Margaret Mitchel’s celebrated film “Gone with the Wind” intertwines a magnificent love story that occurred during the eve of the Civil War. The love story involves Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara whose passionate love affair and impressive lines form an important part of the film. The romance story in the film surrounds the American war and shines over the political difficulties while also being guided by the outcomes of the war. Indeed, the film dramatizes the whole civilization through one character’s life. Major cinematic practices of the 1930s and how the film relates to varied trends in film theory are presented in this discussion. Therefore, this argumentative essay examines the film mainly by touching on how the American Civil War is romanticized.
When the Southwest was overpowered during the Civil War, the large plantations were destroyed and later, many slaves were freed. The American Civil War further interrupted the supply of cotton, which had enormous effects in America. Gone with the Wind serves as a benchmark to understand American history and is used in this discussion to illustrate how it holds up to the present day. Watching the film presents an awe-inspiring experience, and the love story presented is quite enthralling. The film starts with gorgeous shots of the Georgian landscape, accompanied by a romantic melody and the soppiness rising and falling of the screen. The film openly describes its purposes before the audience and provides an introduction to the celebrated Scarlett O’Hara (Lets’ Listen 10:45).
There is indeed an illustration of the historic Southern way of life in the entire film, observed through White slaveholders. Nonetheless, when the film is watched in the contemporary context, this delusion of the South lifestyle is broken and the historical imprecisions become apparent beneath the arrival of Southern romanticism. Furthermore, it is important to note that the film romanticizes slavery and the Civil War, making it possible to gloss over past conflict and racial issues (Mitchel 14). Therefore, the film signifies a significant part of American history by depicting the white Southern viewpoints during the American Civil War.
The year 1939 was remarkable for America because it was a period for rebuilding the economy and re-establishing the Great Depression. The film during this time was to help middle-aimed The film is cantered around the life of Scarlett, who was informed that her love interest would marry a woman called Melanie (Lets’ Listen 35:57). Then, Scarlet almost spent most of the time and part of the film attempting to get back his love until the American Civil War started.
The South starts to burn down everything, including houses and vehicles and Scarlet, together with her slaves’ run-away for safety. So much about Civil War Reconstruction is evident as the main characters seem to struggle with love life. In this case, the movie brings into light the impressive romance between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). The romance of these characters is used in the film to explore the effect of the war on the public and the Southern people.
Throughout this film, a romanticized interpretation of the South at the Civil War is clearly provided. Moreover, slavery is depicted positively, although it appears that the film is compassionate to the Confederate cause (Audio Book 23:15). It represented the consolidation of the lost cause narrative in the mindset of the whites, thereby providing a digestible and simplified version of the war and its origins. Regardless of the historical errors due to the cinematic styles adapted, the film has a relevant implication. For instance, its storyline, visuals, and characters are viewed as romantic, which helps them to escape the Great Depression and the commencement of the war.
There is a factual substance to this film in regard to its grasp of history and fact, which further touches on how the war is romanticized. For instance, all Southern deficiencies are portrayed, including the astoundingly affected manners, the asinine traditions, and the illogical inflation of individuals’ senses in terms of their real merit and worth (Mitchel 23). The origin of slave labour is also depicted and dramatized in a even clearer manner than recent movies. It is not the depiction of the evils about the South provided, but the film also presents the good things about the South. For example, South is rich in good countryside, there are stunning visuals and there is a social and gentle way of life. In this context, feisty and pretty Scarlett earned a reputation over her peers for being bolder, which explains why many men look upon her (Lets’ Listen 48: 55).
The outbreak of the American Civil War then emerges within Scarlett’s context, which is well demonstrated in the film. The film’s plot spins around Scarlett and there is a manner in which the Civil War will test her paltriness. In this case, everything that is tainted and not pure about Scarlett is basically what will be “Gone with the Wind (Mitchel 32).” The initial evidence is Scarlet standing at the balcony starring at Ashley and Melanie.
The film presents the heroine on the inside looking out, although there is a hidden dilemma in her life. Scarlett is completely trapped in the Old South, which is described as archaic slave society during the film’s opening. Therefore, Scarlett sensationalizes the manner the South’s manners impairs even the powerful, considering that her remaining friends are the angry Irishmen and other slaves. All other people are favourably and others foolishly gone to the war. In just a moment like the title of the film suggests, Scarlett is abandoned, left behind and lonely, although things are about to get started.
What happens next builds the character of Scarlett and helps her learn new ways of life. The measles outbreak changed everything and women were required to provide services to men during the American Civil War (Lets’ Listen 1:08:54).
This is one area of this film that deserves credit given the role played by women during the war. Although the film records events of the war, the aspect of love and lifestyle is not left behind and is well depicted through the character of Scarlett. At some point, life remains dull as both Atlanta and Scarlett face extreme deprivation. However, this is not the case for Butler, who has female prostitutes to assist him to ease the guilt, chronic anxiety and agony of the Civil War (Wilson 49). Through the visuals and pictures in the film, it is raining and there are efforts from churches intervening to cease and discontinue the conflict and South rebellion. In addition, images of Jesus Christ escort the sound of groans as the camera takes thorough scenes of dying men.
Understanding what ought to be good and evil in the film is portrayed through different characters and is a subject of discussion for the viewers. Scarlett comes across a man with gangrene, which marks the film’s grit (Lets’ Listen 1:17:13). During this instance, the reputation of Scarlett from romantic Southern to seasoned Civil War bride occurs when Atlanta’s silence and siege. Before that occurs, Butler kisses Scarlet and conscripts in the conflict for a sort of integrated kind of honour. A foretelling scene in the landscape marks the end of slavery whereby women take refuge and engage in relevant matters. As the post-war violence comes to an end, Scarlet slaps her sister, Prissy and almost everybody except Mammy, hearths a secret bond. Scarlett later meets her true love, which makes the romantic affection dictate a new direction of the battle.
Gone with the Wind basically brings Scarlett in dialogue with herself during the entire film. From the initial conversation with varied suitors to achieving a position as the Confederate captains’ wife, Scarlet is unconquerable and intransigent woman who is not easily defeated (Mitchel 48). Just like Mammy, the ex-slave woman, Scarlett kept company with herself, and although she made mistakes, she fell in love and played a crucial part, that is, romanticized the war. It is worth noting that Scarlet plays a significant role to liberate herself from the jaws of egoism, capitalism and lifestyle. Therefore, Gone with the Wind traces the journey of Scarlet in a sense from being selflessness to a more selfish character. This brings the idea of her coming across the man she loves and earns to complete whole circle with his errors.
Several things occur within this film in terms of cinematic practices of the early1930s and are explained in this section. First, the classic historical films of the South at the time of Civil War brags of eternal cast in classic tale and love-hate romance (Lets’ Listen 1:38:20). The film completely covers the important romantic quests of the determined heroine Scarlett O’Hara, which comes against historical events. The man that Ashley loves weds her relative Melanie, and so it becomes difficult for her to establish love at the time of the war. Although the marriage does not live long, Scarlett marries Butler because of their differences.
There are notable cinematic practices in this film such as, cinematography, film editing and production design, which are worth examining to understand historical films. Cinematography describes the art of establishing lighting and making cameras when capturing images for the film. The film did not rely on technicolour because such technology was not present during the time of filming. However, the each picture in the film had colour and the issue of colour scheme was not highly emphasized in colour cinematography. Therefore, the film had visual richness, which were necessary to give it the desired productivity for classic drama (Audio Book 2:03:10).
Different cinematographers played a vital role in this film, including Ernest Haller who tried to acquire better glowing effects. Moreover, Selznick discovered that shadow created a vital aspect in a scene’s visual impact. For instance, he shot Scarlett and her father standing on the landscape and ensured that the effect had huge importance. Similarly, Selznick used the same silhouetting to the have effect when Scarlett stood on the hill as she visited Tara.
Another importance of shadow in the film was to emphasize instances that focus the connection between varied characters in the play. This was initially used in terms of frightening shadows Scarlett and Melanie cast on surface of temporary hospice. Similarly, during the delivery of Melanie’s baby, it was lighted streams of light while the darkness observed gave the scene a powerful simplicity. In addition, a colour scale demonstration was used in other instances, including special effects of cinematography (Wilson 79). All these were combined to ensure the successful completion of varied sets. For instance, the decoration of in the old armoury, the background vegetation, the injured soldiers lying on the ground, and the whole streets of burning homes relied on matte paintings.
Another vital aspect presented in this historic film is film editing, which played a crucial role in the flow of ideas and events from one scene to another. Although film critics have constantly criticized the 1930s films, it is evident that the script writer, director, and photographer of Gone with the Wind contributed greatly to the film’s success. These experts ensured that every character was depicted in the way desired to bring out different themes (Lets’ Listen 1:42:10).
As a result, one can keenly view the charming flow of events and the use of colour to improve theatrical moods. The film’s production design is also exceptional, and this is evident through consume designer, art director, and prop masters. The production designer in this film worked closely with the director to create an important composition of shots. Although the film was released in the early years, the director evoked its visual material, which resulted in mood and created an emotional reaction from the viewers.
Gone with the Wind relates to varied trends in film theory and scholarship and this is illustrated using relevant examples. For example, during the Civil War, life in the South took a dramatic change as people started fighting for their rights and wars broke. The film has valuable insights because it illustrates the devastating impacts brought about by the war as well as the difficulties encountered during the Reconstruction Era (Lets’ Listen 1:23:15).
Gone with the Wind offers a history of the Civil War and explores the impact of the war using different characters. While the economy continued to decrease across the South, it resulted in equal distribution of resources as the wealthy lost their homes and resources to the extreme government taxation practices. The film also highlights the consequences of freeing slaves on the South. Such destruction or impacts were felt as the war broke across the South, which was unsurpassed by any other even in the history of America. The consequences of the ruthless warfare were catastrophic as barns, homes, and workplaces were demolished as citizens were enforced to flee in terror (Mitchel 69). The varied tragedies hastened by the war are explored in the film and the extent to which they affected the whole generation.
The film is not just about the Civil War, but a love story that depicts the coming-of-age narration of Scarlett O’Hara. During the film’s opening, Scarlett is only 16 years old, but during the end of the film, she has attained the age of 28 years. There is a narration of how Scarlett endured Civil War, Secession and Reconstruction and most remarkably love, marriage, motherhood and romance that helped to romanticize events in the warfare (Audio Book 1:17:47).
Scarlett lived through the teenage upset of American culture, which the film intended to create to play a part in captivating adolescents as they overcome life difficulties. The significance of this film in American history is that the main character Scarlett was trapped in historic events, including Civil War and Reconstruction period, which are all important in history class.
The film combines Mitchel’s family and individual romances with America’s historical facts to develop an informative drama for students. The film was great at its release because it helped many individuals relate it to the Great Depression and other events that occurred during the 1930s (Audio Book 1:37:20). Similarly, it takes modern-day readers and audience through American history, highlighting the role of romance in the warfare. The social and economic calamities brought about by the Civil War to the white upper classes serve as a metaphor for the economic and social displacement that thousands of Americans suffered between 1936 and 1946 (Mitchel 93).
There is no doubt that the Civil War affected both the rich and poor in society. However, the film justified that many people became homeless, devastated by hunger and jobless, while others were also freed slavery and middle class gentility. Women attained their freedom as they became freed while classes were also combined through interactions and marriages. The immigrant acquired jobs and resources, which helped them to become freer and richer in the experience of America. The Civil War largely made women more independent than before and gave them society rights as men.
There is no doubt that Gone with the Wind moves quickly thorough emotional changes and changes character dynamics. The fact that the setting of the film took place during the America Civil War makes it a master piece with informative insights for learners in contemporary society. In addition, it represents a romance genre, which adheres to the story of Scarlett through her struggles in love life (Mitchel 99). The film can be classified as epic given its fascinating story, mini plot arcs and climaxes.
Conclusively, readers and audience can experience events of American history as they navigate through the life of Scarlett. Through the film, the audience becomes aware of the events that occurred during the early years through the eyes of Scarlett as she struggled to redeem her life from the troubles brought about by those events. The Civil War is not a sensitive topic for African Americans, but it is also important for Americans. Many Americans who do not know how the events of America history occurred can benefit from this film. For the young audience, Scarlett O’Hara’s character development from adolescent girl to a mature woman substantiates as enthralling, especially with the romantic story that plays a crucial role in the war. Indeed, atypical standpoint of the film ensues from Mitchel’s adolescence, girlhood, and young adult life. During the initial years, Mitchel heard the family folklores of the American Civil War period, which she anticipated her progress toward womanhood.
Works Cited
Audio Book. “Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell Gone with the Wind by Alexandra Ripley.” YouTube, 2021. Web.
Lets’ Listen. “Gone with the wind (part 1) by Margaret Mitchel.” YouTube, 2021. Web.
Mitchel, Margaret. Gone with the wind. Harper Collins, 2018.
Philips, Dee. Gone with the wind 80th anniversary 1939 – 2019. Independently Published, 2019.
Wilson, Steve. The making of gone with the wind. University of Texas Press, 2014.