I'm 55 and I'd never seen it until the other day when the daughter borrowed it from the local library and talked me into watching it with her. I'll probably catch hell for saying this, but I was VERY disappointed. After years of hearing the hype of it being "one of the best movies ever", I found it almost boring and even silly (maybe ludicrous or even stupid would be a better word) at times. The acting was mostly pretty good, but the story itself, as presented (I have never read the book, so maybe it's better?) was FAR too sympathetic and forgiving of the south and slavery. And the characters, especially Scarlet O'Hara (sp?) (quite the self-centered *****, wasn't she?) were anything but someone I could really relate to or sympathize with. But maybe that was the point?
I'm with you...was not that impressed. There are lots of other flicks from my parents' generation that I liked a lot better. Hell, I'd rather watch "The Wizard of Oz" than GWTW.
I think the problem you have run into is that so many really good flicks have come after it. When it came out it was groundbreaking. Casablanca endures and The Long Hot Summer (even though I really don't care for Faulkner) endures for me in every way, but I never really liked Gone With the Wind. I'm almost 50, btw. Fwiw, people equate The Long Hot Summer with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and that flick never did it for me either. Check out The Long Hot Summer sometime. Paul Newman, JoAnne Woodward, Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, Anthony Franciosa, Orson Welles to name a few of the stars.
Wasn't Scarlett really just symbolizing the South as a whole? Full of pride, selfishness and extravagance not caring about the lives of others only herself. Then after losing everything and being humbled setting out to rebuild a more viable life. It is probably the best representation of the old south on film.
I first saw GWTW about 30 years ago when it was first broadcast on TV. And a few years later I got to see it on the big screen (much better that way). I really liked the first half of the movie, but after the intermission (hey, remember when movies actually had intermissions?) the plot starts to plod along and turn into a dreary soap opera (well, yeah, the first half was soap opera too, but it had a big honking war to liven it up and keep the plot going. Just like Pearl Harbor). I was relieved when RB decided to walk out on Scarlett. Just about wanted to scream "what took you so long, you silly goof?" (but I'm not one of those persons who talks to characters in a movie as if they would hear me and take my advice.) I thought Melanie was one of the few likeable, noble people in the movie. Couldn't stand Scarlett. I read the book about 15 years after seeing the movie. There's a great line in the book that's not in the movie, so far as I know. It's during Reconstruction, when the former southern gentry are now having to earn a living with elbow grease and by the sweat of their brow, and Scarlett complains to Ashley Wilkes, "Oh Ashley, I never expected that our lives will be like this." And a rather exasperated Ashley retorts, "Scarlett, life is under no obligation to give us what we expect! You take what it gives you and be thankful it's not worse!" (quotes are approximate) I thought the burning of Atlanta sequence was cool, especially on the big screen.
Hattie McDaniel as Mammie was always the best part of the movie for me. Mammie always sees through Scarlett and knows what she is scheming. She was, I believe, the first black actress / actor to receive an Oscar, but was sadly not allowed to receive it on stage.
Sorry, but that last statement is incorrect. McDaniel did receive her Oscar on stage, you can youtube it.
Thought I heard that somewhere, but was obviously incorrect. On further research, looks like it was the premiere in Atlanta she was not allowed to attend; sorry for the mis-information and thanks for correcting me.
I've seen it several times and always regarded it as excellent, especially when put into the context of the era in which it was made. Scarlett bitchy? Of course she was, which was the whole point of the movie.
Yea, I don't think Scarlett was supposed to be likable. The movie and the book both drift a little after the war ends. I found Ashley weak and unsympathetic when I saw the movie, but he is an excellent character in the book. Upon re-watching the movie, I find the casting to be perfect for his character. The movie is definitely best on the big screen although it was not released as a wide screen movie. To appreciate it the sensation it was when it came out, you should watch some of the other good movies from the time. GWTW was technically the Avatar of its era.
Interesting discussion. I first saw GWTW back in the 1960s when that flick was already almost thirty years old and, as a teenaged student of history and culture, I appreciated it even then. I've watched it several more times as I've gotten older on other and enjoyed it on, I believe for me, increasingly mature cogitative levels. Every movie is flawed, if you choose to evaluate it using more current values in movie making and popular thought than were available when it was made. Some movies hold up better than others do and some can be enjoyed and remembered and respected simply for being the first to do what they did. For social history, mind set at the time, values in vogue, period poignancy and period detail, involving the failing aristocracy of the South, I think GWTW's still probably the best film out there. Big Sam announcing "quitting time" at Tara, the BBQ gathering at Twelve Oaks, the interplay in the house between Scarlett, Mammy and the Southern belles at nap time, Rhett with the other men discussing the coming war, Scarlett and Prissy birthing Melanie's baby, the flight from Atlanta, the devastation of Tara, the ball where Scarlett dances wearing a green dress made from curtains when she should still be in mourning,..........on down to "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. All are realistic scenes accurately describing the South, its values, the inhabitants, and the Rebel cause very vividly. Slavery is shown only matter-of-factly, glossing over the brutality and the absence of humanity, exactly as slavery was thought of in the South. And battle scenes aren't really shown, so those aspects of the war and slavery are only covered in passing by this story that's told from the Southern point of view. But the breathtaking tracking shot when Scarlett enters the Alanta railway yard and is swallowed up among all the wounded Confederate soldiers suffering there beneath their flag, is alone worth the price of admission and/or the time spent watching GWTW and, IMHO, shows that aspect of the cost and tragedy of war as well as cinema has ever shown it. That particular sweeping on screen image was unsurpassed as a filmed epiphany sequence, describing what war hath wrought, until the action at the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan" out did it with its bloody immediacy. GWTW was a specific, best selling at that time, epic, mellodramatic, novel, vividly put onto film and the movie accomplishes that daunting task in, I think, a very memorable way. When I try to come up with examples of similar scope and story in a movie, I can only think of "Giant," "Hawaii," "Doctor Zhivago" or the more recent "Australia." Or Peter Jackson's Tolkien trilogy. IMO, none of those movies did it any better or even as well. For me, GWTW is a movie to be seen and SAVORED because of its overall value and excellence and not merely watched, TASTED and then dismissed with the opinion, "I didn't like it." I didn't "like" Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" very much until I later read how it was the first movie to utilize all the movie making firsts which it did. I enjoyed it much more when I watched again, knowing about that. And, at least, GWTW, is in color and has that going for it. GWTW and other iconic flicks can be appreciated merely for their cinematic firsts, even if you don't dig or relate to the story. But, to each their own. That's the first rule of movie enjoyment. Watch whatever you want to watch, just as I do.
I saw it when I was 15 after years of hearing about it. I think to this day it is the greatest movie ever made. The key is Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, IMO. Something about the story is very real and, ironically, un-Hollywood to me. The fact that at the end you really don't know what will happen is part of what makes it less cheesy than other classic romances.
Cast, characters, director, production, story line. Many factors come into the merits of the film. A lot of times a film is a legend purely from the standpoint of what it took to make it, and the legendary people involved. And the times in which it was made. In 1939, ten films were nominated for Best Picture. Here's the list. Gone With The Wind Dark Victory Goodbye, Mr. Chips Love Affair Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Ninotchka Of Mice and Men Stagecoach The Wizard of Oz Wuthering Heights So... GWTW beat out Goodbye Mr. Chips and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, and Stagecoach (John Wayne), Of Mice and Men, and Wizard of Oz. And Wuthering Heights. At that time there was an appreciation for not just the film, but for what it took to make it. Social dramas with the stars involved. Vivien Leigh for one. But aside from that.... The winning Director, Victor Fleming, beat out Frank Capra, John Ford and William Wyler. Pretty fair company. Viven Leigh took best actress over Bette Davis, Irene Dunne, Greta Garbo and Greer Garson. That's like grouping together Montana, Bradshaw, Starbach, Elway, Brady. Best Actor to Robert Donat in Goodbye Mr. Chips, he beat out Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Mickey Rooney and James Stewart. The four that lost you could put in the Top 10 Hollywood legends of all time, actor or actress. Supporting actor went to Thomas Mitchell for GWTW, over Claude Rains (later to be in Casablanca) and Harry Carey in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Supporting actress, as mentioned, to Hattie McDaniel in GWTW, and she beat out Olivia de Havilland in the same film. "Over the Rainbow" got best song. GWTW may or may not be one of the greatest films ever, but I cannot think of a year in which more great films, cast and productions came into existence. For GWTW to win in that company is quite an achievement. Some call that one of the greatest years ever in the history of film making. Try to imagine sitting in a theater in 1939 when going to a movie was like going the Paramount on Congress Avenue, and there was no tv, no push button phone, maybe not even a dial phone (Number Please?), only radio, rollup windows, stick shift in the floorboard, running boards beneath the doors, gravel and shale roads and dirt roads with ruts, some homes with electricity only at certain hours of certain days of the week, "ice boxes"... In a setting like that, as in the Stanford Theater on University Ave in Palo Alto... with full aisles, balcony, painted ceiling and a full air pipe organ in the pits, and plush burgandy curtains (I went there all through the 80s and 90s)... and you see this film... it would blow you away with the shear drama and glory of the topic (Civil War) and the stars. Whether it has legs heading on into a century later... only each individual can tell.
I think Scarlett's appeal was not her likability, but that she was a survivor. The first part of the story she seemed a spolied brat, but after the war it was her strength, determination, and will that allowed them to pick up the pieces and go forward. Melanie and Mr. O'hara both seemed shattered when Scarlett made it home at war's end. I thought her transformation was not unlike Christian Bale's character in "Empire of the Sun"; privalged and spoiled in the beginning, but by the end succeeded in overcoming the loss of everything they new.
I agree, because Scarlett O'Hara is a symbol for the South. Not all that likeable or likely to endure as it was then, except in legendary or idealistic terms, but survivable and rebuildable, once it updated its thinking. Just as Scarlett rethought and redid herself throughout GWTW and swore to do again, as she found necessary.. Renee Zellweger's interesting character studies in "Appaloosa"and "Cold Mountain" reminded me of Scarlett OHara in that regard. She wasn't likeable, but she was a survivor. Renee also played a survivor as "Bridget Jones," in "Jerry McGuire" and in "Cinderella Man" and "Chicago." She's her generation's Sissy Spacek.
