Gone with the Wind

In 1939, Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone with the Wind was adapted for the big screen. With a cast of Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, and Hattie McDaniel, the film set a record for Academy wins and nominations. Of the 13 awards it was nominated for, Gone with the Wind won 8 (Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best cinematography, Best Interior Decoration, and Best Editing). Hattie McDaniel was also the first African-American to win an Academy Award

The film begins in 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War. Scarlett O’Hara (Leigh) lives at Tara, her family’s cotton plantation in Georgia. She learns that Ashley Wilkes (Howard) is to marry his cousin, Melanie Hamilton (de Havilland). Scarlett is secretly in love with Ashley.

At the Wilkes plantation of Twelve Oaks where Ashley and Melanie’s engagement is being announced during a barbecue, Scarlett notices the admiration of Rhett Butler (Gable) who has been disowned by his family. Butler is also in disfavor with the other male guests when stating the South would have no chance in a war against the numbers and might of the North. Scarlett confesses to Ashley that she loves him, but he says that he and Melanie are more compatible. Afterwards, Rhett reveals to Scarlett that he has overheard the conversation, but promises not to say anything. The barbecue is disrupted by the declaration of war, which the men flock to enlist. Melanie’s brother Charles asks for Scarlett’s hand in marriage before he goes and while she does not love him, she consents. They are married before he leaves.

Charlie soon dies from a bout of pneumonia and measles while serving in the army. To cheer her up, Scarlett’s mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta. But the O’Hara’s housemaid, Mammy (McDaniel) knows she is only going to wait for Ashley. Scarlett, who shouldn’t attend a party at all while in mourning, attends a charity bazaar in Atlanta. There, she is the object of shocked comments from the elderly women of Atlanta society. Rhett, now a blockade runner, shows up and when gentlemen are invited to offer bids for dances to raise money for the war effort, he makes an unusually large bid for Scarlett. Though everyone disagrees with it, Scarlett agrees to dance. During, Rhett says he intends to win her, which she says won’t ever happen.

After the Battle of Gettysburg , many of the men in Scarlett’s town are killed and she makes another appeal to Ashley while on Christmas furlough. While the appeal is unsuccessful, they doo share a kiss in the parlor before he returns to war.

During Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, Melanie goes into premature and difficult labor. Scarlet keeps her promise to Ashley and takes care of Melanie with her young house servant Prissy (Butterfly McQueen). They must deliver the child without medical assistance as the doctor is attending the wounded in the city. Scarlett calls Rhett to bring her home to Tara with Melanie, Prissy and the baby. He appears with a horse and wagon and escorts them out of a burning Atlanta. After leaving the city, he sends them on their way with a nearly dead horse. He kisses her before going off to fight. On their way home, Scarlett finds Twelve Oakes burned and deserted. However, Tara is still standing, but it is deserted by everyone but her parents, sisters, Mammy and Pork (Oscar Polk). Scarlett’s mother has just died of typhoid and her father’s mind is going. With Tara pillaged by Union troops and the fields unattended, Scarlett vows that she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself, uttering the famous line “As God as my witness, I’ll never go hungry again.”

Scarlett makes her family and servants pick the cotton fields, while facing other hardships such as a Union deserter who attempts to rape her during a burglary. When the Confederacy is defeated, Ashley returns, but is of little help at Tara. Scarlett begs him to run away with her and he confesses his desire for her, but says he cannot leave Melanie. At the same time, Scarlett’s father dies after being thrown from a horse in an attempt to chase away a scalawag from his property.

Realizing she cannot pay the rising taxes on Tara implemented by Reconstructionists, Scarlett goes to see Rhett in Atlanta. However, he is in jail and tells her his foreign bank accounts are blocked. Departing, she encounters her sister’s fiancé, Frank Kennedy who owns a general store and lumber mill. Scarlett lies to him, saying that Suellen got tired of waiting and married someone else. So she marries him. Afterwards, she takes over his business and becomes wealthy. Ashley is offered a job with a bank in the north and Scarlett emotionally blackmails him to take over managing the mill.

Frank, Ashley and Rhett make a night raid on a shanty town after Scarlett is almost gang raped while going through it alone. Frank dies and while his funeral is barely over, Rhett visits Scarlett and proposes. She accepts and they have a daughter whom Rhett names Bonnie Blue. However, Scarlett still wants Ashley and while her figure has been ruined by having a child, she tells Rhett that she wants no more children and they will no longer share a bed.

One day, Scarlett visits the mill. She and Ashley are spied in an embrace by two gossips who spread the rumor, once again ruining Scarlett’s reputation. Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett to attend Ashley’s birthday party. Incapable of believing anything bad of her sister-in-law, Melanie stands by Scarlett, letting everyone know she believes the rumors to be false. After returning home, Scarlett finds Rhett drunk and they argue about Ashley. Rhett jealously grabs Scarlett’s head and threatens to smash her skull. She taunts him that he has no honor and Rhett retaliates by forcing himself onto her. She attempts to resist, but Rhett overpowers her and carries her to the bedroom. The next day, Rhett apologizes and offers Scarlett a divorce. However she rejects it, saying that it would be a disgrace.

After returning home from an extended trip to London, Scarlett attempts to reconcile and says she is pregnant. But she and Rhett argue, which results in Scarlett being thrown down the stairs and miscarrying. While she is recovering, Bonnie dies while attempting to jump a fence with her pony. Melanie then visits the home to comfort them, but then collapses during a second pregnancy she was warned could kill her.

On her deathbed, Melanie asks Scarlett to look after Ashley and be kind to Rhett. Scarlett consoles Ashley, but Rhett leaves and returns home. When Ashley realizes that he only truly loved Melanie, Scarlett leaves to find Rhett preparing to leave for good. She begs him not to leave, realizing that she loved him all along and never really loved Ashley. He refuses, saying that after Bonnie died, any chance of reconciliation was gone. As Rhett goes to walk out the door, Scarlett once again begs him to stay and he walks away. Scarlett is left weeping on the staircase but vows one day to win him back.

Before anything else, the elephant in the room must be addressed. Gone with the Wind has been criticized for racism and historical revisionism. However, it must be remembered the film’s setting and point of view. It is told from the perspective of white Southerners in Antebellum and Reconstruction Era South, mostly that of a cattish and manipulative southern belle. The unfortunate fact is that this nation has had a very racist past and still continues to fight those injustices. By no means should this aspect of our history be embraced, but neither should it be left out. To do so does a disservice to the period and this nation’s history. As for historical revisionism, the film is criticized for the institution of slavery itself being only a part of the background of the film. Again, this can be attributed to the perspective of Scarlett, Rhett, and co. None of them were abolitionists in any sense and slavery was a normal part of their lives. They didn’t concern themselves with it, as to them, it was a non-issue until it was absent from their lives. Instead, the film centers on what the characters themselves actually care about: their own lives.

With that being said, the film is a little bit longer than The Great Ziegfeld, clocking in at three and a half hours. However, this actually works. The Great Ziegfeld failed by having a three hour long film that slowly dragged the plot and stopped three times to show off. Gone with the Wind, on the other hand, either continually drives the plot forward or focuses on the characters. And while the first half of the film is slow, it works as to set up the second half. The visuals are also grand without resorting to excessive flamboyance, especially when combined with the cinematography. The scene when Scarlett is walking through the Atlanta train station full of wounded soldiers comes to mind.

The characters are also really good. Scarlett doesn’t have much going for her in the way of development, but she doesn’t really need it. She’s a narcissistic manipulator through and through and when everything crashes down around her, doesn’t want to learn from any of her mistakes, she just wants to get back on top. Leigh does a really good job of making Scarlett that character you really love to hate. At the same time, Gable’s Butler is very relatable. He constantly pursues Scarlett and, when he gets her, tries to put up with all of her nonsense, but just can’t take it any longer. It really feels rewarding at the end to hear him say he just doesn’t give a damn anymore. You also feel for him when Bonnie dies as well.

Why did this get Best Picture? Probably for its rendition of an award winning novel as well as it being the highest grossing picture of all time until 1966.

Final Call: Gone with the Wind succeeded where The Great Ziegfeld failed, usurping It Happened One Night as #1.