Just an astounding masterpiece that should be cherished by all generations

Rating: Null/10 (25 October 2002)

I am 24 years of age and I can say that, for the first time in my life, last night, I saw GWTW. Thats right, I had never, ever seen the movie before, not even bits and pieces of it. Oh sure I saw Rhet sweep Scarlett off her feet and up the stairs, but that was about it. I had never seen one of the greatest American classics ever produced, not even a part of it.
And would you believe I saw it alone? I have been asked by noit so few a girfriend to watch this movie, romantic and sweepingly epic as it is, but have always declined. Why? Well because I find, in my own point of view, that older romantic movies, just as older horror movies, are just not as effective on me today as they most undoubtedly were on people of that era. So I stayed away from this movie, believing that the hype and over-zelous love for this film would find me far too expectant of it and, thus, far more dissappointed then I should be. I was, however, very much wrong.
I don't believe I will give, in any way, a general review of this film. Anyone reading this now knows of the story or has worshipped at its cinematic feet for years. Besides, a text book review, a dateline chronicle of this splendid film would not do it justice. As with great pieces of literature, the beauty lies not in the details but in the emotions garnered from the experience, and GWTW evokes such earth shattering emotions.
You may scoff at my assertion that a movie could render upon me such strong emotions, but I feel that anytime an event takes place which alters the types of things that please you, that motivate you, that entertain or touch you in some way, well to me that is and shall always be earth shattering. I remember watching, as a child, JAWS and realizing that I could watch this story for years and years without ever tiring of it. It started a life long fascination with the sea and sharks which has never subsided. I remember being in 7th grade and reading for the first time a book that was a joy to read, a book that was an event at night rather then a burden. After reading, for my class, Lord of the Flies, I continued on, reading Lord of the Rings, and on and on and on after that to the point I find myself now where no night of mine is truly complete until I read a bit. I remember all of these things, and many more that have meant so much to me, and I can easily say that GWTW was one of those watershed moments for me.
I want to visit Tara, I want become kismit friends with Rhet Butler, I want to find people in this world who loath Ashley as much as I do, who love and respect Melanie as much as I do, and who lust after, for some reason and not just physically, Scarlett as I find myself doing now. I want to see the old South as it was, with all of its splendor and horror, in slavery, put out upon the curb everyday for all to see. I want to see what the Civil War really looked like and I want to stand, jaw dropped and with a sense of dread, as men from both sides talk of short wars and little bloodshed.
Mostly however I want to live the life that Gone with the Wind lays out. I want that life to be my life, if only for a moment, if only as a whisper in the ear of time. This movie made me believe in love, in that unquenchable love that passes all understanding, and made me afraid of it's trappings. I feel, even now, for Rhet Butler, so many years of wasting his love on someone incapable of returning it. I pity now Scarlett, left sobbing on the bottom steps of her gigantic home, loving the man she had just driven away with every pore of her being. I feel for them all as if I had known them myself, greavied with them in moments of lose, and celebrated in moments of triumph.
This movie made me feel good, fullfilled, and satisfied completely at the end, so much so that I went to bed as writer, director, and actor, finishing a story I had just watch unfold. Sending Scarlett off to fight for Rhet, leaving Ashely behind to wallow in his own well deserved misery. I watched in my mind as Mammie grew older and more gentle as the years went on and Tara became smaller, yet more open and loving in its old age.
I saw all this in my miond only because, as a great novel does, a great poem does, a great prose does, this movie left us all wanting more. Wanting it so much that we would stay awake at night, creating a larger, even grander world then the one we had been allowed to peer into. We needed to create more because 4 hours and 20 some odd years was not enough for us. It was but a taste, one so good we needed to raid the rest.
And so will it go. New movies will evoke new emotions and new characters will make me laugh and cry and groan from disapproval, but GWTW will live on in my memory. With other films, they will pass in the halls of my thoughts only when I see them on TV or hear of them from friends, but GWTW will visit those halls from time to time without any pre-announced engagement. It will come in to brighten my day, to promise of something better, and to focus me on the beauties of life and all it has to offer. It is why we stare at the Mona Lisa, listen to Beethoven and Mozart, read Dickens and Shakespeare, and in the end, why we watch GWTW. For it gives us a sense of relief or purpose the likes of whcih nothing else does. For that, for last night, I am grateful for that story.