Review of Gone with the Wind (1939) by Jason B — 07 Dec 2015

A couple of years ago Gone with the Wind would have been the longest film I had ever watched. It is a mammoth film that we had to break into two days due to poor planning on our start time. I doubt there is anything that I can say that has not been said before. I find Gone with the Wind is a very pleasurable film experience. There are some flaws throughout which forced a viewer to watch the film with eyes of America in 1939. The film does a very bad job with the representation of slavery and in many cases glamorizes the "sacrifices" that the south had to make after the Civil War. That said it is important to look at the character of Scarlet O'Hara who gave some people their first look at a strong and independent woman in a glamourous Hollywood film.

So where do you draw the line? Parity has been very important to me since I have starting actively reviewing films. When there are so many movies which treat women as something no more important than a coat rack it seems important to penalize films for this. Just as importantly, however, is how diverse the film is, Gone with the Wind is fairly diverse and if the filmmakers took the time to fully realize these characters on a historical level I could easily see myself giving the film a 10 in this category; a score that I have never given. Instead I gave the film a 6.

It is also important to note that the photography itself is magnificent, especially the vivid Technicolor. From start to finish there is always a splash of color at which you could marvel and you would be hard pressed to find such a vividly colored film of the same era. Gone with the Wind earns a high recommendation.