Wonderful portrayal of a couple of people who refuse to be happy...

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2014)

1st watched 4/27/2014 -- 8 out of 10(Dir-Victor Fleming): Wonderful portrayal of a couple of people who refuse to be happy in the anti-heroes of Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, and Scarlett O'Hara, played by Vivian Leigh. Yes -- the movie is about the downfall of the old South, how people learn to survive thru desperate times, but mostly it's a saddening portrait of lost souls, in my opinion. The movie begins as 2 plantations in the pre-Civil war south live a life of grandeur but it is soon challenged by an inevitable war that threatens to ruin the fantasy world that they lived in -- and thus is "Gone with the Wind." Scarlett is a character that is used to getting what she wants due to her prestige or her good looks -- but she definitely can't handle things initially with they don't go her own way. She learns to manipulate and do whatever it takes to attempt to have her needs satisfied but constantly is denied her main pursuit which is trying to get her sister's fiancée to love her, and she pursues this up to almost the end of the movie. Rhett Butler is a wanderer who is really a lot like Scarlett but does eventually learn primarily because of having a daughter. This movie, based on the Margaret Mitchell novel, is mostly about character and shows us the examples of good and bad and the results of each's actions. The good souls are portrayed by Maureen O'Hara and Leslie Howard. Maureen as Scarlett's sister rarely does any wrong and Howard's character continually fight's off his temptations, but the other main characters do very little right. With so much sadness in this movie it's amazing it is so well liked. I believe the deeper meaning comes thru and people cling to that as I did while viewing this very uniquely filmed movie which does some amazing things with shadows with the cinematography overall being excellent. Despite the long length of the movie it keeps your interest, but I believe it would be a hard movie to watch more than once...I'm glad I gave it the once, and I understand why the movie was so critically acclaimed.