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Average Rating:

Sure, the book's very long and not p.c. at all, but it's a fast and vivid read (though somewhat repetitive) that supplies a tremendous amount of thoroughly researched historical and literary detail missing from the movie.

Although both book and film harbor some nasty attitudes and demeaning speech patterns, I think it's very important for those who have only seen GWTW on the screen to know how author and studio differed in their respective approaches toward their subject and their characters. Ms. Mitchell was surely allowed her input during filmmaking, but a number of unnecessary alterations crept in that don't seem quite right.

Both versions carry the same powerful anti-war message, but the book makes a clearer implication that a plantation culture built on slavery is inherently doomed, and the author has less of the filmakers' nostalgia for the Dear Old Days. The movie's cloyingly sunny portrayal of slavery is fortunately tempered in the novel.

Another theme -- present in the film but heavily expounded in the book -- is that Old South society (and its tenacious postwar ghost) also held its WOMEN in bondage. While the screen Scarlett seems only to be fighting for food, Tara and Ashley, the Scarlett of the novel, the daughter of a free-thinking Irishman, has from the beginning been engaged in a private war for personal freedom of which she seems scarcely aware (with Rhett and Melanie as her only allies). Her thought processes are re-examined by the author at each battle. In the end she can't accept her brilliant victories, and she brings herself to grief by her stubborn pursuit of a useless ideal. If the film viewer wonders why this is, the book reader knows that Scarlett also takes after her mother, who as a girl had also failed in the pursuit of hopeless love.

Ms. Mitchell gives her main Black characters (Prissy excepted) far more dignity and authority than they have in the movie: Pork isn't such a whiner; Pittypat's Uncle Peter isn't this Willie Best type (chasing the Christmas-dinner rooster) but has status in his family just as Mammy does in hers; Big Sam is not the goofy field foreman arguing over "quittin' time", but is promoted to capable overseer after Jonas Wilkerson is fired. This is not to condone the racism, but it isn't quite so bad in the book.

Even the Yankees get a little break: a kind army doctor quartered at Tara ministers to Scarlett's two sick sisters.

In order to keep a tight plot, the sceenwriter had to omit many characters (such as Scarlett's other two kids), which may leave a few vague questions in the viewer's mind that are answered by the novel:
Who's running Tara in Scarlett's absence? The book provides a homeless veteran with farming skills who eventually saves Suellen from dreaded spinsterhood.
Why does Jonas Wilkerson disappear as a threat to Tara after his takeover attempt? Well, one of the County boys, missing from the film, takes care of him.
Can Melanie's baby digest cow's milk? He doesn't have to. Prissy's midwife mother (who never taught her "'bout birthin' babies") actually exists and is there to help.

Also absent from the film are: the wonderful horsey daily life of the pre-war County; Gerald O'Hara's biography and how he won the hand of a young society girl from Savannah; the true cause of Gerald's rage that led to his death; the interesting details of the Confederates' leap-frog defense of Atlanta.

One customer reviewer here finds the second half of the film more disjointed than the first half. This is because the post-war section of the book covers a much greater time span and variety of events in the characters' lives.

At only one point does the film outclass the novel, and that is in the last couple of scenes and Gable's parting shot. (Actually, Gable's entire performance is a major asset.) But then it goes and dulls the edge by dwelling on Scarlett's dewy-eyed hope of getting him back. At the end of the book her prospects don't seem so certain: Can she really get him back or is she just as blind as ever? And how can she live at Tara with Suellen as its mistress?

As for those complaining that it's racist: Whether you want to admit it or not, slavery happened. This movie is told from the South's point of view, and the South WAS racist. It did happen.

So, next time you have four hours to kill, grab some popcorn, and watch Gone with the Wind. Enjoy!

THE MOST MAGNIFICENT PICTURE EVER!

This classic film narrates the love between Scarlett O'Hara (Leigh) and Rhett Butler (Gable) during the Civil War. It's the history of a selfish woman who doesn't want to admit her feelings about the man she loves, and finally loses him.

TRIVIA: (1) When filming began, the part of Scarlett O'Hara had not yet been cast. Vivien Leigh was introduced to producer David O. Selznick by his brother Myron Selznick during filming. (The actress in the long shots during the fire scenes is a double.) Leigh wanted the role so much that she read the novel and several volumes on the Civil War. (2) Pay very close attention to the actor who plays Stuart Tarleton. He is George Reeves (1914-1959) who literally flew on to better fame as the Man of Steel in "SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE-MEN" (1951) and in the syndicated 1950's TV series "ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN". This was Reeves' first major film role.