Gone With The Wind (1939)

USA
directed by: Victor Fleming, George Cukor
written by: Sidney Howard + Margaret Mitchell (book)
starring: Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Rand Brooks
comment: 12th February, 2017

I have a big problem with empathizing, especially with Scarlett. I certainly do not agree with opinions that she's the most thoroughly examined character to ever grace a silver screen, as some say. But when I shake this mini-feeling of grudge off, I have to admit that I was rather impressed with Gone With The Wind.

Some matters connected to the war are being presented so roughly that if they were to appear in a realistic (I use this word because I cannot think of a better one) film, they would be very, very rough and Dagmar would probably cry. The most powerful moments for me were the crying flautist, the priest administering the last rites during cannon fire and the company of singing slaves marching to the front. The trouble is that they are presented almost as nothing more than mere background noise behind the main story. And the main story just doesn't seem too interesting to me.

I already mentioned my skirmish with Scarlett. When she's confronted with prudish society, wearing her crimson dress, I admire the dress, but not the character. When shes's flirting with lads at the picnic, I admire her resting bitch face from an aesthetic point of view, but not as what it means in her current situation. She does not show much character maturation during the course of the four-hour long story and she's having cathartic moments at points where I don't understand them. I have not fallen for charms of Rhett Butler either, and Ashley is criminally underdeveloped, both by the actor and the screenwriter. Olivia de Havilland is the bright exception. I think she was simply divine as Melanie, in fact she was so good that it didn't even bother me that the part was written quite foreseeably as "nothing more" than a complete opposite of Scarlett.

I will not venture into analysing moral grounds of the story, perhaps because I'm almost sure I don't have the proper erudition. But it seems to me that the film itself is slowly replacing things like moral grounds with social primness and love affairs.