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| "Gone With The Wind" movie poster. |
"American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction." (Link below.)
I have finally watched all 4 hours of this classic and it is so much more than the above description would have you believe. It is a long, but the people who made it were kind - they put in a long intermission. It doesn't feel like a long movie at all, it is so enticing and well-done.
What can I say about it that hasn't already been said? The costumes are beautiful and the casting was done brilliantly. They are stories about how it was made and such that have become the stuff of legend in the movie industry. Some people don't like the character of Scarlett O'Hara, but she would be perfect to rule in today's world. In fact, all of the main female characters in this movie are very strong, powerful, and intelligent. Another reason for me to like this movie.
It is an American classic, I would rank it right up there with "Titanic" as far as romance and tragic history is involved, and it's as good as they come. I would say other movies to compare it to, but I have, unfortunately, not seen that many of the best of the old films. It stars Vivien Leigh (who isn't actually an American, but we have claimed her so too late for the British) and Clark Gable, who has huge ears but is gorgeous, handsome and tall and therefore perfect to play a rogue. Olivia de Havilland (she also starred in "Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn) and Leslie Howard, who was a huge star at the time of this movie's release, but has become known mostly for his role as Ashley Wilkes.
I would love to watch this on a larger screen one day. The cinematography deserves that.
I'm slightly intrigued by the supposed sequel not written by the original author, but requested by the author's family, which is titled "Scarlett" but from what I have heard of it, it isn't looking good.
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| Vivien Leigh. |
Now I just have to read the book by Margaret Mitchell.
Favorite Lines:
Scarlett: As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.
Rhett Butler: Did you ever think of marrying just for fun?
Scarlett: Marriage, fun? Fiddle-dee-dee. Fun for men you mean.
Mammy: Oh now, Miss Scarlett, you come on and eat jess a little, honey!
Scarlett: No! I'm going to have a good time today, and do my eating at the barbeque.
Mammy: If you don't care what folks says about dis family I does! I is told ya and told ya that you can always tell a lady by the way she eat in front of folks like a bird. And I ain't aimin' for you to go to Mr. John Wilkenson's and eat like a field hand and gobble like a hog!
Scarlett: Fiddle-dee-dee! Ashley told me he likes to see a girl with a healthy appetite!
Mammy: What gentlemen says and what they thinks is two different things, and I ain't noticed Mr. Ashley askin' for to marry you.
Scarlett: [Turns around slowly to face Mammy then throws her umbrella and stuffs food into her mouth]
Mammy: Now don't eat too fast. Ain't no need for it come right back up again!
Scarlett: [With her mouth full] Why does a girl have to be so silly to catch a husband?
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| Clark Gable (L) and Vivien Leigh. |
Rhett Butler: No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.
Scarlett: [pleads with Rhett as he is about to leave to join the Confederate Army] Oh, Rhett! Please, don't go! You can't leave me! Please! I'll never forgive you!
Rhett Butler: I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'll never understand or forgive myself. And if a bullet gets me, so help me, I'll laugh at myself for being an idiot. There's one thing I do know... and that is that I love you, Scarlett. In spite of you and me and the whole silly world going to pieces around us, I love you. Because we're alike. Bad lots, both of us. Selfish and shrewd. But able to look things in the eyes as we call them by their right names.
Scarlett: [struggles] Don't hold me like that!
Rhett Butler: [holds her tighter] Scarlett! Look at me! I've loved you more than I've ever loved any woman and I've waited for you longer than I've ever waited for any woman.
[kisses her forhead]
Scarlett: [turns her face away] Let me alone!
Rhett Butler: [forces her to look him in the eyes] Here's a soldier of the South who loves you, Scarlett. Wants to feel your arms around him, wants to carry the memory of your kisses into battle with him. Never mind about loving me, you're a woman sending a soldier to his death with a beautiful memory. Scarlett! Kiss me! Kiss me... once...
[he kisses her]
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| Clark Gable (L) and Vivien Leigh. |
Rhett Butler: You're like the thief who isn't the least bit sorry he stole, but is terribly, terribly sorry he's going to jail.
Scarlett: But you are a blockade runner.
Rhett Butler: For profit, and profit only.
Scarlett: Are you tryin' to tell me you don't believe in the cause?
Rhett Butler: I believe in Rhett Butler, he's the only cause I know.
Rhett Butler: And those pantalettes, I don't know a woman in Paris who wears pantalettes.
Scarlett: Oh Rhett, what do they - you shouldn't talk about such things.
Rhett Butler: You little hypocrite. You don't mind my knowing about them, just my talking about it.
Scarlett: But really Rhett, I can't go on accepting these gifts although you are AWFULLY kind.
Rhett Butler: I'm not kind, I'm just tempting you.
Scarlett: Well if you think I'll marry you just to pay for the bonnet I won't.
Rhett Butler: Don't flatter yourself. I'm not a marrying man.
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| Vivien Leigh. |
Scarlett: Cathleen, who's that?
Cathleen Calvert: Who?
Scarlett: That man looking at us and smiling. The nasty, dark one.
Cathleen Calvert: My dear, don't you know? That's Rhett Butler. He's from Charleston. He has the most terrible reputation.
Scarlett: He looks as if... as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy.
Rene Picard: Twenty dollars. Twenty dollars for Miss Maybelle Merriwether.
Tony Fontaine: Twenty five dollars for Miss Fanny Elsing.
Dr. Meade: Only twenty five dollars to give?
Rhett Butler: One hundred and fifty dollars in gold.
Dr. Meade: For what lady, sir?
Rhett Butler: For Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
Dr. Meade: For whom, sir?
Rhett Butler: Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
Dr. Meade: Mrs. Hamilton is in mourning, Captain Butler. But I'm sure any of our Atlanta belles would be proud to...
Rhett Butler: Dr. Meade, I said Mrs. Charles Hamilton.
Dr. Meade: She will not consider it, sir.
Scarlett: Oh, yes, I will.
Title card: There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South... Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind...
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| Vivien Leigh. |
Rhett Butler: So, you see I shall have to marry you.
Scarlett: I've never heard of such bad taste.
Rhett Butler: Would you be more convinced if I fell to my knees?
Scarlett: Turn me loose, you varmint, and get out of here!
Rhett Butler: Forgive me for startling you with the impetuosity of my sentiments, my dear Scarlett. I mean, my dear Mrs. Kennedy. But it cannot have escaped your notice that for some time past the friendship I have felt for you has ripened into a deeper feeling. A feeling more beautiful, more pure, more sacred. Dare I name it? Can it be love?
Scarlett: Get up off your knees! I don't like your common jokes!
Rhett Butler: This is an honorable proposal of marriage made at what I consider a most opportune moment. I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.
Scarlett: You're coarse, and you're conceited. And I think this conversation has gone far enough.
Scarlett: Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?
Rhett Butler: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
Scarlett: Tara! Home. I'll go home. And I'll think of some way to get him back. After all... tomorrow is another day.
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