Jency Reviews: Gone With The Wind (1939)
Most recently in my Oscar Film club with Rachel Elizabeth Murray, we watched Gone with the Wind. And the music that started playing when the credits rolls at the beginning made me feel like I was coming home to something that I had been affected by my whole life but didn’t realize what it was. It was such a bold, beautiful piece of music. I kept thinking, “I know this music. I’ve seen this movie”. and I have seen it when was much younger but I didn’t understand the impact of the plots or concepts back them.
Watching this film now in my 40s, having gone through a lot of heartache in my life over the years, was way more compelling and kept me on the edge of my seat. When I watched it when I was younger I remember feeling bored an uninterested and kind of thought it was a far stretch for anything this sad and dramatic to happen to two people. But watching it now, I was able to suspend my disbelief and take the ride and realize that life can bring such great hardship that it drives people mad and apart from each other.
At the beginning of Gone with the Wind you want to love Scarlett Ohara, and the filmmakers really bring you in to her beauty and charm early on with some interesting camera moves. The playfulness and the kind of bratty quality we find somewhat endearing at the beginning movie, and by the end of the film these same qualities become her downfall and you kind of hate her for her self-absorbed, vengeful, selfish attitudes. I wanted so bad to love her at the end, but honestly I was Team Rhett. I wanted Rhett to leave much sooner, and I couldn’t believe he got her pregnant again, I was so fed up with her ridiculous need for this other man, when she had a such great passionate love relationship in her marriage. She still wanted more and couldn’t let go of Ashley. I wanted to be like ‘come on lady, you have everything you could ever want- a beautiful marriage, a child, a huge house, and you’re still not happy’?
It made me think of first-world America and my own need to continually have more. And I felt a bit guilty for not being more appreciative for what I have-- a loving family, my parents still being alive, a very grounded marriage filled with passion and love, and now even the possibility of adopting. I could see why the struggles of going through a war could really set you back in life, and during the movie, when Scarlett is going through the war we really hope she will learn lessons in life and become the valiant hero we want. There are hints of goodness coming out of her during this time. But after experiencing a tragedy she becomes completely lost and selfish and falls into a trap of her own.
Cinematically, this movie is riveting for the time, and a huge accomplishment. It was the first color movie that blew people’s minds in 1939. They had been watching black and white film for so long, and when this came out, I cannot even imagine the overwhelming response that came out of the audience. In the Oscar film club, I've been enjoying watching all the black and white films, but when we hit this color film, I was so ecstatic to see color and be moved by color. I just think film is better in color.
There’s lots of controversy about this film because of the way the slaves are treated in the film, and their attitude about wanting to stay around the plantation even though they were historically not treated well at all, so it didn’t feel like a real depiction of what slave life would have been like during the Civil War. Many people hate this film for this reason. I could definitely see why it felt historically innacurate.
Personally, I hated the two main tragedies of the film being that her dad and her daughter both died from riding horses. As someone who just loves horseback riding, it really hit me hard and I hated that that was the tragedy that led to so much loss in the film. But I understand why they used that, because a lot of people love the adventure of riding horses and can relate to having a family member die that way. At the end of the film, I was quite pleased when Rhett Butler walked out the door and gave up, but I don’t know for sure if that’s the end of the story. It seems left open that she could find him again and go back to him. I love that this didn’t wrap up with a beautiful bow— it left us hungry for more at the end, and left us wondering what happens to them in the future.
To sit down for a 3 hour and 42 minute long film these days is quite a project/commitment. I am glad I revisited the film as an older woman and I learned a lot about my perspective on loss and tragedy. I would recommend this film. Especially for filmmakers— you have to watch it.
