Georgia Peach

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2009)

Let's face it, it's virtually impossible to post a negative review of such an iconic movie and such a fixture in the history of Cinema. I'd seen it once, several years ago on TV and been suitably impressed by its scope and ambition but having just acquired it on DVD I've taken another look and one of the things that jumped out was the irony; my version weighs in at three and three quarter hours yet the main thrust is encompassed in the opening few scenes; the stereotypical vision of the 'South' beginning with the olde worlde charm and courtliness of belles and beaux on a large, well appointed plantation where the talk is of war to the chagrin of the spoilt, coquettish Scarlett O'Hara, then a scene of the other end of the spectrum, blacks toiling in the fields whose back-breaking work funds the affluence. We know that this is about to change dramatically and a case could be made that we don't need three and three quarter hours to illustrate it. Okay, I'm oversimplifying and it is a rich tapestry that is weaved for us though most of the striking visuals - two black children (they would, at the time, have been called pickaninnies)playing happily in cartwheels, silhouettes on a horizon at sundown, the pan across the wounded at and the burning of Atlanta etc - occur in the first half. Forget the misconception, happily fostered by the film, that the War Between The States was fought to free the slaves, and just enjoy the colour, the music, the spectacle and yes, the melodrama. Unique. Beyond classification.