Comments on: #6 Gone with the Wind (1939) https://www.scene-stealers.com/columns/1-year-100-movies-6-gone-with-the-wind-1939/ Movie Reviews That Rock Sun, 09 Oct 2011 05:44:48 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 By: Trey Hock https://www.scene-stealers.com/columns/1-year-100-movies-6-gone-with-the-wind-1939/#comment-17781 Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:52:20 +0000 http://www.scene-stealers.com/?p=21964#comment-17781 In reply to Rosie.

Rosie, I totally agree on your assessment of strong female characters, and even your astute comment about Scarlett’s possible alcoholism. As far as the scene where Rhett forces himself upon Scarlett, I too am bothered by that scene, but did not feel that I could give it the proper amount of time to really explore the meaning and ramifications within the overall story.

I wanted to write about Scarlett first and foremost, and that particular scene felt like a digression, though an admittedly important one. Ultimately I chose the coward’s path and avoided the topic all together. My thought in regards to all of my columns is that if I miss something and it is important to the readers then they’ll bring it up in the comments.

So I thank you for not only being a commenter, but a contributor.

]]> By: Rosie https://www.scene-stealers.com/columns/1-year-100-movies-6-gone-with-the-wind-1939/#comment-17780 Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:34:06 +0000 http://www.scene-stealers.com/?p=21964#comment-17780 Trey this is a fantastic review; very true and honest about Gone With The Wind.
There were two points that I was waiting for you to mention though. The first being that one night when Rhett carries his vaguely struggling wife up the stairs to rape her, and right before that when he also calls her out on her habit a sipping some brandy before going to bed (earlier too, when he’s courting her and she tries to wash her mouth out with cologne to disguise the scent of brandy).
I know that Scarlett is the pleasure loving sort but it is fascinating to me that she may be an alchoholic, which I think of as a very large weakness.
The morning after his ravaging, she looks at him with almost a fond smile that vanishes the instant he opens his mouth to speak. Which I find to be very strange.
I always felt an affinity with Scarlett because all of her scheming and bitchiness made her seem very human, and made me feel better about all the selfishness I have. She points it out herself, when she and her sisters are picking cotton: “I’m not asking them to do anything more than me.” The problem is her sisters ARE wilting flowers versus her steel magnolia.
Her attraction and devotion to Ashley mystified me, and I’ve had to resign it to a “you always want what you can’t have.” Margaret Mitchell apparently based this affair upon a real story of unrequited love in her family history, but I hope the real Ashley Wilkes wasn’t as mealy-mouthed and waffly as the one on screen.
Strong women are often depicted as mean, undeserving characters, who prey upon weaker men; almost sucking the life force from them. But the actual truth is that quite often they’d prefer someone who matches them in strength

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