Gone With the Wind
Gone With the Wind, starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, is a classic American movie that tells the story of a white and privileged young woman, Scarlett O'Hara, and her many love interests including Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), Charles Hamilton (Rand Brooks), and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) during the Civil War era, which is the driving force of the over-arching themes of this movie as well as a recurring issue in Scarlett's love-life.
In the beginning of the movie, we find out that Scarlett is in love with a soon-to-be engaged man named Ashley. She believes that if she professes her love to him that she will be able to change his mind, but her plan horribly fails. In an attempt to make him jealous, she begins flirting with as many men as she can at her family-friends' barbeque and soon after she agrees to marry Charles Hamilton, who is head over heels for her. Unfortunately he was one of the many soldiers in the war who did not make it out alive. While forced to be in a period of mourning that she does not want be in in because she never actually loved him, Scarlett's mother suggests that Scarlett go stay with Melanie, Ashley's wife, in order to lift her spirits. Even though she agreed to go for the wrong reasons, she packed her bags and headed off to Atlanta hoping that she would see Ashley again.
When Scarlett arrives in Atlanta, she attends a fund-raising ball for the Confederate cause that is hosted by a well-known smuggler named Rhett Butler. Rhett is a very brutally honest and sarcastic man who takes a liking to Ms. O'Hara. Though she is in her period of mourning, Rhett pays for a dance with Scarlett during the ladies auction and, against social norms, she accepts and dances with him (as seen in the picture above). Amidst whispers and quiet judgements from others, Rhett tells Scarlett that he wishes that he will hear her say "I love you" to him one day, to which Scarlett responds that he is absolutely crazy. A year goes by and Ashley returns home for a short period of time. Scarlett attempts to win his love once more but fails again. She gives him a gift and she finally gets the kiss she wanted, but he still loves his wife and leaves again for the war.
Melanie, pregnant with Ashley's child, and Scarlett both volunteer as nurses to help the South as much as they can. After witnessing a soldier have his leg amputated without anesthetic, Scarlett realizes just how serious this is and just how far deep she's gotten herself into this. Aunt Pittypat decides to leave Atlanta due to the loud and constant gunshots which leaves Scarlett and the young house servant, Prissy, to care for Melanie as she slowly succumbs to her pregnancy. When Melanie goes into labor, Scarlett attempts to enlist the help of a nearby military doctor but fails due to the mass amounts of soldiers he is already tending to. With little help from Prissy, Scarlett delivers Melanie's baby in her home but due to her complications, Melanie is left severely weak. As the Union quickly overtakes Atlanta and the majority of Georgia, Scarlett decides that she must go home to Tara to see her mother and the rest of her family. Scarlett sends Prissy to find Rhett because she knows he is the only one who could get them out of the now burning Atlanta safely. Rhett agrees to help and steals a horse and carriage to transport all four of the ladies. After fighting off looters and escaping burning towns that are covered in TNT, they finally make it to the outskirts of Tara. Rhett gets out of the carriage and tells Scarlett that he's going to join the confederates. Scarlett and Rhett share a passionate goodbye kiss and Rhett leaves Scarlett with the carriage.
When Scarlett approaches her home, she finds the crosses standing over the graves of many of her family members. She soon finds out that the northern troops had been using her home as a sort of "headquarters" and that the remnants of their fields had not been tended to. She also gets the heartbreaking news of the passing of her mother due to typhoid fever. She had died the night prior to her arrival.
This movie was simply immaculate. Although it was not filled with car-chases and explosions like many movies are today, the director did an amazing job of providing insight into that time period. Although the circumstances around that time period are horrendous, the movie itself does an amazing job of simply following the story of a privileged, bratty, white plantation-owner's daughter who learns that she doesn't always get what she wants. Though I found Scarlett's character indescribably annoying, the movie itself is very in tune with the era it depicts. Personally, I loved the gradual development of Scarlett's character and the love tropes that the director used to portray Rhett and Scarlett's relationship. In the first half of this movie, we see Scarlett's character begin as a young, careless, selfish, bratty, and helpless girl but as her life progresses and life's deck of cards is not dealt in her favor, Scarlett slowly but surely realizes that she is her own problem. I'd definitely recommend this movie to a friend and I'd love to see a remake of this movie in the near future.
An issue I find more pressing, especially nowadays, is the depiction of the black characters in this movie. After reading an article published by the New York Times following HBO's removal of this movie from their streaming platform, I was quite disgusted by the things that happened prior to shooting. Even though in 1939 the majority of these things were commonly brushed aside, as a member of the 21st century, it's appalling to try to even fathom the things that white people did to black people even in movies. I learned from this article that in 1936, 3 years prior to the release of this movie, the secretary of the NAACP reached out to the director and suggested that he have someone, preferably African-American, "fact-check" the script. The director then proceeded to hire two white people who focused on things like costumes rather than historical integrity. I also learned that there were a lot of things cut from this movie including references to the KKK which the book called a "tragic necessity" (NYT), as well as racial slurs, and a scene where Scarlett is almost raped by a black man and this man is hunted by the KKK following word of the incident. This scene was still shown in the movie but it is by a poor white man which forced the director to not make mention of the KKK. I think with a movie like this that covers sensitive material for a large portion of our country, it is imperative to have real history in it, not white-washed history because it would be unfair and morally wrong to depict such an important era incorrectly at no fault but our own.