Technical strengths but the plot loses its way in the second half.

Rating: 4/10 (25 December 2019)

I don't really feel the need to spell out the issues around portrayal of slavery and romanticising the South. To the 2019 viewer, it's pretty evident and besides other reviewers already have. In spite of these issues I do take the point that great art can be appreciated while acknowledging the 'of its time/culture' mentality, uncomfortable though it may be.
And in several ways this is great art - in terms of cinematography and ambition it is way ahead of its time and should be admired for this. But sadly the narrative is such a fatal flaw that in spite of all that was beautifully made about this film I couldn't enjoy it. For the first half, we have a love story with the historical backdrop of the war. Scarlett goes through war and poverty, and at one point it looks like she's going to emerge with some character development as you'd expect. But then a series of bizzare narrative choices (that span something like two hours) later she seems to have learnt very little, and when the denouement finally comes and she realises her errors we had been put torturously through them for so long that the foregone conclusion loses any impact. Meanwhile the post-war repercussions were abruptly dropped to focus on the soap opera; the impact of one character's death is completely lost as it's followed immediately by another; the traumatic implication of Scarlett's marital rape is inexplicably followed by her waking up beaming with no explanation, etc. With a better - and more concise - script this could have been the masterpiece it's supposed to be but it ended up a bit of a disjointed mess.
Normally being on the opposite side of received wisdom about a classic I'd be willing to give it a second viewing, but at this run time? No thanks. Will leave others to enjoy it, but when they point to its great 'storytelling' as well as production values I'll be a bit mystified.