Much Ado About Nothing

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2013)

Though named after the ephemeral qualities of breeze, "Gone With The Wind" moves like a lead balloon. The plot? Vivien Leigh plays Scarlett O'Hara, a strong willed Southern belle who's forced to flee her lavish plantation come the outbreak of the American Civil War.
Scarlett embodies the South's indefatigable spirit, the film watching as she remains strong and steadfast in the face of war, hardship and much adversity. People and loved ones die, Scarlett marries and widows a lot, but nothing will dent her optimism. "As God is my witness, they're not going to lick me!" she proclaims. "I'm going to live through this, and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again!"
You go girl.
Much of the film watches as Scarlett lusts for Ashley Wilkes, a man who embodies the South's honour, codes and subsequent defeat. With Ashley's passing goes the ideal of the American South, a better time which finds itself "gone with the wind", passing into history and so oblivion. Insidious? Audiences at the time didn't think so. Nevertheless, this is a racist, wholly ahistorical film which abounds with stereotypes, which panders to the South, which nostalgically pines for and glorifies the Confederate cause, and which suggests that the Union brutalised an idyllic, simple, gallant and peaceful world. In keeping with such historical re-imaginings, the film portrays white women as perpetually elegant and menfolk as noble and dashing. Black slaves, of course, are dutiful, content, clearly incapable of an independent existence, dopey and easily duped (none of the three main black characters have real names). White Southerners, meanwhile, are portrayed as defending traditional values, the issue of slavery is ignored and the Ku Klux Klan - called a mere "political group" in the film – is portrayed as an organisation of fine Southern gentlemen formed to protect white women. Elsewhere the usual Lost Cause myths are espoused, the Confederacy's motives noble and its leaders exemplars of old-fashioned chivalry who are unfortunately defeated by violent, scheming Unionists. The point is not that the film "takes the wrong side" - the North was as bad, if not worse, than the South – but that the film is just plain stupid.
Officially "Gone With the Wind" was directed by Victor Fleming. Unofficially, directors George Cukor, Sam Wood and William Cameron Menzies directed huge chunks. Producer David O. Selznick was the film's driving force, though, the man overseeing the production with customary gusto.
Scarlett is typically hailed as a feminist icon and a character who boosted hopes during America's Great Depression and Dust Bowl years. But while strong willed, she's also manipulative, is forever stealing other women's men and occasionally loves being bullied and raped by dapper rich dudes. Ayn Rand in a hoop skirt, it's hard to get behind a wealthy white woman who's pretty much oblivious to the suffering of everyone else around her. Indeed, Orson Welles would famously bash "Gone With the Wind", stating that Selznick was a "fool to mistake the picture for art". Robert Altman would call the film "total ****". Malcom X would tell the story of how the film's sanitised outlook made him feel like "crying and crawling under a rug". Hilariously, Nazi Germany would ban the film. The Soviet Union would also try to ban the film for being dumb crap. Selznick would later say they hated it because the film was "too classy". But you know how communists are. They hate class.
Like most artists who make dubious or outright racist films, Selznick spent much time espousing "Wind's" virtues. When black organisations threatened to boycott the film, he launched a massive PR campaign and explained that he would have black activists and Harvard professors working on the picture to "ensure that it's not racist". Worried that ticket sales might fall, he then tasked civil rights activist Walter White with ensuring that "the Negro position is greatly improved in the picture" such that it is demonstrated "that we have the greatest friendship toward them and their cause." Nevertheless, after the film's release, various black organisations signed an article stating that "we consider this work to be a glorification of the old rotten system of slavery, propaganda for race hatred and bigotry", comments which spurred Selznick to launch another PR campaign in which he proclaimed himself "a persecuted minority who also identifies with the black plight" and in which he proudly noted the benefits of his film, which "undoubtledly provided many acting roles for blacks".
Such back and forth bickering is typically brushed aside today. People were simply less enlightened then, it is said. And besides, there is nothing as bad here as, say, "Birth of a Nation's" fried chicken scenes. But this misses the point. People weren't dumb in the 1930s, and "Wind's" worse elements are found even in our contemporary, enlightened age. Just look at the environment in which "Wind" was briefly re-released in 2009; "The Blind Side" was winning Oscars and America's bestselling book was a self-help guide to help kids get into heaven. In a similar way, "Wind's" not about going, or impermanence, but covertly about something else: about things staying the same, about a reactionary longing for the past, and the preserving of dubious traits and/or institutions we, like Selznick, beautify with glitz.
Aesthetically, "Wind" looks amazing, with gorgeous cinematography, rich, evocative colours, beautiful browns, vibrant reds, gorgeous textures, strong camera work, opulent sets and one impressively composed scene after the next. On the flip side, it's a dumb, stiff, impersonal and ponderous melodrama. More paint-by-numbers colouring book than art, the film is the quintessential Hollywood product; the grand-mother of all event movies (the film's premiere led to several statewide holidays). Totally kitschy, its influence would remain strong even a century after it's release ("The Color Purple", "Titanic", "Cold Mountain", "Australia", "Far Away", "Heaven and Earth" etc)
3/10 – Worth one viewing