mammy's character is more complex than this, that her character represents someone who cared for others, despite the racism and oppression she suffered. Other writers also point out that despite her position as slave, she is not shy about upbraiding her white mistress, Scarlett; and indeed, she is yelling at Scarlett in her first scene.

But Mammy frequently derides other slaves on the plantation as "field hands", implying that as a House Servant she is above the "less-refined" blacks. While never referring specifically to Mammy, civil rights leaders like Malcolm X were very critical of "house Negroes" who helped maintain the status quo of slavery and subjugation by being content with their place. Most apparent is the scene in the film where Mammy accompanies Scarlett to Atlanta, in order to convince Rhett Butler to help them pay the taxes on Tara. As they walk down the streets, Mammy passes by a Yankee carpetbagger who promises a group of ex-slaves "forty acres and a mule." The ex-slaves are excited, but Mammy glares at them disapprovingly.

Responding to the racial critiques of the film, Selznick replied that the black characters were "lovable, faithful, high-minded people who would leave no impression but a very nice one." While Mammy is generally portrayed in a positive light, other black characters in the film are not so fortunate.

The character of Prissy, a dim-witted slave girl, played by Butterfly McQueen, offended blacks and whites when played in the theatre. In one especially famous scene, as Melanie is about to give birth, Prissy bursts into tears and admits she lied to Scarlett: "Lawzy, we got to have a doctor. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" (in response, Scarlett slaps her).[11] In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the former civil rights leader recounted his experience of watching this particular scene as a small boy in Michigan: "I was the only Negro in the theater, and when Butterfly McQueen went into her act, I felt like crawling under the rug."

Others have pointed out that Scarlett also slaps Ashley, Rhett, and her sister Suellen. But none of those incidents involved Scarlett punishing a slave like Prissy who could not reasonably retaliate. Others have also argued that Prissy's frightened dim-wittedness is matched by the white matron Aunt Pittypatt, who deserts Melanie and Scarlett in their time of need. But while Aunt Pittypatt is frightened and dim-witted, she knew that unlike Prissy, she could leave without consequences.

The role of Prissy catapulted Butterfly McQueen's film career, but within ten years she grew tired of playing black ethnic stereotypes. When she refused to continue being typecast that way, it ended her career.

Many black actors in the film were criticized by members of the African-American community for agreeing to play a role. Oscar Polk, who played the role of Pork, wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Defender -- a prominent newspaper in the black community -- to respond to that criticism. "As a race we should be proud," he said, "that we have risen so far above the status of our enslaved ancestors and be glad to portray ourselves as we once were because in no other way can we so strikingly demonstrate how far we have come in so few years." Polk, however, failed to mention that as recently as 1939 in the South, African-Americans were forcibly prevented from voting, lynched and subject to Jim Crow segregation.

Unquestioned racist comments

After the Civil War, Gerald O'Hara (Scarlett's father, who owns the plantation Tara), scolds his daughter about the way she is treating Mammy and Prissy. "You must be firm to inferiors, but gentle, especially darkies", he advises her. While Scarlett was criticized for being too harsh on the house servants, Gerald's premise that black people are "inferior" never gets questioned in the film at all. On the other hand, his inclusion of "especially darkies" shows he was not speaking of Blacks alone. He could have been speaking of his work force, as one would refer to his boss as his "superior."

Some scenes subtly undercut the apparent romanticization of Southern slavery. During the panicked evacuation of Atlanta as Union troops approach, Scarlett runs into Big Sam, the black foreman of the O'Hara plantation. Big Sam informs her that he (and a group of black field-hands who are with him) have been impressed to dig fortifications for the Confederacy. But these men are singing "Go Down Moses", a famous black spiritual that slaves would sing to call for the abolition of slavery.

The Shantytown Raid scene was changed in the film to make it less racially divisive than the book. After Scarlett is attacked in a Shantytown outside Atlanta, her husband Frank, Ashley, and others leave to raid the Shantytown that night to avenge Scarlett's honor. In the book, Scarlett's attacker was black, and her friends are identified as members of the Ku Klux Klan. In the film, no mention of the Klan is made. In both the film and the book, her life is saved during the attack by a black man, Big Sam.

Racial politics at Atlanta premiere

Racial politics spilled into the film's premiere in Atlanta, Georgia. As Georgia was a segregated state, Hattie McDaniel could not have attended the cinema without sitting in the "colored" section of the movie theater; to avoid troubling Selznick, she thus sent a letter saying she would not be able to attend. When Clark Gable heard that McDaniel did not want to attend because of the racial issue, he threatened to boycott the premiere unless McDaniel was able to attend; he later relented when McDaniel convinced him to go.

At the costume ball during the premiere, local promoters recruited blacks to dress up as slaves and sing in a "Negro choir" on the steps of a white-columned plantation mansion built for the event. Many black community leaders refused to participate. But prominent Atlanta preacher Martin Luther King, Sr. attended, and he brought his 10-year-old son, future civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who sang that night in the choir.

The film also resulted in an important moment in African-American history: Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first time a black person won an Oscar.

Gone With The Wind: