Hollywood's most loved film - but what in God's name is there to love?!!!

Rating: 2/10 (3 May 2006)

Vivien Leigh plays Scarlett O'Hara who is powerful, sometimes nasty, and beautiful and that matches perfectly with Clark Gable who plays the muscular, arrogant and seductive Rhett Butler who is handsome. Many of the film's characters are horribly arrogant in their own ways and that is one of the things I hate about this long, lifeless movie. Other bad points are that the film's storyline is so hard to understand, Scarlett and Rhett hardly ever get on, Rhett getting drunk so many times annoys the life out of me, all the nice characters die - like Melanie and Scalett's mother and so on, Scarlett suspects rivalry with Melanie over Ashley Wilkes who is dull and even just that little bit unattractive and I would expect someone like Scarlett to have a crush on strapping young men who have nice looks. Some scenes he looks better than others. I don't see what people love about this movie - it drags, its drama is extremely heavy, there is hardly any romance instead there's constant rowing and that doesn't create much of a love-story I don't think. It's on for 4 hours so I believe and to most people, "Gone with the Wind" would seem like 4 hours of romance, action, melodrama, difficult situations, stunning fire effects for Atlanta in flames - it's got the lot some may say, but I personally think that I can be so boring throughout most of its 4 hours. Very soon, in a couple of days or so I hope, my mum will watch it with me (I've got it on video and 4-disc DVD) and help me to get to know it better meaning she will hopefully help me understand the story and, who knows? I may grow quite fond of it. I do like the scene when Scarlett is forced to nurse a pregnant Melanie who is also very poorly and Prissy lies about being good at helping to drop babies she gets hit when she is caught out. I love the scene when Scarlett and Rhett take Melanie, her newborn baby and Prissy back to Tara and the fiery backdrop. It's not the best film I've ever seen I can tell you. I did watch it with mum and I did start to understand the story a bit better but I still find it rather uninteresting and irritating there really are so many things about it that irritate me arrgghh! - you wouldn't believe it! Oh, and by the way, as big, sometimes bullying and rather offencive Rhett Butler is (to all except little Bonnie who he spends his life and money around) Clark Gable was actually quite a wimp in reality and I found that out on the special 4-DVD box set. I'm not surprised he wanted to turn down the role of Rhett Butler he looks like such a twit but, I suppose, he did his best and nobody can do better than their best. Vivien Leigh looks like she's getting rather overexcited as Scarlett and not thinking about the proper character of Miss O'Hara mind you she is rather a gorgeous girl and I can see why Rhett was so jealous of the unattractive Ashley Wilkes. If you can endure people who always shout in a very grating way whenever they open their mouths ALL THE TIME instead of just talking like normal people do, seeing beautiful but abrupt Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara suspecting rivalry with a sweet-natured young lady over an ugly old man, Scarlett and Rhett's love affair lasting about a mere 10 minutes throughout a massive 4 hours, kind-hearted characters dying every two minutes at the end, seeing drunken Rhett trying to attack Scarlett and then take her daughter from her the very next morning then you are probably very likely to love GONE WITH THE WIND but if not then don't bother.