Tomorrow is another day

Epic romances are not my kind of movie. Why do I watch this one, then?

Gone With The Wind, or GWTW, tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a Southern belle from Georgia, starting when she is about seventeen. This is just before the Civil War. Scarlett lives on a rich cotton plantation, Tara, owned by her father, Gerald O’Hara, and she is seen as one of the most beautiful belles of the Old South. She knows this quite well, and thrives on the attention it brings.

But, the war is about to start, and Confederate dreams of glory and victory will collide with the reality of Yankee artillery and guns. As the Old South reels and fumbles for smelling salts, Scarlett gradually learns to turn her feminine wiles toward survival, of herself, and of her home. She quickly marries, but is quickly widowed. She remarries, but that marriage does not last much longer. Meanwhile, Scarlett pines for the handsome, erudite, dreamer, Ashley Wilkes, who has married his cousin, Melanie. And, who is this roguish character, Rhett Butler? Is he a hero or a scoundrel? Or both? Is he the man Scarlett should really love? Can Scarlett ever figure out what she really wants, and find it?

This is a long film, at 226 minutes (recently revised for DVD at 238 minutes), in the mode of an opera or play, with opening and closing music, plus an intermission. It was meant to be an epic, as indicated not very subtly in the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49dQ0PxkVu0), and it is. The story is big, the characters are big, the score is rich, and the cinematography revels in its lush Technicolor. A good sample can be seen at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Mjt9lyxlM


with Nana Mouskouri singing the title song, My Own True Love. That title is symbolic of Scarlett’s real problem: it takes her forever to figure out the identity of her own true love.

There are almost no flaws or weaknesses in this film. I have read the book, more than once -- I will explain why, later -- and the casting is perfect. Thomas Mitchell is perfect as Gerald O’Hara, and Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable are Scarlett and Rhett, in my mind. Some people are offended by the racist aspects of the story, probably mostly because of how Gerald O’Hara tries to exonerate himself from the atrocity of owning slaves, and because of the depiction of the slaves, and some of the racist language. These issues do not bother me because: The film was made in 1939; the story is set in the South, in 1863-1870 (or thereabouts); the film is true to the book. Given the setting of the story, the book and the movie gave us a view of the Old South, before the Civil War. The racism behind slavery was real, and the book and the movie simply show us what was. The same is true of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. The look of the film, in settings, costuming, and cinematography, all capture the Old South, as it was described in the book.

Some epics are big but terrible -- Ishtar comes to mind. Some are good, but get mixed reviews and fizzle, financially. Waterworld is an example. But, some hit the target. I think that the Lord of the Rings movies hit their target. Did Gone With The Wind?  It still has many fans, some of whom consider it the greatest film ever made. I am not sure it is the greatest ever, but I think that David O. Selznick achieved his goal.

Four hours is a long time to watch a film, especially if historical romances are not your cup of mint tea, but this one is good enough to hold my attention. And then, of course, this film, and the novel, have a place in our family history. My mother came to the United States in 1947, from Belgium, after meeting and marrying my father during World War Two. She knew little English at the time, but was determined to learn it, as a way to overcome some of the anti-foreign sentiment of the times. How did she go about it? She watched television, she did crossword puzzles, she went to movies, and she read. Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone With The Wind, quickly became her favorite, along with the film. At about age eight or nine, I read it, as my mother’s copy, replete with colorful illustrations from the movie, was in the house. Again, despite the genre, I became a fan of the book, and of the movie.