Review

The South will rise again! I fucking guess...This one was technically very good. The visuals were gorgeous. In particular the ones where they've got the dolly going to get the characters silhouetted against the pretty paintings. I'm torn on the actual story. When we began with the South being exhaustingly Edenic, I felt certain we were going to see in the end that it was all a ruse. I knew eventually Clark Gable's gotta say his famous line. So I thought surely we were going to see throughout the course of the movies that the whole fantasy was nonsense. But I don't know if that's exactly what we got. It really felt in the end we were being shown that it was the wretched Southern Belle's experiences with the war and afterward that made her how she was. But like...she was always ridiculous.

I feel that the inter-character drama in the latter third of the film, particularly between Gable and protag was the strongest part. And so I would really like for us to calm it with the extreme nonsense in the beginning of the film and just focus on that part. If I had my way, we'd start with that scene where Scarlet is walking through the streets with all the sick and dying men. And we just go from there. I think that would be better. It was hard to get through some of the Lost Cause-ness. Not as bad as Intolerance, but still.

One thing that I wanted to call out, is I really liked the performances from the black actors. And I like that the movie gave them the opportunity to show off their acting. Mammy, in particular. I noted while we were watching (and later confirmed after doing some reading) that it felt very weird how much room we were giving the black cast. (Even if they are literally playing slaves...I know...) We have watched many movies and the representation is hardly varied. Particularly when we go back to the 30s. You'd be totally reasonable in wondering if perhaps only white people existed. Black people, when present at all, get relegated to playing Yessirs. So this one stood out in how present they were allowed to be. It was nice, because like I said, I really liked Hattie McDaniel's acting. They were allowed to play actual characters with names and personalities. It stood out to me.