An Epic, Lushly Filmed Soap Opera is Still a Soap Opera

Rating: 4/10 (24 April 2009)

Gone With The Wind has a reputation as an all time classic, but it is unfortunately hollow and even fluffy. The film is ultimately a four hour soap opera concerning the travails of a spoiled brat, an obnoxiously self centered loud mouthed young woman. Scarlett is not easy to like, and neither is the smug Rhett. It's difficult to sit through four hours with two lead characters that are hard to sympathize with. The film romanticizes the south in a laughably superficial depiction, and the portrayal of African Americans are demeaning stereotypes; it's too bad that the first African American Oscar Winner, Hattie McDaniel, had to play such an exaggerated stereotype to win. Of course, this was 1939, so it wouldn't be so much of a problem if the rest of the film was not so melodramatic, especially the last quarter of the film. The rather limited story is stretched to fit the epic running time, but it feels flat rather than majestic. You may say it's a timeless classic, but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.