The Gold Standard

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2000)

This is the standard by which all other movies must be rated. And here, with a scale of 1 to 10, this must be rated a 10. This does not necessarily mean that there are not other movies that are better, a somewhat meaningless exercise since all "10" movies must be unique, so not truly comparable. But it is useful to keep Gone with the Wind in mind when rating other movies. I cannot comprehend how people can rate such trash as Fargo or even The Sound of Music as the greatest movie ever created. I wonder how many movies they have watched? Six?
Yes, GWTW has flaws. Leslie Howard supposedly refused to read the book before playing the part, and got Ashley wrong as a result. And the biggest flaw is that it glorifies a way of life based on the evil of slavery. If the movie came out today, how many people would believe that they could enjoy such a storyline? Surely it would be picketed as politically incorrect. And yet the movie, like all great movies, makes you suspend disbelief and accept its pretext.
This is not entirely surprising given that the story emerged from a society, the South, that had become expert at weaving a world of fantasy to justify its unspeakably evil past, and to some extent, still does so today. There is a lesson here: movies, as art, are not about political correctness. And simply watching - or reading - a story does not somehow instantly brainwash you into believing its political message. I come away from seeing GWTW with a bit more empathy for what the South went through (I have lived in Southern states), but not a lot. And it certainly does not leave me advocating a Southern Rebel mindset, just as a movie about Nazis does not leave me waving a swastika.
I still enjoy GWTW, I still rate it a 10. But the truth is, as I have watched it many times over the years, I have expected to see, somewhere, a condemnation of slavery, but have not found it. Great art expresses a truth that transcends its time. GWTW fails that standard, sadly. But it is still a thoroughly enjoyable movie. And with movies, that is the bottom line.