Saturday, June 13, 2020

ALL ABOUT GWTW



I read the unabridged edition of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn when I was nine years old and  loved it (even as a child I was a voracious reader).
Around the same time, that classic American novel was being  banned in libraries and schools for presumably being "racist".

Huckleberry Finn is a fictional account of life in 1884. There's nothing offensive about it - except in the putrid imaginations of twisted spoilsports.

Lately everything - and I mean everything -  is suddenly being deemed "offensive".
If I ever had the power to ban things that offend me, three quarters of the world would be gone.

But I digress.

The latest insane assault is being hurled upon the 1939 iconic American film Gone With the Wind, along with Margaret Mitchell's 1936 best-selling novel.
GWTW is suddenly being banned everywhere (probably by people who never even saw it).

I first read the novel Gone With the Wind when I was fourteen and fell in love with it.
I first saw the movie when I was sixteen - - a newly-restored version presented at the Cinema Dome in Palm Springs, California (I don't know if that once-posh theater still exists). 

Gone With the Wind is a great film - a genuine American classic - and deserves all the laurels it has received.
Yet, it was never exactly one of my favorite films.



The endless tension and discord between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler eventually becomes annoying and finally perplexing. I've concluded that it was a match made in hell.

The Hollywoodized dialogue in the film is occasionally embarrassingly hokey.



The bland and boring middle-aged British actor Leslie Howard  was sorely miscast as the young, blonde, handsome Ashley Wilkes of the novel.
Throughout the entire film I keep wondering what the heck Scarlett ever sees in him.









British actress Vivian Leigh was beyond perfect as Scarlett O'Hara - nobody else could ever compare with her (she desperately wanted the movie role when she first read the novel in England).



Olivia de Havilland was excellent as Melanie Hamilton, and as I write this - in June, 2020 - she is still alive at the age of 103!



Clark Gable was never the Rhett Butler that I envisioned in the novel, but he gave a first-rate performance nevertheless.

A careful viewing of the film (in my humble opinion, anyway) reveals that it gets better as it goes along - although numerous critics have thought otherwise.

The directors were changed after only three weeks of shooting. George Cukor, the first director, had done two years of pre-production work on Gone With the Wind. He was unceremoniously replaced by director Victor Fleming.

Clark Gable was reportedly influential in the firing of Cukor. George Cukor was gay and supposedly knew too much about Gable's sordid sexual past, when the young actor was an unknown Hollywood wannabe.

Despite the fact that Gone With the Wind is being vehemently condemned as a racist film, the accusation is grossly (I would say entirely) exaggerated.

The novel is reasonably historically accurate. The movie is a Hollywood rendition made in the 1930s, when blacks were most often portrayed as unrealistic stereotypes in film.

Critical outcry proclaims that the story glorifies slavery and portrays slaves as happy, content, and compliant.
One should remember that Gone With the Wind is fiction, conceived in an author's mind. A collection of miserable, abused, unhappy slaves would have put a colossal damper on Margaret Mitchell's story.





Hattie McDaniel gives a superb portrayal of the house servant Mammy, and she was the first black actress to win an Oscar (Supporting Actress) for her role in 1940.



Critics claim that the character of Mammy is nothing more than a stereotypical Aunt Jemima.
In truth, Mammy is probably the strongest character in the novel and the film. Throughout the entire story, her strength and wisdom are what holds the others together. 



Butterfly McQueen's enthusiastic portrayal of Prissy - - the half-witted servant girl - - is definitely over the top, but it provides a sense of semi-comic relief in dire situations.
The most disturbing aspect is probably when Scarlett slaps Prissy in the face - but this scene was faithful to the novel.

In retrospect, I think the most racist thing about Gone With the Wind is that Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen were banned from the September, 1939 premier in Atlanta, because the film was shown in an "all-white" theater.



20 comments:

  1. You're probably not going to believe this, but I've never read or watched "Gone with the Wind." So, I can have no opinion, except to say that it's probably not my type of movie.

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    1. I loved GWTW when I was a teenager, but I'm not nearly as enthusiastic now. I do, however, think the novel was better than the movie.

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  2. I don't agree with this movie being banned. I hope that it won't permanently disappear. Hattie McDaniel and Olivia DeHavilland did the best acting in the film in my opinion. I don't know if I just couldn't separate the annoying Scarlett from the real Vivien Leigh,or what, but I thought Olivia DeHavilland was so good. I always looked forward to the parts where Olivia DeHavilland or Hattie McDaniel were on the screen.I never did understand the attraction of Leslie Howard. He always seemed too insipid for these women to be in love with him. I never understood why he was cast to play the part.



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    1. Hattie McDaniel and Olivia de Havilland were really excellent. I have a strong feeling that Vivian Leigh wasn't acting - - she was portraying herself. Her real-life personality seemed to be very similar to Scarlett.

      Leslie Howard was definitely too old and bland for the role.

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  3. I agree completely. First off its a movie and it was well acted and very accurate for the time. Slavery was sadly, apart of our American tapestry...and we can't change it. Just about everyone as seen the movie and I don't think it should be banned. My philosophy is if your offended by something then don't watch or read it. And why should it be banned when the talented actors especially Hattie McDaniels be insulted by their hard work of acting not being seen. Her and Butterfly McQueen were both excellent. I have it on DVD.

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    1. The critics who want to ban GWTW are definitely nitpicking and reading too much into it. GWTW is a work of fiction and should be regarded as entertainment. Slavery was a horrible era in our history, but Margaret Mitchell portrayed them favorably and sympathetically in her novel.
      And when Hattie McDaniel won the Oscar it was certainly a step forward for minorities in the film industry.

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  4. I think Scarlett saw a rationalist in Ashley --a man apart from the blind jingoism of the Confederacy. He might have been portrayed by a handsomer actor, but that could've proven a cinematic distraction from the virile force of Rhett Butler --also a character of individualistic bent. Besides, nobody could articulate emotional restraint and calm reason better than Leslie Howard. As for Huckleberry Finn, the film with Eddie Hodges was probably the last film my dad (1910-1960) and I saw together in 1960. We were both boxing fans and admired Archie Moore very much. Mr. Moore portrayed "Jim"--friend and father-figure to Huck. Huck's real father was abusive, so he and Jim struck out for happier lives and the chemistry was impressive. That was 1960. By golly, you've got me all nostalgic, Jon. How do you do that?

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    1. I actually liked Leslie Howard as an actor, but think he was completely miscast in GWTW -
      BUT - you hit it right on target. If they had used a younger, more handsome and flamboyant Ashley Wilkes it would have undoubtedly subtracted from Clark Gable's charisma. I never thought of that before.

      I remember seeing the same version of Huck Finn that you did (wow....so long ago...). At around that time, my favorite film was Tom Sawyer with Tommy Kelly (1938) which I saw on TV. I recently discovered that it's available on YouTube.

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  5. Oh..... And in all fairness...whether man or woman, what color, sex orientation, or nationality....had someone acted as air headed as Prissy in that birthing scene, had I been Scarlett, I would have slapped a person too!!!!!! Between the impending troops coming, the heat, Melanie about the pop, and Scarlett herself on verge of collapse....could you blame her?

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    1. There are actually a few times when I could have slapped Scarlett (*smile*)....

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  6. fiction is fiction, some people should look up the word. I loved the film and saw it many times. Truth is, I loved it.

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    1. Valerie, people are MUCH too sensitive nowadays and it infuriates me. The film is fiction and should be enjoyed solely as entertainment.
      Hugs to you and Charlie.

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  7. I also loved the book as a teen and the movie is such a classic. This whole banning of historical portrayals is ridiculous. I suppose the movie The Help is next because the author of the book is white and how could she possibly understand what another race went through?

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    1. The hypersensitivity and eagerness to ban everything has become an epidemic in our country. Attempting to eradicate history is bad enough - but banning fiction is infuriating.

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  8. The first time I read GWTW was a borrowed copy from one of my mother's friends. Said friend was concerned that I might be too young to be exposed to "that scene." I'm pretty sure she was referring to when Rhett swept Scarlett off her feet, said he would make her forget Ashley, and hustled her to the bedroom. I was a young teen at the time but even my mother didn't think it would ruin me for life.
    I never like movies as much as books and tend to pick them apart. Scarlett had two children before Bonnie which were left out of the movie.
    I didn't know the Disney Splash Mountain ride was based on Song of the South but read that now they're talking about changing its name. I remember watching the movie on TV as a kid but realizing I was a racist never occurred to me.

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  9. I read the book so long ago that I didn't even remember the "carry her off to the bedroom" scene - - but I certainly remember it in the movie.

    Changing the Splash Mountain name would be an outrage. This sensitivity stuff has gone too far.
    I think Song of the South was the very first movie I ever saw. I was only about three years old but I remember Uncle Remus singing.

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  10. It's been so long since I saw GWTW, but still recall my (naĂ¯ve) sense of awe; and certainty, I wanted to be a Southerner someday. (Well, I finally got that part right.) I totally agree about Ashley Wilkes' (non) appeal. Even at 18 y/o, I found him about as appealing as milquetoast. I didn't know it was possible to feel so outraged about the snowflakes wanting to ban this and that and erase history. In the end, I'm simply shaking my head, locked and loaded. *sigh*

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    1. Myra, your wish to be a Southerner was granted - and my wish to live in the wilderness was (unfortunately) granted. It's too late for me to be careful what I wish for.....

      I'm INFURIATED by these hypersensitive morons who are intent on rewriting history and banning everything!!

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  11. After hearing the recent hullabaloo (loved using that word) about GWTW it made me get it from our DVD collection and plan for a home viewing this week. I also read the novel many (many) years ago and recalled loving it. But some of the casting seemed all off when I finally saw the film version. I too never got the Leslie Howard casting as he has never had any appeal for me (and anyone?). The info about the change in directors from Cukor to Fleming was news, but Gable had a lot of "pull" in those days. I agree that the barring Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen from 1939 Atlanta premier in Atlanta was the most racist thing about the film. All those so eager to ban the film because of "racism" have apparently NOT been watching many classic films (as we have been lately) as so many times. the film has a maid, she is portrayed by a non-white actor.

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    1. I think "hullabaloo" is a word worth using. I also think that this current obsession with banning things has gone much too far. I'm willing to wager that most of the people who want the movie banned never even saw it.

      I read the novel long ago, too, and remember that I liked it better than the film. As you said, some of the casting was off - especially Leslie Howard. After seeing the film again recently, I thought that some of the acting wasn't as good as I initially thought (but perhaps I'm nitpicking).
      At any rate, there's nothing offensive or racial about the film, in my opinion, and it's only a work of fiction.
      Thanks for your comment!

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