Gone With the Wind

Recently, I had the privilege of watching the 87-year-old movie Gone with the Wind. In some ways, it was a lot better than what I had been expecting. In others, it was disappointing. Without a doubt, though, I'm very glad that I watched it.

I'll start with the positives of this movie...

1. The Acting

   
   

I won't pretend to be a great judge of acting, because I haven't watched enough movies, nor enough of the great actors of all time. However, I thought that Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh did a really great job with their parts. Vivien Leigh did a wonderfully convincing job playing the self-obsessed, manipulative role of Scarlett O'Hara. Clark Gable, already a huge Hollywood star, played Rhett Butler, a Southern gentleman whose character contrasted incredibly well with Scarlett. It's hard to decide whom I liked better, for even though the actual character of Scarlett is despicable, I enjoyed Leigh's depiction of her.

Scarlett's best friend, Melanie---a steady friend whom she often spurned---was played by Olivia de Havilland. Because of the sweet humility that the character Melanie Hamilton has, it is easy to overlook her. However, she is vital to the story. She is there when Scarlett needs her, and she is there when Scarlett doesn't think she needs her. De Havilland did a really good job portraying her character, too, contrasting nicely with the strong drive of Vivien Leigh. She gave her character just the right amount of quiet concern and personality.

One actor I didn't find very strong was Leslie Howard. He played Ashley Wilkes, the one man that Scarlett O'Hara could never quite get for her own. (Yes, the actor's name was Leslie, and his character was Ashley...both very feminine names. 🤷‍♀️) He didn't portray a very strong man---and maybe that was supposed to be backed up by the name Ashley. He never stood up to Scarlett in a convincing way, and I don't know if that was Ashley (the character) or Leslie (the actor's) fault.

2. The Historical Aspect

I really enjoyed the emphasis on the Civil War. It's hard to believe, but the fighting had only ended about 70 years before this movie came out. (To put that in perspective, 70 years ago from now, World War II had already been over for a decade!) The old cities, plantations, costumes and countryside feel undeniably realistic. While there was obviously an over-dramatic aspect to the whole movie, I couldn't help but sense the accuracy of the sets and settings. The plantations of the Old South are especially beautiful and fascinating for me, for I have seen those sorts of great houses in the area where I live, though many of them are destroyed, or dilapidated. Often, I have wondered what they looked like in their heyday. I found it very interesting, then, when much of the movie focused on the collapse of those sorts of communities during the Civil War. It was fascinating to get a sense for what this land used to be like.

Another historical aspect that I intensely enjoyed was the costumes. While the "Southern Belle" of Scarlett O'Hara did not present much to envy, I did find myself a little jealously flabbergasted by the dresses she wore. I've always been a fan of costumes---particularly dresses---and that was one of the reasons I was excited to watch this movie. I was aware that her outfits are some of the most famous in cinematic history. I was not disappointed. Her outfits were glorious, and I was pleased by how many of them there were! It's incredible to me that the costume designer, Walter Plunkett, could come up with that many iconic dresses. Of course, he had an actual era to copy from, but the ideas and moods that he wove into Scarlett's dresses were stunning.

3. A Realistic Confederate View

     All of the main characters are unapologetically Southern, and it is really quite interesting to view the war through their eyes. It was a thought-provoking change compared to the strict black-and-white way many history books try to portray the war. While Gone with the Wind doesn't represent things 100% honestly, either, it was nice to see a different side of the war than the one we often do. None of the characters ever stop to wonder if their side might be wrong. They have the utmost patriotic spirit for their new Confederacy, and that kind of view I am so unused to!

On another note, I was extremely grateful that slavery didn't become a main part of the movie. Of course I know it's wicked and abhorrent, but it really wouldn't have fit into the movie. (The main reason it wasn't in it is probably because there was still heavy racism in the late 30s, and it most likely didn't seem to be an issue worth addressing.) I'm glad there are movies about racism and prejudice; several of my top ten movies of 2025 dealt with that. But if Gone with the Wind had constantly been interrupted by someone driving in the point about slavery being wrong, the movie---which had practically nothing to do with slavery---would have been lost.

So, those are a few of the things that I enjoyed. A couple negatives were...

1. The Helpless Heroines

The age of the movie is very hard to feel out. It's a giant production, and it was filmed in colour, so it feels newer. But at the same time, it feels much older than other movies I've watched from that time period (i.e. The Wizard of Oz or It's a Wonderful Life.) Even though Gone with the Wind had a great, all-star cast, terrific sets and special effects, there is an undeniable aura about it that marks it as "aged."

One of the main aspects of the movie that created this feeling are the helpless heroines. The women---like Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs---were weak and overly swoony. As a matter of fact, this got so annoying to me that Scarlett's strong, opinionated, manipulative self came almost as a relief at times. Once again in comparing this movie to others of its time, you can really see the difference. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale isn't helpless, timid or weak---despite that being normal at the time of the movie. She is smart, brave and comes up with answers to solutions by herself. The only time I can think of that she breaks down in tears is when she thinks she's about to die. Nothing silly about that. Another example can be found in Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. She realizes that her husband is in trouble and takes it upon herself to try to fix the situation. While many of the women in Gone with the Wind are helpless Southern belles unused to work---obviously realistic---I find it unrealistic that they would be beside themselves as to how they should survive. Of course they wouldn't like to work for their food, but wouldn't they rather do that than starve?

2. Death Felt Cheap

Of course I know that many people died back then, and to be honestly realistic, Death had to visit the houses often in Gone with the Wind. But after six or so characters, it became tiresome and commonplace. I recognize that the aftermath of the Civil War was brutal, but the deaths of this many characters cheapened death instead of adequately realizing it. When characters that I was supposed to care about finally did die, I didn't really care that much. I admit that I did watch this movie over a course of three days, so the impact could have been lessened. However, I'm pretty sure my main response shouldn't have been, You're kidding me?! Someone else is dying? I also didn't feel like enough time was given to emotionally digest the deaths of certain characters. The one scene that represents this best was at the death of Scarlett's mother, due to typhoid fever. Our heroine walks into the room where the deceased Mrs. O'Hara is lying on a table, covered with a cloth. After staring at her mother for a moment or so, Scarlett screams and falls down. This produces quite a shock for the viewer, but then the O'Hara family moves on. This same scenario occurs similarly for the deaths of other characters. There is the rude shock, and then the movie moves on.

3. The Ending is a little confusing

After all the troubles that the characters go through, I expected somewhat of a happy ending. However, the finale left me somewhat confused. I own this could be to my immaturity...perhaps I'll watch it again one day when I'm a seasoned adult, and it will all make sense. Exactly what type of ending it was, it's difficult to tell. It wasn't at all like the ending to The Lord of the Rings, where it doesn't end how we wanted, but it still ends well. It ended in a very discouraging way, where Scarlett loses what she's finally learned to appreciate. She panics at first, but then decides that she must try to get back what she has lost. In the meantime, she will return to her old family plantation. And that was the end of the movie. After the turmoil that I had been through as a viewer, I expected some gratification, just a little bit more than what came when Scarlett realized how much she had taken her life for granted.

4. I didn't know what was important to Scarlett until halfway through the movie

At first, I thought that all Scarlett cared about was to be married well. But then she gets married---and not to anyone particularly rich---just to spite someone else. Then I thought all she cared about was Ashley Wilkes, the man who was already married to someone else. But he was gone at war for a great deal of the movie, and she coped just fine without him. It wasn't until after the entr'acte that it came out: Scarlett cared about her family's home, Tara. I vaguely remember her father telling her it was important at the beginning of the movie, and she laughs. He said, however, that if she has any Irish blood in her at all, the land will be important to her some day. This is all the indication I ever got that the land would play a critical part in her life. Quite some time later, Ashley Wilkes tells her that she loves the land, whether she knows it or not. However, Scarlett didn't seem to realize any of this until the very, very end when she decides to go back home. It was hard to relate to a character who doesn't seem to know her own desires.

Perhaps one day I shall rewatch Gone with the Wind and find things very different compared to when I left them. But until that day, this shall stand as my critique on Gone with the Wind. I hope you enjoyed it!