Magnificent, but not quite a great film

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2018)

There is no question that the pure artistic cinematic achievement of Gone with the Wind is extraordinary as it features one of the greatest pieces of cinematography i have ever seen, but its main purpose of connecting with main characters over such a long journey seems to be lacking a bit and therefore its reputation as one of the all time greats really isn't an objective one.
First we should obviously name the good, and the first thing that comes to mind is the cinematography. With such incredible indoor set design, elegant costume design, fantastic camera angles and beautiful outdoor scenery which mostly looks absolutely timeless, it is visually a masterpiece and an absolute delight to the eyes. Take the scene following Scarlett from the crane for example, slowly showing more of the victims of the civil war while Max Steiner's beautiful score plays, resulting in in itself an even emotional scene which also subtly shows us anti-war statements. However, the final scene or the scene right before the intermission with the camera showing silhouette's of characters next to a tree while zooming out when Max Steiner's score hits its climax has to be the ultimate cinematic perfection to such a long epic journey. There are also many of these kind of silhouette scenes throughout the movie, especially the first part before the intermission, and these scenes have once again gorgeous backdrops.
As one can tell by my praising above of most of the aspects of the film, there is mostly just one simple detail which alters my perception of the film into just a 'good' one, and that is Scarlett ( Vivien Leigh ). Scarlett is fake, manipulative, selfish, stubborn, immoral & plainly just unlikeable to a degree that you would want her to get shot from the moment you first see her. It is not possible to build an emotional connection with her, and i just did not care at all about what happens to her. Not all characters are this unlikeable, as even the sleazy and arrogant Rhett Butler ( Clark Gable ) has his good moments and is even likeable, or Melanie Hamilton ( Olivia de Havilland ) who is a stark contrast to Scarlett yet somehow the two of them can be best friends which is something that is not very realistic to start with. Unfortunately instead of following Melanie or Rhett we are subjected to 4 hours of torture because we are constantly following Scarlett and her pathetic schemes and cheating along the way. True, main characters do not have to be likeable as long as they are well developed, but Scarlett has to be one of the most annoying irritating leads in a film ever shown, and with a last hour built to severely heighten emotional value, it doesn't work because a connection with her cannot be formed. It also doesn't help that her character development is non existent as she ends as the pathetic cheat that she started out as.
A slightly smaller issue is that it is too fast paced, and especially when the final hour draws near main characters start dying one by one but scenes are cut short and are not dragged out which leads to one person dying and the other dying shortly after that while barely showing any of our characters responses to it. ( Except for Melanie Hamilton's, that one was done right ). In a cinematic experience, scenes, and especially scenes like this that are supposed to invoke emotion in the audience, need to be dragged out a bit so you can build a connection to it, but going from one dropping dead to the other dropping dead so quickly is a bit of an anti-climax and lessens the emotional connection because you cannot absorb what has happened before the next thing already happens.
It is still such an incredible experience that i cannot truly objective rate it any lower because of the absolutely beautiful cinematography, original score and long running time, but it isn't as immersive as it could have been due to Scarlett's character taking you out of the film and making you care less about what happens to her, and even to most of the people dumb enough to hang around with her. ( For example, Rhett seems like a smart guy, but still wants to marry Scarlett even though he should probably know that would end in disaster ). But its stunning visual beauty cannot be ignored and therefore its positives still far outweigh its negatives.