Gone with the Wind (1939)

             Gone with the Wind is a romance-drama about Scarlett O’Hara (played by Vivian Liegh), a southern bell’s struggle through the Civil War in 1861. With brilliant supporting actors, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, and Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind is a timeless classic. Filmed in 1939 by Victor Fleming, the film received 10 Academy Awards, a record that stood for 20 years, only to be surpassed by Ben Hur in 1960. Gone with the Wind was shot using Technicolor, using only the colors red and green to make all of the glorious colors portrayed on screen; an amazing achievement for 1939.

            The film starts and after the overture, we see an 1861 cotton plantation called Tara. This is an extremely successful cotton plantation where the O’Haras live in luxury. Scarlet is a beautiful young lady that all of the boys are literally head over heels with, but she continues just to string them along for fun. Scarlet is not completely heartless, however, she is in love with a striking man named Ashley who is engaged to one of his cousins Melanie Hamilton. The O’Haras are invited to a barbeque held at Twelve Oaks, a plantation owned by Ashley’s family. Once again scarlet is hailed by love-struck suitors. Scarlet, in an attempt to get away from love’s madness, goes inside and meets up with a friend who gives scarlet details about Melanie. When they make it to the second story of the grand house, scarlet walks to the window and sees Ashley and Melanie kiss, just then Melanie’s brother Charles proposes to Scarlet and she agrees.

            Scarlet and Charles are married the day after Melanie and Ashley. Scarlet and Charles are married quickly because Charles had to leave to join the fight for the South in the Civil War. Scarlet is almost instantly widowed when Charles dies from pneumonia and measles.  Scarlet is thrilled when her mother wants to send her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. O’Hara believes that Scarlet is excited to see “Melly,” but Mammy, the O’Hara’s black housemaid, knows that Scarlet is only leaving for Atlanta to wait for Ashley’s return.

            Eight months later, Melly goes into labor with her first child while the Union Army is holding siege over Atlanta. Since the labor is early, it becomes complicated and Scarlet and her young housemaid, Prissy, eventually deliver a healthy boy. Melly becomes extremely weak and feverish from her delivery. Scarlet calls Rhett, a captain for the Confederacy, to bring her and Melly home. Scarlet is eager to get home to see her mother. Rhett successfully gets Scarlet, Melly, Prissy, and the baby out of the city but tells Scarlet that they would have to go on without him.

Once home, Scarlet learns that her mother died of typhoid fever only days earlier. Scarlet’s father is beginning to lose his mind, when asked questions about what to do next, he responds with, “I’ll ask Mrs. O’Hara” and “Mrs. O’Hara will know what to do.” Scarlet walks out to the garden and rips a carrot out of the ground and eats it, then stands up and declares, “As God as my witness, I will never go hungry again.”

            Later, a carpetbagger (otherwise known as a Yankee), offers to buy Tara to which Scarlet rudely refuses. Mr. O’Hara, in a rage, chases after the carpetbagger on a horse and falls off to his death.

            Scarlet, in a desperate attempt for money, visits Rhett in jail. Rhett turns her down saying that his foreign bank accounts are frozen. On her way back to Tara, Scarlet runs into her sister’s fiancé Frank Kennedy and eventually marries him for his money. When Ashley is about to take a job with a bank in the north, Scarlett lies and tells him she needs help running the mill. Later on, after Scarlett is attacked while driving alone through a nearby shantytown, Frank, Ashley, and others make a night raid on the shantytown. Ashley is wounded in a melee with Union troops, and Frank is killed.

Only days later, Rhett proposes to Scarlet and she accepts. The two have a daughter and name her Bonnie Blue Butler. Rhett is wrapped around her finger from the beginning. He spoils Bonnie rotten. After having a child, Scarlet’s waist went from 18.5 inches to 20. Afraid of losing her figure, she tells Rhett that they will no longer have any more children and they will sleep separately. After a fight, Rhett tells Scarlet that he wants a divorce, but Scarlet refuses, saying that it would be a disgrace. Rhett then decides that he will take Bonnie with him to London, England, only to bring her home a short time later after Bonnie cries for her mother. When home Rhett accidently pushes Scarlet down the stairs, unaware that she is pregnant again. Scarlet suffers a miscarriage. A few days later Bonnie rides up to her parents on her pony and tells them to watch her jump. Scarlet afraid that Bonnie will get hurt, demands that Rhett stops her, but Bonnie, being spoiled rotten, will not listen and does that jump anyway. Bonnie falls off her horse and breaks her neck and dies.

Melly tries to comfort both Rhett and Scarlet but collapses because of a second pregnancy. Later on her deathbed, Melly tells Scarlet to take care of Ashley and her first born child. Scarlet leaves the room and goes to comfort Ashley. Rhett seeing that Scarlet went to Ashley instead of himself leaves for home. She pleads with him, telling him she realizes now that she had loved him all along, that she never really loved Ashley. However, he refuses; saying that with Bonnie's death went any chance of reconciliation. Scarlet pleads Rhett to stay saying “Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?" He answers, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" and walks away into the fog.

Scarlet says that if she keeps thinking about how to get Rhett back she will go crazy and decides to think about it the next day. Then she realizes that she does have a place to go saying, "Tara! Home. I'll go home, and I'll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!" Scarlett then returns to the plantation.
I give this movie an 9 out of 10 (10 being the highest).

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