Yeah, the movie 'Gone with the Wind' is an American classic and all that but I wanted to see how mean I could be to an 'epic film'. What can I say? I guess I derive satisfaction out of thinking differently. So, here goes.
The movie begins with a couple of supposedly handsome men taking shots at Scarlett O'Hara, the childish lead heroine in the movie. It has been made very mechanical and unbelievable. There is no way a sensible woman would have found it, in the least, flattering. The lady, little girl rather, has been made to witness the Civil War waged by the Yankees, three marriages and infinite amount of flirting during the course of the movie. It seems more like a deliberate attempt at squeezing war, romance and stupidity in one big package.
The girls in the movie have been portrayed as gullible and worth only to be flirted with. The change that comes in her, as shown later in the movie, is even more outrageous. There seems to be no trace of the old Scarlet in her at all, until when Ashley comes back and confuses her. Perhaps it’s his presence that brings out the unrealistic, impulsive part of her.
There is a line in the movie ‘She’s after your beau now’ which clearly removes any doubt about the intention of the ladies in the movie. It is hard to believe that she agrees to dance with Mr. Butler, who she had addressed as a dog in the first part of the movie, for no apparent reason. The impulsiveness of the character, Scarlett, is that of a child while the role she plays in the movie is that of a fine lady.
The men in the movie are not as refined as they are supposed to be with respect to the theme of the movie either. They address Mr. Wilkes as the ‘Captain of the Troop’ and they don’t even rebel against him when he says that there shall be no war. What could get more cowardly than that! The way Mrs. Hamilton says, “Oh dear, oh dear!” and faints is nothing less than melodramatic. It’s hard to miss that Scarlett seems turned on when Melanie cries on her shoulder when the list of those who died in the war comes. The scene gets, quite interestingly, abruptly terminated.
Even in the middle of the civil war, Mr. Butler keeps his cool. When she asks what he was laughing at, he answers back that he was laughing at her. He looks so calm that it seems that might actually have been organizing the entire uproar. After the war is over, she sees the gory remains that the war has left behind. Even at this point of time, all she has to say is, “Dirty Yankees!”
Overall, the movie seems way too far fetched to believe. There are a few characters who are suffocated with too much to deliver in the movie while there are others who have little or no relevance. It is an over-ambitious movie that has managed to convince people that it is good entertainment, of the laugh at the movie genre. As far as the ten Academy Awards that it won are concerned, I’d say, “Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.”(Quotes from the movie here)
PS: This post is the first of the three musketeers who felt bad because of
Mr. Murphy.Update: Check
this out. Blogging just gets better. :D
