Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind is one of the greatest films of all time. It picked up ten Academy Awards in 1940, setting a record that would stand for twenty years until Ben Hur would surpass it in 1960. In AFI’s 2007 version of its Top 100 American Films of All Time list, Gone with the Wind ranked at number six. It was responsible for the melodramatic framework that most soap operas would wind up using, too, and is perhaps most interesting because of the notion that the characters are all perfectly flawed human beings.

Based on Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel of the same name, Gone with the Wind is an epic film set in the American South around the time of the Civil War. We are introduced to a large cotton plantation in rural Georgia in the year 1861. Called Tara, this plantation is home to the Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara (Thomas Mitchell), his wife Ellen (Barbara O’Neill), and their three daughters. Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) is the eldest of the three daughters and she is seemingly sought after by just about every young man in the area. The man she wants is Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), but Ashley is getting engaged to Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland) and that’s that.

None of that matters to Scarlett, however, and she continues to pursue Ashley regardless of the costs to Melanie or anyone else. Melanie is kind and compassionate to a fault and never suspects anything but the best of Scarlett. This unrelenting kindness doesn’t deter Scarlett in the least when it comes to her quest of stealing Ashley away. Along comes Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a rogue gentleman who notices Scarlett and immediately realizes her plans for Ashley. Smitten with finding a woman so vile in her character, Rhett begins to pursue Scarlett.

Throughout these romantic entanglements, there is a war going on. Scarlett continues in her quest to be with Ashley and is willing to do anything to save her own reputation, going so far as to marry Melanie’s shy younger brother Charles before he goes off to war. After Charles dies, Scarlett continues her pursuit of Ashley without missing a beat. The only ones who seem to notice her relentless and shady pursuit is Rhett and Scarlett’s servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel). The war takes its toll on Tara and the inhabitants there, driving Scarlett to find for the place herself and find a way to finance it. This takes her to the arms of a wealthy businessman, but she still holds on to hope for Ashley. That hope for Ashley follows her throughout the course of the film, haunting her until the very end.

One of the most remarkable things about Gone with the Wind is that it is, in effect, an anti-romantic movie. It is often dismissed as a romantic wartime epic drama, but there is actually nothing romantic about this film. The character of Scarlett, so wonderfully played by Leigh, is absolutely terrifying in her willingness to do anything to get what she wants. It is probable that Scarlett does not even want Ashley all that much, rather that she prefers the pursuit, and that a life with Ashley would not even satisfy her. She is a shrewd individual and is able to capture that element ideally when she has to become a businesswoman. Her inability to care about workers’ conditions, for instance, belies a darker attitude below the surface.

Offsetting Scarlett is, of course, Rhett. Rhett is a scoundrel as well, although even he is a step up from the depravity with which Scarlett lives her life. Rhett spends time with shady characters and frequents a brothel, but he still has a heart and is still able to look for decency. Scarlett, conversely, overlooks human decency wherever she finds a glimpse of it. She is so abhorrently afraid of Melanie that she has to put the poor woman out of her mind constantly. Rhett, on the other hand, is drawn to characters like Mammy and Melanie because of their genuine goodness. He envies them and wishes he would find someone like them, but settles for Scarlett until his famed moment of realization.

The film’s legacy is immense, clearly. There are so many facets to the impression Gone with the Wind left behind that books have been filled on the topic. There’s Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar, for instance. There’s the segregation at the Atlanta premiere that led to Gable’s near-boycott of the event. There’s Max Steiner’s incredible score and that famous line that everybody knows. Gone with the Wind is a part of film history that should be seen, at least once, by everyone with the ability to see it. I hope and pray for another theatrical release – there have been several already, with the most recent one in 1998 – so that I can take in the magic and wonder that is this wonderfully human story.

Gone with the Wind set the bar incredibly high for other melodramas. It is one of the most perfect films of all time and is one of my favourite movies ever. Something special happened with Victor Fleming directed this masterpiece, that’s for sure. For the legacy, for the complexity, for the beauty, for the grandeur, and for the messages, Gone with the Wind is simply the best.

Trailer: