Gone with the Wind

I LOVE LOVE LOVE This movie, it's one of my all time favorites!

We all know this movie is socially incorrect but the story between Rhett and Scarlett is great. I love this movie.

Perhaps the most famous film in the history of cinema.

This is a classic movie and it's one that everyone should see at least once. Now having said that, I must also admit that this is a hard movie to watch. This movie is heavy on the drama and while that is part of what it so popular, the drama can get old after a while (remember, the movie is almost 4 hours long!) There are amazing parts and it does a great job catching the ups and downs of life and the roles are very well played, but after the first two hours things can start to drag a bit. I like this movie and I even own it, but its just not a movie that you watch for fun or that you really watch very often.

It really is a true American Classic film, but, frankly my dear....

The definite epic saga of the American south during the civil war. A classic like no other.

Rhett Butler, businessman and acknowledged scoundrel, meets and falls for the lovely young Scarlett O’Hara, heir to a Georgia plantation and well-known heartbreaker. They do a choreographed little dance at public functions, pretending to be affronted and then deftly dismissing each other to maintain dignity, but their true feelings are clear. He really cares for her, sees her as a wild mare to be tamed and treasured, while she considers him nothing more than a promising, wealthy candidate for her next opportunistic wedding. As the clouds of Civil War encroach upon their idealized southern upbringing, fortunes change and friends are lost, but Rhett persists in his pursuit of the girl and Scarlett begins to run out of options.

Neither are admirable characters - that’s part of what makes them so good together - but Scarlett is, by far, the worst of these two. She’s an unbearable diva, two-faced and spiteful, and it takes the better part of four hours for her lifetime of bratty, manipulative behavior to finally come due. After soaking up more than his share of the heartache, Rhett savors that opportunity to deliver a coup de grâce, in one of cinema’s most famous tell-offs. My heart leapt as hers broke. Should I feel guilty for admitting as much? He probably doesn’t deserve any more of a happy ending than she does, but this particular turnabout is such deliciously fair play.

_Gone with the Wind_ is a catty, mean-spirited story, one that repeatedly abuses its cast with a vicious blend of social duplicity and hard truth, but it’s also an extraordinarily well-made example of long-form storytelling. Without spending such an eternity at their side, I’m not sure we could properly appreciate all the warts and freckles of this doomed romance, nor the parallel fall of the Confederate way of life. We see the “great” south burnt to the ground, its once-refined population reduced to a vast, whimpering mass of dead and dying in the loose dirt that was once Atlanta, and we understand the price they paid for pride. So, I should imagine, does Scarlett, as she watches Rhett turn his back and walk away in the film’s closing moments.

I have many problems with this movie, but I think they all stem from the source material: it's overly long, it's pretty melodramatic, Scarlett is difficult to empathize with, and the Lost Cause shit was awful even by 30s standards.

But I give this movie an 8, because the Selznick picture is pretty awe-inspiring. The Technicolor cinematography is truly astounding, and there are multiple jaw-dropping shots that make my heart swoon. The production throughout is just stellar, and I can't imagine what it would have been like to watch it in 1939. Much as Scarlett and Rhett feel like problematic characterizations, Leigh and Gable are undeniable powerhouses. I loved revisiting Hattie McDaniel's performance as well. I was struck by how much darker the film's tone is throughout--when I watched this in high school all that really stuck were the light antebellum scenes. This really devolves into some soap opera territory.

i was very surprised by the quality of the production.
Other than that, this movie can be very hilarious and somehow still relevant to today's 'game', we humans really didn't change much

Masterful for its time, and still timeless today.