Just saw this again on the big screen at the Astor - introduced by none other than Bill Collins - and was struck how well it has aged. Some things didn't surprise me - the sumptuous technicolor, Vivien Leigh's dynamic performance as Scarlett O'Hara, the productions values and epic sweep of the story, Max Steiner's top rate score, the strength of the spine (at it's core the story is about Scarlett's pursuit of Ashley).
But other things did surprise me. The mark of a classic is a film that gives you new things with every fresh viewing and that's certainly the case with Gone with the Wind. For instance Clarke Gable's performance - every film fan knows how well cast he was as Rhett Butler and he does the early smiling, swashbuckling buccaneer stuff with expected aplomb, laughing delightedly at Scarlett's antics and warning the hot headed Southerners they shouldn't go into war; however I was surprised to see how well he handed the later Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? section, where Rhett and Scarlett find themselves in a domestic nightmare: the loathing, drinking, self hatred combined with love, two people essentially smacking themselves around emotionally. In many ways Rhett is a romance novel ideal - impossibly handsome, rich, funny, good at love making, charming, devoted to his daughter, intent at Scarlett, etc - but he does have some light and shade: his jealousy towards Ashley Wilkes, his platonic love/admiration for Melanie. And Gable gets it all. There are some really tricky scenes where he has to go all over the shop - hating and loving his wife, tormented by the loss of his child, etc - but he pulls them off. Gable would have deserved an Oscar for his role - Robert Donat did too, but Gable was a better actor than he got credit for.
I also had an increased appreciation for Olivia de Havilland's work. Its a thankless role in many ways - she's nice, genuinely good, kind of like a Christian where Scarlett is part of her faith - and de Havilland succeeds in not only making it believable, but likeable. During some scenes - particularly in the carriage with Belle and with a drunken Rhett - it's lovely subtle work.
Leslie Howard is the least effective out of the four but its the least effective part: virile yet wet, if that makes sense. Howard is believably handsome enough to attract Leigh's attention for so long, but also weak enough understand why he can't leave de Havilland.
I was surprised how many relatively decent roles there were for black actors. Please note the use of the word "relative" - the movie does have the values of its time, and Butterfly McQueen's Missy is a caricature, but compared to other Hollywood movies set in the South, this is positively liberal. Missy has some genuinely funny moments and in the film's defence there are plenty of other white ninnies in the cast (Scarlett slaps her sister as well as Missy). Hattie McDaniel is superb and very charismatic as the no-nonsense Mammie; there's also loyal and tough Sam who saves Scarlett from being raped/murdered and the nice house servant. There are scenes of houseboys fanning sleeping Southern bells and slaves toiling in the fields - yes its whitewashed in many ways, and the movie seems to mock the naive emancipated slaves during the reconstruction scenes, but its not as bad as say Prisoner of Shark Island.
The way David O Selznick dealt with tricky censorship material is marvellous: the Ku Klux Klan equivalent comes across as what it was meant to without spelling it out; ditto the profession of Belle Watling. I was also struck how inexpensively many of the scenes were, particularly in the second half - such as that two hander of Rhett and Scarlett walking along talking to unseen old ladies.
There is considerable richness in the supporting characters: the nice doctor, his wife who excitedly wants to know what the inside of a brothel looks like, Scarlett's dull but brave second husband, Ashley Wilkes' vicious bitchy sister, Scarlett's noble mother, her father who goes ga-ga (he's the one character where its a relief he almost died).
Okay now for some flaws: there's an awful lot of characters talking to themselves to make a point, some over-florid dialogue, occasionally the actors would mumble and some shots seemed out of focus, that marital rape was a bit close to the wind, the race issue is a massively loaded on, the second half feels long going at times. But it was hard to find spots to cut (maybe the London sequence but even that was needed to allow Scarlett time to fall pregnant).
But its aged so well. In part because the central character is selfish - selfishness ages well, just look at Richard III - and also because people's motives are understandable: loving someone who doesn't love them, avoiding hunger, being bound by honour, knowing a cause is stupid but feeling bad for not fighting for it, hating your partner, wanting to gossip.
Scarlett is a little minx, interested in her own affairs above all... but she's still more sensible than pretty much every other female character in the movie (except Mammy and her mother) and most of the male characters as well. She knows war is a stupid idea - and she's right.
The south is idealised in a way - but its clear that the war was pointless, caused by romantic idiots, and caused great suffering; the pain and anguish of war is quite full on here: soldiers in agony, limbs go missing, people go nuts, starvation results, there are looters and rapists on both sides. Rhett does fight for the south but not after mocking it. Ashley is a kind, courteous and decent - and held up as a weak idiot. People make fun of Melanie for being naive. No one character is presented as being all knowing and perfect, so its a film that can be enjoyed by many.
It's a flawed contentious masterpiece - but it is a masterpiece.
