Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, Ashley, Mammy and Tara

Rating: 6/10 (25 June 2017)

Released in 1939 and directed by Victor Fleming, "Gone with the Wind" chronicles events at a Georgia plantation and points nearby before, during and after the Civil War. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable star as Scarlett and Rhett while Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard play Melanie and Ashley. Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen appear as Mammy and Prissy.
This is certainly an iconic movie and obviously spectacular in its day, but it was outdone by the same production team seven years later with "Duel in the Sun" (1946), which is just an all-around superior movie and holds up better all these decades later. Some people wrongly diss "Gone with the Wind" for depicting plantation life and the requisite slavery, not to mention portraying it in a relatively neutral light, but this institution was a fact-of-life in the Deep South at the time and, believe it or not, not all slave owners were inhuman monsters dripping with evil.
The opening act is weak with its hokey writing/acting. I half expected the peripheral cast to break out in choreographed song & dance at any moment. Once you get used to the quaint vibe, however, the story pretty much takes you in and really perks up with the burning of Atlanta. Unfortunately, Scarlett is a weak protagonist. She's selfish, neurotic and annoying despite her physical beauty. In the second half, just when you think she's redeemable, you find out you're wrong. Rhett isn't much better, but at least he has that charismatic gleam. Actually, I'm kinda impressed that they used these two as the protagonists because they're definitely antiheroes long before the antihero came into vogue. Melanie and Ashley are the true heroes of the movie, particularly the former.
Another problem is that, except for establishing shots (in Arkansas and Georgia), the movie was filmed in Southern California, including the outdoor sequences, and it's too obvious. An additional issue is that the last 45 minutes are generally weak for several reasons and the story just goes on & on when it seriously needed to wrap up. And then there's the hilariously delivered final line by Scarlett. Still, the movie's iconic and there's enough good here to make it worth checking out, as long as you can handle old-fashioned melodrama.
For a more realistic depiction of the Plantation Era, albeit on a TV budget, check out 1980's "Beulah Land," which was shot on an actual plantation and points nearby in Natchez, Mississippi.
The film runs 335 minutes (5 minutes shy of 4 hours).
GRADE: B-