'GWTW' Prompt

'Gone With the Wind' Reconsidered

I've seen GWTW dozens of times, yet I could not resist watching it yet again with you. I'm always seeing new details or seeing things in a slightly different way. This time, I was focused on all my favorite female characters — Scarlet and Mammy, Miss Mellie and Prissy, Belle Watlin and Aunt Pittipat. 

Mammy, as portrayed by the great Hattie McDaniel, is one of my favorite characters in all of film history. The more times you see the movie, the more you understand her character as a kind of Greek Chorus commenting on the people and events around her. From the very first scene, we see Mammy taking control of the situation and trying to keep the rambunctious Scarlet in line.

"You ain't got the sense that God gave a squirrel!" she shouts out the window to Scarlet — a slave addressing a white woman. At various other times, she complains that Scarlet's behavior "just ain't fittin' " and that she's "actin' like po' white trash." Other times we see her directing the whole household — "Miss Suellen's comin', get them dogs out o' here. Poke, take a lamp out on the porch and fetch Miss Suellen's bags."

By the end of the movie — when nearly everyone else has died or lost their minds — we see Mammy as the glue that has held the family together. She understands everyone's strengths and weaknesses. And she helps or comforts or supports or scolds whenever she sees it necessary. She is the rock of stability they all lean on.

That is just one of many interesting observations that the movie presents to us in this highly stylized version of life in the South during the war. What others did you observe? Do you think that the filmmakers so fictionalized the story that it could not possibly be believable? Or do you think it's possible that, while weaving an entertaining story, the filmmakers revealed some kernels of truth in the portrayals of universal human interactions — friendship, empathy, caring — even while completely glossing over the horrible aspects of slavery?

What about the main character, Scarlet, as portrayed by Vivien Leigh? How did she evolve amidst the tumult of war? Do you think the wartime experience gave women a chance to shed their Southern Belle weakness and prove themselves more independent and resilient? Has that happened during other wars?

What about Rhett Butler, as portrayed by Clark Gable? Was he right to profit from the war rather than dedicate himself to it? Would his situation be unusual, or do some people always find a way to profit from the horrors of war? What about today?

These are just some of the many topics that the movie might spark in your mind. Lord knows, there have been countless books and scholarly articles written that analyze and dissect every aspect. A few Google searches will lead you to interesting topics like this one about Hattie McDaniel: The Icon and the Outcast.

BTW, McDaniel was the first African American to win an Oscar and the first African American to become a Hollywood millionaire with a mansion in Beverly Hills. When a feminist writer later in life asked her if she didn't resent often playing maids and similar characters, she gave this classic response: "I’d rather make $700 a week playing a maid than earn $7 a day being a maid." I think she was channeling her inner Mammy.