Margaret Mitchell's Legacy - Tomorrow is Another Day

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2014)

Young Scarlett is infatuated with Ashley Wilkes, but is disappointed to say the least when she hears of his engagement to Melanie Wilkes, who's a goody-two-shoes and Scarlett cares nothing for. Such begins the life, loves and whims of young Scarlett O'Hara in this Civil War-era story. Why is there another review to add to the already many reviews of this granddaddy of all movies? As I saw this for the umpteenth time recently, it crossed my mind that I hadn't reviewed it and to give a heads up for all those young enough to have never seen it or been introduced to it by their parents and are interested in seeing this long movie. What's so great about this movie, anyway? To begin with, author Margaret Mitchell was not your average girl growing up at the beginning of the 20th century. She was an independent creature who possessed a determined mind and a different outlook on the way things are supposed to be. To say she was a tomboy was to put in mildly. She was nicknamed "Jimmy," by those who knew her tomboyish ways and she loved the nickname. She was also called "Peggy" by her mother, which was a nickname for Margaret. She loved writing even as a young girl and would be writing constantly in her diary. Years later, the idea came to her for a novel when she recalled from her youth the time her mother took her to all the plantations and lands that once were prosperous during the pre-Civil War days and how the people lived and how they lost all they had when the war came, and it intrigued her how the families and generations must have endured that terrible inevitable war. Her mother's point in telling all this to young Peggy was to instill in Margaret a survival instinct. Drawing on her own husbands and beaus, Margaret conceived of the leads of Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes. And even the young girl's name was not Scarlett in the beginning, but Patsy. Taking three years, she wrote laboriously until she got her draft the way she wanted it, somewhat. She began her story with the end and wrote backwards. So she knew what her vision and her message was, even from the first word. Given the fact Margaret Mitchell was an independent person, the book's ending is not totaling surprising. It was really all about survival, no matter what. But what plagued her throughout writing was her first chapter. Not feeling completely satisfied, she shelved it, despite her insistence of her second husband and a publisher. When girlfriends heard of this novel, one of them made a remark that would change not only film history, but book history: "Margaret, you wrote a book! You? I didn't know you had it in you." With this anger and almost uncontrollable rage of being put in her place, Margaret got her draft and gave it to her publisher friend. Although he said it needed work, he was in awe of what he read. Despite the fact Americans were in the midst of the depression, "Gone with the Wind" took them by storm. Due to its bulkiness, it cost $3, and Margaret was impressed that anyone would spend $3 for it, given the hard times. "Gone with the Wind" broke all book records and still today sells hundreds of thousands of copies each year. With the name change to Scarlett encouraged by the publishers, "Gone with the Wind" was an extravaganza that debuted on December 15, 1939 in Atlanta, Georgia with most of the cast there, except for the black supporting players. Winning 10 Oscars for Vivien Leigh as Scarlett, Best Picture and Best Director, this has been the definitive example of story-telling splashed on film. Director George Cukor started production but was replaced by Victor Fleming who was credited and who received the award. Ben-Hur would later break the record for the most Oscars, but it's "Gone with the Wind"'s characters and their real flaws and dreams that have kept this film alive and in the hearts and imaginations of generations ever since. Upon seeing again, it occurred to me that once you have seen a movie over and over, sometimes it feel like you're just seeing it automatically, having it all memorized. But the magic of "Gone with the Wind" is that you are transported to another time that is made so real and so vivid that you never feel bored or unaffected with what you're watching. There are too many good actors in this to go into that, but suffice it to say that neither Clark Gable nor Leslie Howard wanted to be in this film, Clark for fear he could not live up to the young ladies' expectations of a Rhett Butler and because it was essentially a woman's film and Leslie Howard felt that Ashley was weak and Leslie Howard had a reputation as a ladies' man. And, the role of Scarlett O'Hara was the role of a lifetime, and that's another story of how they were filming the burning of Atlanta when in walks Vivien Leigh. End of discussion. Why should anyone today, new generations and you watch this film – because it shows you how to write films, how to develop strong characters, because it is part of our culture that shows what we came from and where we may be going in the future. That's just a few reasons. For sheer entertainment, nothing can really top this – no words are big enough or opulent enough – to describe the experience of watching "Gone with the Wind," especially for the first time. It's cinematically beautiful, majestic, stirring, and stupendous. Well, less is more, so suffice it to say, I would recommend "Gone with the Wind" to anyone serious about watching good films and interested seriously about making movies. Margaret Mitchell left quite a legacy – the dreams, the hopes, the drive of a young woman who influenced the world.