In 1936 Margaret Mitchell wrote a classic book Gone With the Wind which almost overnight became a bestseller, and to this day has seen more than 30 million copies printed worldwide. Lest anyone think that successful novels becoming movies shortly after their release, the film Gone With the Wind was released in December 1939 with an all-star cast and has gone on to be widely considered one of the best films ever made. It is so ubiquitous you've probably been influenced by it even without ever watching the film or reading the novel!
So, almost one hundred years on and many cultural shifts later, does this film stand up to scrutiny? Is it a classic romance, or a piece of Lost Cause propaganda depicting an idealistic Antebellum South? Read on and find out! A good plot synopsis follows, so spoilers are ahead below the cut!
The film is wonderfully cast. Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes, Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Wilkes, Hattie McDaniel as Mammy, Barbara O'Neill as Ellen O'Hara and many, many more. Quite frankly I don't think you could get better actors for this film, and I'm amazed at the quality of it even nearly a century on. Credit really does go to Gable and Leigh however, with Leigh especially notable for carrying the film almost on her shoulders. The dialogue and rapport she has with Gable really does carry these two flawed characters well, and their tragic romance is beautiful! Leigh as the leading lady is very impressive and the energy she puts into the role is just stunning.
It went on to win eight Oscars, including best actress for Leigh and best supporting actress for McDaniel who became the first African American to win an Oscar.
The wonderful score leads us through the whole movie, and I really think you can't get much better than it.The film, in the tradition of the time, has a long beautifully scored opening introducing our principle cast and characters and a bit on the setting. Perhaps an (in)famous tagline 'a civilization gone with the wind' which leads into the story itself.
We begin at the fictional plantation of Tara, based somewhat on the old ballad The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls (beautiful song) and is the home of an Irish descended planter family, the O'Hara's.
We're quickly introduced to our main character, the spritely and quick witted southern belle Scarlett O'Hara. She is the beau of all Southern gentlemen, and is fawned over by the Southern gentlemen. They wish to talk of nothing but war and she finds this dreadfully boring, wishing she were being invited to more lively parties. This goes on as she prepares for one hosted by her father at the hall where the men discuss politics and the upcoming war. Therein, they see the objections of one Rhett Butler, who firmly believes the South has no chance. It is, frankly, a fantastic scene and was my first introduction to the film in university beyond cultural osmosis.
Soon after war were declared, and Scarlett, desperate to get the attention of the gentleman Ashley Wilkes, but spurned by him because he believes their personalities too different, instead accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of young Charles Hamilton. As the war begins, her first husband is killed Scarlett becomes a widow and is sent to Atlanta to take on her duties as a widow with her inlaws, largely in the company of her sister in law Melanie Hamilton. While there she causes a minor scandal by attending a charity ball in mourning attire and waltzing with Rhett Butler when he bids for her. She detests the life of a widow, keeping her from dancing or talking to eligible men.
Eventually the war catches up with her, and Atlanta falls under siege. This produces a few of the best shots in the movie, including one stunning scene where Scarlett must walk through a yard of wounded and dying men. During that time Melanie is pregnant with Ashley's child, and as the city is bombarded by Sherman's artillery, Melanie gives birth. The city falls not long after and Scarlett, a slave Prissy, and Melanie and her child flee with the help of Rhett. Returning to Tara, they find her mother dead of typhoid, her father mad with grief, the plantation looted by Union soldiers and the field hands all fled leaving only two house slaves.
Tired, defeated, and grieved, Scarlett shakes her fist at the sky and swears she will never go hungry again, thus ending Act I.
We pick up with a lovely title card proclaiming Sherman has marched to the sea, leaving fire and devastation in his wake. The Confederacy is crushed and defeated, and the regime of Reconstruction begins. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags come to take over Southern society. Even one of Tara's former overseers who has 'turned Yankee' comes offering to buy the plantation from the now impoverished Scarlett who toils alongside her family to feed not only themselves, but swarms of returning, ragged former Confederate troops. Her father, enraged at seeing this 'Yankee' rides him off, only to be killed when trying to jump his horse and breaking his neck.
To try and end her worries, Scarlett approaches Rhett who is imprisoned by the Union army. He spurns her advances, so instead she approaches a now well to do Frank Kennedy who is hoping to marry her younger sister. Deceiving him, she marries him and solves her money problems. Scarlett then takes up ownership of a mill which, instead of using even cheap black labor, she uses convict labor to turn a higher profit causing some small scandal at both being a woman running a mill and her harsh methods of making money. Her new marriage to Frank is frought with turmoil as Scarlett simply overawes the eager to please Frank, while still pining after Ashley.
Eventually Scarlett is attacked by poor men camped in a shantytown outside Atlanta, only to be saved by one of her former field hands. This causes Frank, Ashley and other townsfolk to lead a raid on the shantytown only to be ambushed by Union troops. Ashley is saved by Rhett, who lies to Union officers convincing them that they have been at a brothel. He informs Scarlett that in the raid her husband has been killed. In an ill conceived move, Scarlett and Rhett impulsively marry.
They begin a happy life of plenty and Scarlett is enamored with all they have.Soon she is pregnant with Rhett's child and gives birth to their daughter Bonnie. However, Scarlett still pines after Ashley and afraid of losing her figure she refuses to have another child, putting strain on their marriage, which becomes worse when Scarlett falls down the stairs and has a miscarriage. They quarrel endlessly, and one day while watching Bonnie ride, she too falls and breaks her neck, putting them to grief.
In the ensuing drama, Melanie also dies of sickness and Scarlett realizes she doesn't really love Ashley, she loves Rhett. Fleeing to him she declares her love for him but he says it is too late. She asks what she will do and in the now most famous line Rhett declares "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
That's a line you've heard quoted and adapted many times even if you haven't seen the film.
Now it is for scenes like these the film is both considered a classic, and controversial. Do those scenes propagate a Lost Cause mythology? Or are they depictions of the suffering of war? For that great shot of Scarlett walking through the hospital field with a tattered Confederate battle flag floating above, I'd say it's a scene of the destruction of war. For Sherman's burning? A bit of the Lost Cause. While those scenes are beautifully shot and the score is excellent, does that excuse some of the messaging?
There are other scenes which are worse. A scene of a carpetbagger riding a buggy through roads choked with wounded Confederates returning home while a now free black man loudly sings Marching Through Georgia before he almost rides one down is a little on the nose. The Union occupiers are portrayed in every negative light possible. Slaves are portrayed as happy to be slaves, and the brutality of slavery is almost glossed over. There was one moment where I had to raise my eyebrows spectacularly when as Scarlett runs the mill with convict labor and Ashley bemoans how these (white) convicts will be brutalized Scarlett retorts he didn't mind so much when it came to owning slaves and Ashley cheerfully says he would have freed his! Unbelievable.
The portrayal of slaves, whether from the loyal field hand, or the house slaves, especially Mammy, who is a broader stereotype herself, should definitely remain controversial. Though I must say, it is strange that Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Oscar thanks to her role in this film as noted above. Even the brutality of slavery is only partially referenced. The film might have been better had it instead shown at least one 'loyal slave' deserting to take their freedom.
In researching for this piece I must admit that I come away with many reservations about calling the film apologist for a society 'gone with the wind'. It has been used as a touchstone by academics and storytellers since the novel came out in 1936, and indeed reinforced some stereotypes such as happiness in slavery, the prosperity and genteel nature of the Antebellum South, the scummy vision of Reconstruction and even in the novel still making the KKK idealistic - as they're the ones who raid the shantytown - but perhaps the film decided not include that that rather than be Birth of a Nation 2.0.
However, it contains many correct proclamations on why the Confederacy lost and started the war (slavery), the war itself is portrayed as a parade of suffering for the Southern people and infers they brought it on themselves, and despite a lot of problematic imagery of well dressed and honorable gentlemen in sprawling plantations, they still lose the war. Then the two main characters hardly embody the ideas of Southern belle or Southern gentleman. Scarlett openly chafes at the roles she is forced to follow and causes scandal after scandal for her 'unladylike' behavior. Rhett is seen as a scoundrel and rogue who does as he will and openly keeps the company of prostitutes and Yankees, and there is one very uncomfortable scene where we might encounter martial rape, but that is left extremely vague. The only truly good person embodying that genteel Southern belle attitude is Melanie, and she dies.
While its true it did help solidify a rather romatic narrative of the Antebellum South, it also needs to be considered who wrote it. Mitchell grew up in Georgia, and was told about the Civil War by her grandmother who lived through the privations of the war, and she would have grown up hearing angry denunciations of Sherman and influenced by scholarship regarding the Lost Cause, which was well before her time. In fact, the teacher who showed me that great arrogance scene from above remarked on how ubiquitous these attitudes were in the South, especially Georgia. When she visited one beautiful little town she asked her guide how they kept all their old buildings so nice and received the response 'oh the Yankees never came here' and this was well after the release of this movie!
In that vein, I think the film needs to be regarded as accepting the narratives and attitudes of its time. And it was criticized for its problematic attitudes towards slavery and black people even back then. So it ought not to be seen as having been 100% accepted by people even then.
As the film doesn't make any special claims to the narrative of the South and the Civil War, and really is more focused on the romance between Scarlett and Rhett, perhaps it ought to just be considered a period romance which has come to be seen as emblematic for romanticizing the Antebellum period? All I can do is offer my opinion, and I think that, as a film and as a story, it does stand up to modern scrutiny. A crushing romance between two flawed characters will always do that I suppose.
What can't be overlooked is just how powerful a female character Scarlett is though. Despite society demanding she be passive, Scarlett breaks rules, and has a powerful character arc of a spoiled and willful girl who survives the horrors of war while doing the right thing and ending up in poverty, to maturing into a cynical woman who works her way through guile and acumen to the top of society and reputation be damned. To the very end she is determined to make her own way and forge her own destiny, and there's a lot to be said for that. She's not perfect, very flawed, and it might be easy to hate her if you're so inclined. I however, still find her fascinating. Despite posters prominently showing Clark Gable, it is very much Scarlett's story.
Eighty years on this film is still a well deserved classic. The story of a flawed romance between flawed characters is immortal. For all it's problems, it remains a masterpiece of cinema and I feel that irrespective of its imagery, its story, score, and acting stand the test of time making it well worth viewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment