Why I DON'T like this film...

Rating: 5/10 (16 August 2001)

It's not because of the production value. It is by far one of the most beautiful looking films ever made. The scenery is breathtaking and the sets phenomenal. It's almost hard to believe that such a vast film was made in 1939. When you live in a time with larger than life films being made on a regular basis with life-like CGI effects, a film that uses plain old ordinary sets and back lots really amazes you.
But a movie should be more than just production value. Hence the reason why I found this nearly four-hour movie to be extremely boring and not worthy of my time. Actually, the only true reason I practically despise this fabulously made film is the main character. Scarlet O'Hara is the quintessential (word I cannot use on this website). If I had to hear her say "fiddle-dee-dee" one more time, I was going to scream. Actually, she didn't say it all that much, but every single line she uttered was either a whine or a plea for pity. And this was in EVERY SCENE OF THE FILM!!!! It seems that I'm supposed to admire her constant, melodramatic pleas for her one and only true love, Ashley. Who cares that she married three men for no reason but to make the guy jealous (which by the way, did not work). Who cares that the only marriage that lasts somewhat is the one to Rhett in the last hour of the film where it gets so sappy and tedious that I almost felt like falling asleep. Now that could be because the film has been copied so much that having seen the rip-offs before watching the film itself ruined it for me. And maybe I'm being to hard on Scarlet and her very tumultuous life as that is the entire point of the epic picture. "GONE WITH THE WIND" simply wouldn't exist if Scarlet O'Hara wasn't the character she was. But when you hate the main character so much, that really tends to make the whole film seem really bad.
I will recommend this film, though, as it is--like maybe Rob Reiner would say, an essential--because the film represents what all epic films should be. I just wish Scarlet O'Hara had been a much more lovable character rather than the whiny, melodramatic ham I perceived her to be.