25 American Classics - Gone with the Wind (1939)
This is part 2 of a 25-movie series called “American Classics” – a survey of 25 influential and iconic American films from the past 100 years.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Dir. Victor Fleming
Rating (Out of 5 Stars): ★★★
After the Silent Era, American cinema enters the 1930s. While the ‘30s was a difficult decade for America with the Great Depression, the fallout from World War 1, and the inevitability of World War 2, the decade saw the continuing rise of Hollywood. The Golden Age of Hollywood is thought to be the 1930s and 1940s. 1939 is often cited as the best year in Hollywood history. Two movies directed by Victor Fleming, in particular, captured the hearts of the nation – Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. This post reviews the former.
The Box Office crown seems to be between Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Endgame right? Wrong. But frankly, my dear, adjusted for inflation Gone with the Wind destroys both. According to BoxOfficeMojo, Gone with the Wind has made over $1.8 billion domestically, while The Force Awakens made $974 million and Endgame $858 million (both domestic totals). It was an iconic hit upon its release and has endured in the cinematic conscious of America.
The story is set in the Confederate South during the Civil War and into the early Reconstructionist era of the South. The protagonist, Scarlett O’Hara (played by Vivien Leigh, who won Best Actress for the role) is a Southern belle socialite who does everything she can to find love and rise above those around her. She fails, but she endures. Clark Gable plays Rhett Butler, a Confederate soldier and wealthy businessman. The love triangle at the center of the film is between Scarlett, Rhett, and a third character Ashley (also a Confederate soldier). However much the movie may appear to be a romance between Scarlett and Rhett, the true romance is between a group of people and a specific time in American history. The predominant emotion in the film is that of nostalgia and loss—a desire to find home and fulfillment through one’s own effort. Like The Wizard of Oz, the film’s core message is a search for home and belonging; with this comes the sad nostalgia of an era, time, and “home” that will never be again.
The opening poem of the movie reads, “There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind…” So, when I say this film hasn’t aged well, that should come as no surprise. It is a film that longs for an era of American history that is now seen as a stain. While the film is beautifully shot, well-acted, and a moving emotional epic, it is a film unwilling to tackle this stain in American history. It opts for rose-colored nostalgia glasses rather than an honest evaluation of past transgressions. In the process, the film contributed to negative Southern stereotypes. Black slaves are presented as happy, dutiful, and full of love for their White masters. The white Southerners are well-respected and romanticized protagonists. While the film did win an Oscar for the first black actor—Hattie McDaniel as the housekeeper, Mammy—there is a reason the film is no longer shown at several annual film festivals. The film is understandably considered great for a number of reasons, but its greatness comes with a cost.
Last year, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman hit cinemas, earning a Best Picture nomination and a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. I placed it in my top 5 favorite films of 2018. The opening scene is taken straight from Gone with the Wind, and it’s not an homage of kindness. The pairing of the empathic post-Civil War battle scene with Alec Baldwin’s fictitious White Power monologue implies that Gone with the Wind contributed to the proliferation of white power in America—something Spike Lee shows is still a rampant threat today. Later in BlackKklansman, Lee intercuts a raucous Ku Klux Klan viewing of The Birth of a Nation (1915) with a moving recollection of the film’s notorious history by U.S. District Judge Jerome Turner. The “birth of two nations” scene ends with rapids cuts of one crowd chanting “White Power” and the other “Black Power.” The striking juxtaposition is powerful. The Birth of a Nation is more overt and obvious in its racism, but Gone with the Wind’s was and remains troubling and problematic. In 1939 and the years following, a record number of people came to see a film about a longing for the past. That past, however, was not completely realistic or honest; this past was decidedly white. The past is not always as good as we remember.