Gone With the Wind

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2007)

The story that spawned the story would make a scathing parody of what goes behind the making of a movie that had, years before its inception as a blockbuster, gone hyped out of control. Margaret Mitchell could have never envisioned her attempt at writing would create one of the most memorable movies of the last century. After all, all she did was write on a dare while recovering from a broken ankle, mainly for her own amusement.
The explosion that followed would be on a similar not as to what has happened with books such as "The Da Vinci Code" (although the movie didn't fare too well, despite being a good adaptation of a convoluted tale of quasi-hermetic conspiracies for a darker purpose). Coming out in 1936, it went on to win the Pulitzer Prize which in turn caught Hollywood's eye, already an industry noted for recreating movie versions of books both of its time and classic novels.
And with this, the "legendary search" for who would play Scarlett O'Hara, Mitchell's spitfire (pardon the cliché) heroine. The story is rife with intrigue itself -- everyone but ZaZu Pitts was on the roster, generating a whirlwind of publicity of gigantic proportions. (This, in itself, brought with it a new age in entertainment: that of the media frenzy circling on a specific event or celebrity.) Of course, little did they all know that the actress slated to play Scarlett was already hand-picked, and as much as Norma Shearer, married to the convenience of Irving Thalberg, was in negotiations, or as much as Bette Davis wanted the role (having to remain content with her own version in JEZEBEL, itself quite a formidable classic), or that Tallulah Bankhead and Miriam Hopkins were indeed from the South, or that Paulette Goddard came "this close" to bag the role in her pocket, the role was undoubtedly Vivien Leigh's. And this is the role for which Vivien has been remembered to this day in her all-too-brief career.
Repercussions of a less-reported, but culturally significant nature also can be seen throughout the finished product that is GONE WITH THE WIND. Blacks, up until 1939, had been seen only as in bit parts and the occasional supporting role such as in BABY FACE and IMITATION OF LIFE. (They would still be practically unseen until the Fifties when Sidney Poitier would come along, so it shows that changes didn't happen overnight.) The inclusion of black actors in larger roles that instead of being ornaments and lounge singers were part of the plot -- even if it was in what we today see as "stereotypical" roles -- was, for the times and posterior years, groundbreaking. It's ignited intense debates on how the character of Mammy (portrayed by Oscar-winner Hattie MacDaniel in her first and only landmark win over Olivia DeHaviland who while playing the much more understated role had years of a lucrative career ahead of her) was positive or negative, but for starters, at least she carried entire scenes with one or several of the leads, which meant baby steps. The same can be said for Butterfly McQueen who has equal amount of participation in GONE WITH THE WIND even as her character was underwritten and McQueen's own acting style did not allay any misconceptions of the dim-witted servant. I personally believe -- as a gay man living in a country that still has a ways to go in terms of full acceptance -- that it's best to have some form of representation rather than none at all.
Is it a perfect movie? I'd say it is... it's too well-done for its time. It's gone into our public consciousness with Rhett Butler's final quote to Scarlett and Scarlett's own two famous lines, "...as God as my witness I'll never be hungry again," and ..."tomorrow is another day." Its score practically lives within our DNA. Scarlett's own character is, while a historical romance heroine, closer to the types of ladies which existed in Pre-Code Hollywood. Her behavior alone is at times unsympathetic, even flat-out selfish and deceitful, but proto-feminist in the way a woman with no means to survival would have to be. It's been one of the most-watched films of the last century and probably will be in the coming future. Even overriding its MGM gloss, it's a fascinating movie, ferocious entertainment, and simply put, one of the greatest.