Movie: Gone With the Wind

Release Date: December 15, 1939

Director: Victor Fleming

Starring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel

Personal History: Watched Before

Rating: 4.75 Oscars out of 10

I hate this movie. There, I said it. It’s now officially on record. I have always hated this movie.

‘Gone With the Wind,’ in my opinion, is over-sized, over-blown, over-hyped and over-acted. The story is also something that I don’t relate to – at all. I have watched it a few times over the years, as a young kid, as a young adult and as an adult and my hatred for this film seems to grow with every year, with every viewing.

But to fulfill this challenge, here I am watching it again.

Nominated for thirteen Academy Awards and winner of ten, including Outstanding Production, ‘Gone With the Wind’ is one of the most praised films in the history of Hollywood, but at almost four hours long when you include the annoying Overture, Intermission, Entr’acte and Exit Music, it is like nails on a chalk board for this viewer. It is excruciatingly painful for me to watch.

If I had to say something positive about the movie, and why it received the ranking that it did, the sets, costumes and music are absolutely beautiful. With that said, every time I hear the music, my skin crawls. But that is only because it reminds me of the film and has nothing to do with the glorious work of its composer Max Steiner. Oddly enough it did not win the award for Best Score. That honor went to a more deserving film, and my favorite of all time, ‘The Wizard of Oz.’

With all of the love and praise this movie gets, I guess that makes me a rebel of sorts, as I detest it. Historical drama is not my favorite genres, unless the story captivates me. Unfortunately, as I already said, this story does not do that at all. There is not one character I relate to, especially the two main characters the story revolves around. They are despicable humans – spoiled, pretentious, pompous, arrogant, racist, rapists – the list could go on and on.

I think what I dislike most about this movie is it glorifies the south. You know, the south that seceded from the Union and became traitors to the United States of America because it was filled with hateful, racist assholes. That south. Here is my love letter to them:

Dear South, You lost. Get the fuck over it. Move on.

I will never like ‘Gone With the Wind.’ That opinion won’t change. But I also can’t in good mind rank it the lowest on my Academy Award Best Picture Movie Challenge. Besides the few things I mentioned above, the movie does have a certain significant importance to Hollywood and the Academy Awards. That and it will always remind me of one of my favorite Carol Burnett skits, ‘Went with the Wind.’

“I saw it in the window and I just couldn’t resist it.”