My personal opinion of the movie

Rating: 7/10 (29 January 2015)

Although this epic romantic melodrama is undoubtedly one of the most popular and beloved motion pictures ever to grace the silver screen, it is also arguably the most overrated. Gone with the Wind is a very good movie, perhaps bordering on being great, but its subject matter and running time. Gone with the Wind is, simply put, a tale of two halves. The movie is divided by an intermission into a pair of roughly-equal segments. Then first, which is brilliant and consistently captivating, covers the time period of the Civil War, ending during Sherman's march through Atlanta. The post-intermission half, which dishes out the suds, picks up at the end of the Civil War and concludes about eight years later. This portion of Gone with the Wind, spins its wheels frequently. Theatrically, Gone with the Wind is an entirely different experience from its small-screen counterpart; some of the second-half narrative tedium is effaced by the glorious visuals. With a restored three- strip. Gone with the Wind has one of the best-known story lines of any film. Is Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), the spoiled, manipulative daughter of an Irish immigrant plantation owner (Thomas Mitchell). Scarlett has two sisters, but she is by far the most spirited of the three O'Hara girls, and her father, seeing her as his successor, teaches her lessons about the importance of the land. Scarlett is secretly in love with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), who is about to marry the gentle, demure Melanie Hamilton (Olivia De Havilland). When Scarlett confesses her love to Ashley, he admits his feelings for her, but notes that Melanie will make a much better wife. Immediately after this meeting, Scarlett has her first encounter with the irrepressible Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the cynical, smart hero who eventually falls in love with her. They are two headstrong likes who simultaneously repel and attract one another. Ultimately, when Rhett has finally had enough, he walks out of her life to her plaintive query about what she's supposed to do without him. The pre-intermission portion of Gone with the Wind, which runs about 115 minutes, is glorious from both a visual and an emotional standpoint. It's a grand tale of love and loss in the midst of this country's most bitter war. Most importantly, it shows Scarlett's development from a vain, spoiled brat into a hardened, determined young woman. Her relationship with Rhett is there, but kept carefully in the background. There is sadness, humor, and a number of breathtaking shots of Scarlett silhouetted against a reddish sunset. Gone with the Wind stands as a romantic monument to the Old South -- an homage to an era and a lifestyle long gone. To date, no film has sold more box-office tickets than Gone with the Wind. Domestically, the tally almost doubles that for the phenomenally-popular Titanic. Of course, when the movie was first released, it wasn't just another motion picture -- it was a spectacle, an event. Even though the habits of movie- goers have changed over the years, it's easy to see why this film provoked such an outpouring of praise and adulation during its initial release, and why its stature has grown with the passage of decades. Gone with the Wind has flaws, but it's still undeniably a classic and a legend.