The most over-hyped, overwrought, and underslung movie ever . . .

Rating: 5/10 (6 July 2006)

At this late date, it is intriguing to scan a few contemporary comments on this Selznick "classic" of "classics." To me, it is instructive that time has dropped the rating from a 10 to an 8? Still overrated, in my view. Fans continue to echo the fanfare billboards of '39, when I, as a soph in college, sat through the Berkeley "premiere" with lady friend and, after the three-and-three-quarter hour melee, opined: interesting, but no cigar. Besides, it's butt-wearying. I have not seen the film again, but adoring fans, worldwide?, notwithstanding, I still have major plaints, to wit: 1: Has anyone else detected?, or am I mistaken, the egregious plagiarization by Margaret Mitchell, UNconsciously?, of the four chief protagonists in William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" plunked down in the Civil War "South"??? 2: It took nearly FOUR hours of feckless "romanticisms" to reach an er, ah, "climax" of Rhett's sublimation of passion? Not to mention a "daring" uttering of the word "damn"? 3: Whereas the heavily lobbied Oscar went to Hattie McDaniel, few seem to mind the Priss of Butterfly McQueen, who summons the ghosts of Step'n Fetchits past. I gagged, I kid you not. And I wasn't even aware, at the time, of my racial sensitivities. 4: Finally, despite a feisty Vivien Leigh, neither Olivia de Havilland nor Leslie Howard could rescue their roles from the doldrums of tedious tepidity. Forget Clark, who finally came to some life vis-a-vis Claudette Colbert when he finally blew the horn on their Wall of Jericho in an arguably deserving Oscar-winning vehicle. Today, I can only think of one candidate to rival "GWTW" for cinematic afflatus, and that is the Oscar-dominating "Titanic." The sight of was it James Cameron? pumping his fist and avowing his just deserts was less than inspiring. Here, I would place Viggo Mortensen's at the time six-year-old scion, Henry, as a proper "critic." The boy is said to have said, after sitting through the watery precincts: "It should have been about the boat." And not that laughable?, well, certainly corny, between-decks "romance" and emblematic necklace/pendants? And IF "GWTW" IS, in truth or in fact, an authentic American "great," then, indeed, is American cinema in dire straits.