Big Deal

Rating: 4/10 (12 April 2009)

The doting hysteria surrounding this overblown tome of a film amazed me when I first saw it 50 years ago. It is as tedious now as then. With a few exceptions (especially Gable), the acting is overdone and phony. After the fourth silhouettes against the setting sun shot within the first 30 minutes, even the beauty of those scenes was diluted to visual doggerel. One of the few entertaining scenes was the newly widowed Scarlett dancing a jig below the serving table top at a soirée. As for historical accuracy - never mind. I know that I am in a small minority who rate this between 1 and 6 but there is always hope that more people will be less impressed with the scope and grandeur and notice what a silly soap opera this thing is.