Film # 5 - Gone with the Wind (1939)
Clocking in at about four hours, this is long. I had to watch this classic American epic in two sittings. In the middle, around the intermission, I thought the film was overly long, especially since the story seemed to lose direction and the plot lurched on the whims of the protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara. But by the fourth hour, the characters and the ambience seemed so familiar that I felt like I had been living in their world, of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, for some time. This film by its sheer breadth and largeness of scope takes you there.
A story about the life of a Southern plantation family and its members before, during and after the Civil war, Gone with the Wind, was the first American epic. So much has been written about this film, articles, reviews, analyses, and books, that no review is attempted here. For someone watching for the first time seventy years after the production and release, all that can be recounted is the viewing experience and the obvious, early impressions.
One first notices the vividness and contrast of the early color print, which is highlighted by the studio settings and the screen painted backgrounds. In many scenes there are shadows dancing on the wall. There are silhouettes in front of the colorful backgrounds. So the film, for today's audience, harkens back to the old filmmaking where the stage was the studio and not the location. In some ways this makes the feel of the film more majestic. The dialogue and conversation is also strange to today's audience. The actors deliver their lines as if they are soliloquies, at times as if they are facing a theatre audience. The manner of conversation itself takes some getting used to but slowly gets easier to follow and like.
The plot is convoluted and digressive but is held together by the two lead characters, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. The Civil War and Reconstruction are the main sources of external conflict but it is Scarlett whose actions move the story forward. And what active woman she turns out to be! She lives here life without much doubt, she takes initiative and makes life changing decisions on a split-second. Her first two marriages are both quick decisions, not based on love but for profit, emotional and financial. But Scarlett seems to meet her match with Captain Butler, who is the one character in the film who has the most fun in every situation. His profound declaration is nothing but perfect: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" That motto sums up his worldview quite well. And it is Scarlett's relationship with Captain Butler that carries the film.
A story about the life of a Southern plantation family and its members before, during and after the Civil war, Gone with the Wind, was the first American epic. So much has been written about this film, articles, reviews, analyses, and books, that no review is attempted here. For someone watching for the first time seventy years after the production and release, all that can be recounted is the viewing experience and the obvious, early impressions.
One first notices the vividness and contrast of the early color print, which is highlighted by the studio settings and the screen painted backgrounds. In many scenes there are shadows dancing on the wall. There are silhouettes in front of the colorful backgrounds. So the film, for today's audience, harkens back to the old filmmaking where the stage was the studio and not the location. In some ways this makes the feel of the film more majestic. The dialogue and conversation is also strange to today's audience. The actors deliver their lines as if they are soliloquies, at times as if they are facing a theatre audience. The manner of conversation itself takes some getting used to but slowly gets easier to follow and like.
The plot is convoluted and digressive but is held together by the two lead characters, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. The Civil War and Reconstruction are the main sources of external conflict but it is Scarlett whose actions move the story forward. And what active woman she turns out to be! She lives here life without much doubt, she takes initiative and makes life changing decisions on a split-second. Her first two marriages are both quick decisions, not based on love but for profit, emotional and financial. But Scarlett seems to meet her match with Captain Butler, who is the one character in the film who has the most fun in every situation. His profound declaration is nothing but perfect: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" That motto sums up his worldview quite well. And it is Scarlett's relationship with Captain Butler that carries the film.
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