Following on from my rating of "Gone With The Wind" in the Rate a movie thread I thought this was worth putting in this forum.
GWTW is a very fine film, no question. But doesnt it rather distort, or even ignore the issue of slavery in the South and the awful suffering that black people went through? You could say thats not what the film is really about - I mean, if Margaret Mitchell was so concerned about the plight of the slaves wouldnt she have written an exposé rather than an epic romance? I wonder what modern Americans think of this issue?
There's no denying the film is riddled with stereotypes, its obviously told from the white man's perspective of what he thinks a happy negro in 1862 in the Old South was like. You have the clownish Mammy (co-incidentally, not unlike the future Mammy Two Shoes character in early Tom and Jerry shorts (!), Prissy, who is rather slow witted, and the foreman Big Sam. Its true to say that not many blacks were educated then (to have them speaking like thespians would surely have been ludicrous) but thats because the white man didnt WANT them to be educated.
You have a score featuring portions of traditional US/Southern music.
I didnt like Scarlett O Hara's character much TBH - she was a spoilt brat IMO who seemed to burst into tears every time she doesnt get her own way
Then again I think we're supposed to feel that way at times.. Still her performance (and Clark Gables) are marvellous.
What do you think? (Mark)?
