utterly repulsive

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 1999)

I expected Gone with the Wind to be nostalgic of the South and probably racist, but I was looking to like it anyway, attempting to keep it in historical perspective and judge it as a movie. I failed. Nostalgia is fine, racism can potentially be overlooked; I did NOT expect this movie to be blatantly pro-slavery. Liking this movie is like liking an East German propaganda film from the 1960s, and to be perfectly honest, I don't understand why this film isn't dismissed as simply a KKK propaganda film in the same way "Birth of a Nation" is.
Overlooking the politics, this movie continued to make me angry. My plot summary would be something like: a narcissistic, vain, manipulative woman whines her way through hardship before finding success in exploiting other people, then finally getting hers in the end. Vivian Leigh just reminded me of too many ex-girlfriends of mine and the lessons of the movie I felt were wretched (maybe I'm just not enough of a capitalist, but I generally don't have a positive view of professional widows or other people who feed on the misery of others).
The one thing I do readily agree with is that this movie is fantastically filmed, considering the time period and that the whole thing was shot in California, and I'll never forget that painful scene with the veterans in Atlanta. But I simply can't get past this movie's wretched political and moral beliefs enough to think of it without feeling anger rise in me.