GONE WITH THE WIND

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: themes of adultery, violence

Rated:

Katie Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) is the daughter of a wealthy Irish landowner in the South when political rivalries and disagreements are about to raise to their peak. Unshaken by the prospect of war, Scarlett is a selfish and sophisticated belle with her eye on the charming Ashley Wilks (Leslie Howard) of Twelve Oaks, the enormous cotton plantation to the west. Unfortunately, Ashley has agreed to marry his cousin Melanie (Olivia de Havilland), a quiet lady of Atlanta. The match is ideal for both of them... but Scarlett is determined Ashley will marry no other woman except herself.

Opening her heart to Ashley at the annual barbecue, Scarlett begs him to accept her proposal but he is bound to Melanie and refuses to annual the engagement. She makes a spectacle of herself and realizes in horror that someone has overheard the entire exchange. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a handsome and charming older man of the rakish breed and a terrible reputation, admires her passion and temper but insults her gravely with his sharp tongue. Enraged, she storms from the room... and immediately encounters Melanie's tongue-tied brother Charles, who breathlessly proposes to her at the very moment that war is declared against the North. Scarlett accepts only for spite but her marriage is short-lived when Charles is killed in an epidemic and the young belle sent into a premature mourning at only the age of seventeen. Scarlett pouts and cries for herself more than her lost husband and her mother suggests she go to Atlanta and stay with Melanie and her Aunt Pittypat. With the thought lingering that Ashley might return there on leave, Scarlett accepts and immediately finds herself in the midst of excitement and interest in the big city.

As a widow, she's restrained from having any male callers and is not allowed to dance at balls. Rhett reacquaints himself with Scarlett, and together they scandalize Atlanta by dancing at the charity ball. But Rhett is not the man she sees in her future... and Ashley is due to return for Christmas. Scarlett lies in wait for him like a spider. Inevitably, her course will carry her into the depths of despair, the height of wealth, and the ultimate realization that what she wants may not be what she thought. In the end, Scarlett will conclude, "tomorrow is another day."

Gone With the Wind is ultimately the story of a woman's determination and willpower. Although many of Scarlett's qualities leave much to be desired, she is truly a model of bravery and intellect. She is one of the few women of the South in the film that are truly able to go on after the war demolished the old world society forever. The film never bothers to sugarcoat the facts of the Civil War and its effects on Southern life. Overall the Yankees are played to be the more evil of the two societies, naturally since it takes place on the Southern plantation of Tara, but overall the film doesn't badmouth the North to a large extent and exploits the South's arrogance, which is what ultimately lost them the war.

With some minor oversight, the film was recently re-released to theaters with a G-rating, although all things considered a PG or PG13 would be more appropriate. There's a fair amount of violence -- Scarlett is attacked by thieves and knocked unconscious; riots erupt in the streets with pandemonium, and a woman shoots a soldier in the face as he comes up the stairs toward her. We briefly see his bloody face as he tumbles down the stairs; she then drags the body outside to bury it in secret. In the hospital we see bloodied arms and legs. An amputation is implied. Scarlett is determined to pry Ashley from Melanie's arms and does so by often cornering Ashley in private. They exchange kisses several times, though Ashley always pulls away. He also refutes her offer that they could run away to Mexico together. After her marriage to Rhett, Scarlett implies she would rather remain chaste but one evening he becomes enraged with her and carries her upstairs. Rhett is also known to frequent the house of a prostitute, Belle Watling. Some mild innuendo appears.

Visually the film is a masterpiece with the infamous "Burning of Atlanta" scene. The costuming is beautiful, the music memorable, and the cast ideal. Vivien Leigh becomes Scarlett completely; no one could have played her so well. Leslie Howard's Ashley is just the right combination of determination and terror for the future. Clark Gable makes Rhett that you both loathe and love, and Olivia de Havilland's Melanie is the moral backbone to the story. Her faith in friendship, her love for Scarlett even when rumors begin to circulate about Ashley, and her innocent trust in Rhett despite his reputation make her a praiseworthy figurehead. Since the film does deal with mature themes such as the war and engages in a plot that involves a woman chasing another's husband, but provides a rich look into the war-torn South and the women that this nation was built of, I feel it is for only more mature viewers.