Gone with the Wind

“After all tomorrow is another day”, is a popular quote recited by Scarlet from the movie "Gone with the Wind,” the number one box office film of all time. I firmly believe that this film should be viewed by everyone, not only because of its phenomenal historical story line, but because it is a classic. For me, living in the twenty-first century, it is a very slow moving movie, however, I really enjoyed watching the story unfold throughout the turbulent Civil War time. With the movies that we all are accustomed to viewing in this day and age, the camera angle switches every five to seven seconds, but in this 1939 film, the camera angle switches on average about every 30 seconds. Also, present-day movie watchers are used to more action and better special effects. I would have to say that the fire scene was quite impressive at the time the movie was made.

This movie was basically based on Scarlet O’ Harra, who had essentially everything she needed and more. Scarlet and her family were considered one of the wealthiest families in Atlanta, Georgia-before the Civil war, that is. Scarlet was the girl who had all the boys wrapped around her finger, but none of them were what she wanted. She wanted Ashley Wilkes. He was married and living a blissful life.  She settled for Rhett Butler. Some may say she was just settling for him because of his money. After the Civil War her family had practically nothing. Scarlet had no idea how to live a poor life. As time went on she struggled with the fact that their family had no money. This made Scarlet do some desperate things to get what she wanted.  After all, ‘desperate times, call for desperate measures!’

Even though Rhett knew that Scarlet was in love with Ashley, he did all he could to get Scarlet to love him. Scarlet had no intentions of falling in love with Rhett until after she was desperate and poor after the war. That was when Scarlet finally decided if she was ever going to have money again, she was going to have to marry Rhett. So, finally Rhett got what he wanted; Scarlet. And Scarlet got what she wanted; money. Now that Rhett had what he wanted, he was finally satisfied, but Scarlet shows throughout the film how she is never going to be content. Rhett will give her many gifts and treat her with respect, but all Scarlet does is push him away. She's one of the lucky ones; She has money and a husband who adores her, and yet she is still NOT content! It was very frustrating to watch some scenes during the movie because of how Scarlet acted and treated people who loved her.

I definitely would recommend this movie to everyone because of the fantastic story line. It is a timeless classic that shows how things were in the past, and how things have changed. It was very interesting to compare this movie to the movies we are used to watching now. This movie was the first to appear with color-with only the colors red and green though. It is unbelievable how complex and advanced our technology has come within the last 50 years. We went from silent films to movies with audio, black and white films to colored film,  from VHS to DVD to blu ray, and now we are moving to 3D viewing. It really makes me appreciate how much time and work it must have taken to make "Gone with the Wind" and to know how easy we have things now, especially when it comes to special effects.

My ratings for "Gone with the Wind" is a three out of five stars.