For all these years, I've been hearing this oft repeated phrase "Gone with the wind" and I knew it was in reference to the book written by Margaret Mitchell. It was just about fifteen days ago that I finally saw the movie! The first thing that striked me about the movie was the price! I wanted to buy it from the shop, and it was for Rs. 1,500! It must have been some collector's edition, nevertheless, I didn't have so much money to spend on it... So I ended up renting it for the night, little did I know that the entire movie is around 5 and 1/2 hours long...
I sit to watch this movie, and it takes me into this different world that I knew very little about. I had only read a little about the Civil War and about the differences that made South and North America.. There was a short introduction to the movie, enabling viewers like me to understand the contexts.
Another reference though not so prominent was a book that I had read a couple of years ago (which I re-read many more times, coz I thoroughly enjoyed the book). The book was "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" by Rebecca Wells, in which the protagonist, Viviane, is shown to fall in love with "Gone With the Wind". One dialogue that she refers to, "Oh! Necie (her friend) I want to live in this drama! I was made for it" and another quote from her daughter (Sidda), who recollects her mother's (Viviane) peculiar manner of raising her eyebrow, quite like the protagonist in the novel, Scarlett O' Hara.
The movie spans many years, and takes us through the beautiful fields and lands of South America, their cultures, and parties, the mindsets of the people, the war, death and destruction, conflict of land and of love, relationships, parenthood, slavery, hunger, determination and finally what triumphs, the love of the land...
Very beautifully interwoven, and articulately written, the artist's renderation of the screenplay is flawless! You begin to feel and connect with the characters to a great extent.
Scarlett O' Hara is a very intelligent woman, she is very symbolic of some of the ideals that an American individual tends to inherit from his land. Though her greatest value and asset is that she loves her land, Tara, (probably from terra, earth) the other things that she does, being proud of who she is, doing acts and things with her sole goal in mind, fiercely independent and sure, determined to achieve success at all costs... For me, this was an experience of sorts, because while through the whole movie, people were denouncing Scarlett's (whose character is played by Vivien Leigh) behavior and her manipulations, I was actually thinking that there was nothing wrong in doing what she did from her perspective. She wanted to achieve her goal, and she had kept that as her highest value, society's laws of governance, small talk and winning accolades from her friends, peers was of no concern for her. Her depiction of the character is superb and you must watch this movie for the various shades that you get to see in a character. It's like you're peeling off the skin from the character as part of the movie. It takes you through the various natures of men, women and those of society.
I consider this movie a classic and an absolute must-see!
Comments