Gone with the Wind-A Moving Story Not Without Its Problematic Elements

I found myself much more moved by Gone with the Wind than I expected going into the film, given its age and daunting runtime. It's a story that feels like the rise and fall of a romance spanning decades. The film shows its two leads as they grow, change, and affect each other's lives as the world changes more and more around them. What begins as petty romances soon grows into increasingly more mature relationships, and the relationships change with them as the times change. The last act shows our two leads finally committing to the relationship that one of them so desperately wants. But, as the two build that relationship on a one-sided expression of love, where one person's feelings are deeper than the other, it doesn't last.

All of this works because of the runtime, which was daunting going into the film. The runtime allows the film to show the intricacies of each relationship and how it changes throughout the story. It shows each character growing and changing ever so slightly throughout the decades-spanning story, which allows the character growth to feel natural and not rushed.

When the story didn't move me, I was in awe of how the film looked and, most importantly, how it moved. There's rarely a scene in the four-hour runtime where the camera isn't moving through zooms, pans, tracking shots, and crane shots that all feel incredibly ahead of their time for 1939. If the camera isn't moving, it's capturing painting-quality wide shots or some of the most gorgeous close-up shots ever put on the screen.

There are, of course, those problematic elements I alluded to. The film is undoubtedly a product of its time through its overly glossy portrait of the Civil War-Era South. At first, I found myself surprised by its portrayal of the South. The film focuses equally on Scarlett O'Hara's childish relationships and petty jealousies as it did on the Confederate meetings, which makes for an almost satirical portrait of the Confederacy. In a way that feels completely unintentional, the film shows that the Confederacy built itself on a foundation of pettiness and male insecurity, where the men of the South were constantly striving to appear superior to the men of the North. But, as the film goes on, that portrayal of the Confederacy went away, and its portrayal of its setting became increasingly shakier. The film's later half overly villainizes the North and portrays the South as wholly innocent and helpless. The film's excessively stereotypical portrayal of its African American characters and the way it showed every one of them to be okay being in slavery, while undoubtedly a product of the time, still left a bad taste in my mouth. The runtime can also be most clearly felt in the film's second half after the intermission, which dragged on much more than the first.

Gone With the Wind is undoubtedly a product of its time. Its overly stereotypical and submissive portrait of African Americans shows the film's age quite a bit. The film's excessively glossy view of the Civil War-era South adds even more problematic elements to the film. But through it all, despite showing its age and those problematic elements, I couldn't help but be profoundly moved by the romance at the center of the story and the way the film shows the growth or fall of each of its relationships throughout the story. And despite its pacing issues, I felt by the end, the film justified its long length, as it got me to connect with these characters in a way that felt natural and made the story all the more moving.

Now Streaming on Max in the U.S