Monday 15 November 2010

Tomorrow is another day


Knowing full well the danger in defining anything as the ‘greatest’ I’m still prepared to take the risk: Gone with the Wind is the greatest movie ever made! Not only is it a splendid piece of cinema, which won ten Oscars, an achievement rarely passed, but it went a long way to reshaping perceptions of the past. It created history by recreating the Old South as a vanished civilization, as a land of cavaliers and grand ladies. It’s a myth, I know, but it’s captivating and beautiful notwithstanding.

Based on Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel of the same name, Gone with the Wind, released in 1939 in the early months of another conflict, is the defining epic of the American Civil War, one that helped give Southerners a new sense of pride, still reflected today in the Confederate heritage and memento industry. I know the South, Georgia in particular, and I’ve long had my own romantic attraction to things past;

There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South…Here in this pretty world Gallantry took it’s last bow…Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and Slave…Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered…A Civilization gone with the wind…

The objections arise at once, do they not? A land of slaves- this was no idyll, how could it be? Although widely praised at the time, the movie was still criticised by some for its whitewashed depictions of slavery, though generally people were a lot less sensitive to these issues in the 1930s than they are now. But slavery and the politics of slavery actually play a very small part in the movie, unlike Mitchell’s book, where the racism is blatant.

David Selznik, the movie’s producer, asked Sidney Howard, the principal screenwriter, to remove all reference to the Ku Klux Klan –though it features in a key scene in the novel -, because he was determined not to produce “an unintentional advertisement for intolerant societies in these fascist-ridden times.” It’s true that the black actors had to conform to the stereotypes of the day, but they are still depicted in a positive if patronising light. Even within these circumscribed limits there are some outstanding performances. Hattie McDaniel, who plays the larger than life figure of Mammy, was the first black actor to win an Oscar, that for best supporting actress.

If Gone with the Wind is not about slavery, in a deeper sense it’s not even about the Civil War, which only features as a background to the first half: it’s about survival; it’s about a determination to survive. It’s the story of Scarlett O’ Hara, played by Vivian Leigh, and her struggle to surmount the twin disasters of war and personal loss, to preserve her beloved Tara, the plantation home in which she grew up. She begins, before the war has had a chance to make its presence felt, as a rather shallow, self-centred individual. But as time and chance take over she finds new depths within herself, finds new strength, becoming an icon of renewal. For me the symbolism is obvious: Scarlett, a figure I love, is the South, for whom tomorrow was to be another day.

17 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not that keen on Peter O'Toole as an actor. He has a tendency to overdo things somewhat.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. He belongs to an age of hammy over-acting. :-) Acting for me is about control, about giving life to a character, believable life. Overripe performance should not get in the way of that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. IS popcorn sold in british movie theaters ? It is in the US. DR. Zhivago was an epic fim too. I have Lawerence of Arabia and Gone with the wind on dvd and are among my favorites. Why read the book when you can watch the movie right?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I confess I have never made it all the way through Gone With The WInd. Had I seen it in the cinema, I would probably have enjoyed the entire sweep of the tale, but I found the characters unappealing. Blame ADD.

    In fact, I'm not very enthusiastic about book adaptations for the screen. The needs of film often minimize or delete my favourite features in books . . . or I find myself violently at odds with the director and/or writer's vision and then I sit through the rest of the movie grumpy and irritable. A single example: the gross distortion of Faramir's character in the Lord of the Rings movies.

    Lawrence of Arabia was a pretty piece of nonsense, but the star was the desert, not O'Toole. The fable bore almost no resemblance to the actual war. One ended the movie quite as ignorant as one began - just like a James Bond movie but without the silly jokes. From that viewpoint, it was diverting.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anthony, yes, it is (I hate the smell!). Sometimes I've read the book before I've seen the movie and the book is generaly better, a lot richer in every way. Not always, though. All Quiet on the Western Front is a far better movie than a book.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Calvin do try sometime. It's terribly romantic, if in a rather dated sense. :-) The one thing I would never go to the movies for is factual accuracy, though some directors try quite hard. Have you see The English Patient? The movie actually helped me make sense of the book!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I saw The English Patient and was entranced by the cave paintings.

    I later read The Lost Oasis, which recounts the real explorations from which the novel was concocted. Real life Rider-Haggard! The world is still full of such mysteries, and I am still seeking them.

    One result was a growing curiosity about the history of eastern Europe in the Dark Ages and Middle Ages; those interminable wars against Mongols, Tartars, and Ottomans. Western Europe owes their eastern neighbours a great debt.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The greatest movie I ever saw was a 1952 comedy called "Jumping Jacks" starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. It was the first movie in which I followed the dialogue with ease, laughing at every joke, and I emerged deliriously happy in the knowledge that at last I not only understood the English language, but Yankee as well.
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Peter O'Toole , What a redundant name!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Calvin, indeed. I think you would enjoy John Julius Norwich's three-volume history of the Byzantine Empire, assuming you have not already read it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. CI, not one I've ever heard of! Actually I find some Yankee dialect (and I do mean Yankee) difficult, and I do not have your excuse. NYPD Blue is one of my all-time favourite TV shows but there are huge parts I simply can't understand. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. If you want a journey into the often incomprehensible, try The Wire.

    ReplyDelete