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arishaSo I definitely spent twelve hours at my workplace today (minus a quick trip to the mall to finally pick up some holiday cards for the exchange!): eight hours working (omg so. busy.) and four hours watching Gone With the Wind on the big screen! The movie started at eleven in the morning and, to be honest, I am really surprised that I was able to force myself out of bed in time to watch it. I was actually on the verge of sleeping in and skipping it before I realized that if Sarah of 2008 found out that I missed a chance to see GWtW in a theatre, she would never speak to me again!
· First off, I feel I should make my feelings quite clear: I LOVE Gone With the Wind. The book more than the movie, although I obviously enjoy the movie as well. But I am well aware of the many good reasons why one might not enjoy it. Let's not beat around the bush: this is a book that thinks the KKK is a marvellous idea. I do sometimes wonder if it makes me a horrible person, that I have so much love for a book with that sort of worldview. Rhett Butler is a murderer, a rapist*, more than a little bit racist and more than a little bit sexist ... and yet he is unquestionably one of my favourite fictional characters EVER. I do not know how to reconcile these two halves of my relationship with Gone With the Wind, but ... there they are.
*AND I AM SICK OF SEEING PEOPLE MAKE EXCUSES FOR HIM AND THIS SCENE.
· There were 54 other people in the theatre, most of them older women. To my surprise, there were also a couple of teenage boys! And it was totally bizarre to hear a crowd of people laughing at the funny parts of the movie. The first big laugh came after Rhett's "Has the war started?," and at first I was confused! In a "what was that noise??" sort of way. After that it was just kind of awesome. I love Rhett and his quips. xD But then someone laughed after Ashley's "I can't fight you both," and I was just like, wow, that person is getting exactly the opposite feeling from this scene that I am. That scene (one of my favourites tbqh) is Scarlett ruining Ashley's life -- you don't laugh at it!! :/
· The date on Gerald's gravestone is November 14, so of course when I saw that I was all "OMG THAT'S TODAY!!" bahaha.
· I was reading a discussion recently where people were talking about movies they don't think should ever be remade, and a couple people mentioned Gone With the Wind. To which my reaction is: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT A REMAKE WOULD BE FASCINATING!! Vivien Leigh is great but she's not my Scarlett; I love Olivia de Havilland but her Melanie is not half as much an airhead (this is not the word I want but it'll do for now) as she's supposed to be! And imagine if Ashley was played by someone who was a) the right age, and b) actually WANTED to play Ashley. Already I would love to see a movie that could accomplish these things! It would also be really interesting to me to see how they'd handle all the race issues (I imagine Prissy would be quite different in the new version, and that "A mule? Gee!" dialogue would, with any luck, be omitted entirely), and super interesting to me to see how they'd handle the sexual issues. I definitely imagine there would be a huge difference there! When I reread the book, I was really surprised by how much more explicit (compared to the movie) some of the conversations between Rhett and Scarlett are. I mean, in the jail scene, what in the book is an entire conversation about mistresses becomes a single ~significant look~ in the movie. I imagine, though I don't know for sure, that this is because of the film code that existed at the time, and I think it would be really interesting to see a remake that didn't have to deal with that to the same extent. Add in better special effects, more modern camerawork, more modern musical scoring, etc. etc. etc., and it makes me really sad that this movie probably isn't going to get a remake any time soon. :( BUT IT WOULD BE SO INTERESTING~~~~
· Maybe this is totally random, but: when rereading the book last year, I was surprised by the number of scenes that were made more ~dramatic~ for the movie. The movie's escape from Atlanta, for example, is a big exciting action sequence full of flames and fisticuffs! Whereas in the book it's like, "And then they escaped from Atlanta." Another scene that really stuck out to me is the one in which Scarlett tells Rhett she doesn't want to have any more children. In the movie, the music is amped up and Rhett raises his voice and kicks open a door and throws a glass. The scene in the book is so much more cutting and so much more powerful exactly because it doesn't do any of that. But the version in the book is also a touch more psychological, and I wonder if that would work on film. ANOTHER REASON I WANT A REMAKE D: D: D:
· I have at least two friends who can't get into GWtW because Scarlett and Rhett are such mean people. To that I say: yes they are, and I adore them for it! Last year I read the book Scarlett's Women, which looked at GWtW through the eyes of its female fans, and one of the chapters suggested that as the fans aged, they began to see Scarlett less as some to admire, and more as someone to ... I don't know. Be annoyed by? Like they started to see her actions as childish and obnoxious instead of empowering and inspiring. But I guess I am still in the right age group to every day pretty much wish I was as awesome as Scarlett O'Hara. She does what she wants when she wants because she wants to, and at the same time she has enough strength to get her through everything, basically. I know there are a lot of people who see the end of the story as Scarlett's punishment for refusing to play by the rules, but I find it hard to read it like that. To me, when Rhett leaves Scarlett, it's just another bump in the road. And whether or not he returns almost doesn't even matter, because either way you know she'll be okay -- because she's always been okay. Because she's always found a way to pull through. Maybe Scarlett is a horrible person, but I would be lying if I said there haven't been a few days that I've managed to survive only by thinking of her. So I guess maybe that's part of the reason why, despite all its issues, I continue to love this book.
Thus ends day one of Sarah's Week of Star-Crossed Lovers. xD
· First off, I feel I should make my feelings quite clear: I LOVE Gone With the Wind. The book more than the movie, although I obviously enjoy the movie as well. But I am well aware of the many good reasons why one might not enjoy it. Let's not beat around the bush: this is a book that thinks the KKK is a marvellous idea. I do sometimes wonder if it makes me a horrible person, that I have so much love for a book with that sort of worldview. Rhett Butler is a murderer, a rapist*, more than a little bit racist and more than a little bit sexist ... and yet he is unquestionably one of my favourite fictional characters EVER. I do not know how to reconcile these two halves of my relationship with Gone With the Wind, but ... there they are.
*AND I AM SICK OF SEEING PEOPLE MAKE EXCUSES FOR HIM AND THIS SCENE.
· There were 54 other people in the theatre, most of them older women. To my surprise, there were also a couple of teenage boys! And it was totally bizarre to hear a crowd of people laughing at the funny parts of the movie. The first big laugh came after Rhett's "Has the war started?," and at first I was confused! In a "what was that noise??" sort of way. After that it was just kind of awesome. I love Rhett and his quips. xD But then someone laughed after Ashley's "I can't fight you both," and I was just like, wow, that person is getting exactly the opposite feeling from this scene that I am. That scene (one of my favourites tbqh) is Scarlett ruining Ashley's life -- you don't laugh at it!! :/
· The date on Gerald's gravestone is November 14, so of course when I saw that I was all "OMG THAT'S TODAY!!" bahaha.
· I was reading a discussion recently where people were talking about movies they don't think should ever be remade, and a couple people mentioned Gone With the Wind. To which my reaction is: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT A REMAKE WOULD BE FASCINATING!! Vivien Leigh is great but she's not my Scarlett; I love Olivia de Havilland but her Melanie is not half as much an airhead (this is not the word I want but it'll do for now) as she's supposed to be! And imagine if Ashley was played by someone who was a) the right age, and b) actually WANTED to play Ashley. Already I would love to see a movie that could accomplish these things! It would also be really interesting to me to see how they'd handle all the race issues (I imagine Prissy would be quite different in the new version, and that "A mule? Gee!" dialogue would, with any luck, be omitted entirely), and super interesting to me to see how they'd handle the sexual issues. I definitely imagine there would be a huge difference there! When I reread the book, I was really surprised by how much more explicit (compared to the movie) some of the conversations between Rhett and Scarlett are. I mean, in the jail scene, what in the book is an entire conversation about mistresses becomes a single ~significant look~ in the movie. I imagine, though I don't know for sure, that this is because of the film code that existed at the time, and I think it would be really interesting to see a remake that didn't have to deal with that to the same extent. Add in better special effects, more modern camerawork, more modern musical scoring, etc. etc. etc., and it makes me really sad that this movie probably isn't going to get a remake any time soon. :( BUT IT WOULD BE SO INTERESTING~~~~
· Maybe this is totally random, but: when rereading the book last year, I was surprised by the number of scenes that were made more ~dramatic~ for the movie. The movie's escape from Atlanta, for example, is a big exciting action sequence full of flames and fisticuffs! Whereas in the book it's like, "And then they escaped from Atlanta." Another scene that really stuck out to me is the one in which Scarlett tells Rhett she doesn't want to have any more children. In the movie, the music is amped up and Rhett raises his voice and kicks open a door and throws a glass. The scene in the book is so much more cutting and so much more powerful exactly because it doesn't do any of that. But the version in the book is also a touch more psychological, and I wonder if that would work on film. ANOTHER REASON I WANT A REMAKE D: D: D:
· I have at least two friends who can't get into GWtW because Scarlett and Rhett are such mean people. To that I say: yes they are, and I adore them for it! Last year I read the book Scarlett's Women, which looked at GWtW through the eyes of its female fans, and one of the chapters suggested that as the fans aged, they began to see Scarlett less as some to admire, and more as someone to ... I don't know. Be annoyed by? Like they started to see her actions as childish and obnoxious instead of empowering and inspiring. But I guess I am still in the right age group to every day pretty much wish I was as awesome as Scarlett O'Hara. She does what she wants when she wants because she wants to, and at the same time she has enough strength to get her through everything, basically. I know there are a lot of people who see the end of the story as Scarlett's punishment for refusing to play by the rules, but I find it hard to read it like that. To me, when Rhett leaves Scarlett, it's just another bump in the road. And whether or not he returns almost doesn't even matter, because either way you know she'll be okay -- because she's always been okay. Because she's always found a way to pull through. Maybe Scarlett is a horrible person, but I would be lying if I said there haven't been a few days that I've managed to survive only by thinking of her. So I guess maybe that's part of the reason why, despite all its issues, I continue to love this book.
Thus ends day one of Sarah's Week of Star-Crossed Lovers. xD
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Date: 2009-11-15 06:41 pm (UTC)GWtW is hands down one of my top favorite books and movies of all time. You're right, when you way that there are certainly a lot of reasons to dislike (or even hate) the book/movie, but I find its flaws my favorite part.
Rhett Butler, my gosh, I just love him. And you are right, too many people overlook his really very bad qualities and actions, but there is something more to that. He isn't a gentleman, he doesn't pretend to be who he isn't, he's brash, he's bold, and he has the same allure to every girl that he did with Scarlet, his charm. I think that's why it's hard for people to see past his alcoholism, the rape, misogynistic tendencies, because he's so god damn charming. He is a very real character, a very believable male figure who isn't the dashing beauty ready to place Scarlet into a little box like Ashley, and exactly the reason I despise Ashley.
What I think is amazing is this author give the protagonist role to a woman that everyone is suppose to hate, but ends up loving (at least that's what happened for me). I mean, you want to CHOKE the living crap out of her for the way she acts before the war gets to Atlanta. Her true colors do in fact shine in a time of crisis when no one (not even the men) seems to know what to do. She is a very strong woman, even so much so that she tussles with men about her Terra. For that time period, she would have seemed very out of place and I have a feeling that just about no one would like her or take her seriously (beyond her selfish nature) simply because she is a woman. I just admire her strength, because as the story goes on, I found myself rooting for her, hoping everything would work out for her (and it simply broke my heart when Rhett left).
The fact that the two main characters are in such opposite roles as what they are "traditionally" put in is what makes this book so intriguing. Yes, it may steer some away because it's a bit hard to swallow at some times, but all in all I just can't escape how captivating it is. And I COMPLETELY agree that I would find it interesting to be remade, because while Clark Gable will ALWAYS be my Rhett, I would just like to see what modern cinema could make out of this. So much more freedom could be taken and a lot more psychological and explicit nature that is in the book could be used in a remake of the movie simply because this isn't the 1930's. They would have to cast EXTREMELY carefully though, because some of these roles are so engraved on the memories of the movie's fans that anything less would just be very disappointing.
Thank you so much for an AWESOME post about GWtW, I think it's really cool theaters around you go around showing it from time to time. If that were the case here, I would see it every single time they brought it to the screen!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-17 09:27 am (UTC)hahaha, I forgot that Rhett's also an alcoholic! xD The movie certainly doesn't include that half as much as the book does. (I also noticed that the movie never tells us why he's in jail, which I actually find kind of amusing just because I'm sure there are some people who watch the movie all "Wait - why is Rhett suddenly in jail??")
YAY someone else who wouldn't be opposed to a remake!! :D I agree 100% with your paragraph about it. I agree, the casting would have to be spot-on BRILLIANT. One of the reasons I fear a remake will never happen (or at least that it won't happen while I'm around to see it :( ) is exactly because the actors in those roles are so engraved in everyone's memories. But hopefully fans of GWtW would be all right with a remake that was different, so long as it was also really good ... ? I have no idea, I've spent about ten minutes total in the actual fandom haha.
I think it's really cool theaters around you go around showing it from time to time.
This is the first time I'd heard of it being shown near me. This theatre is actually a really mainstream theatre that pretty much only shows the most popular of Hollywood blockbusters, so I was super surprised to find out they'd be showing a classic! I think they only did it to promote the Blu-ray version of the movie that was just released. Boo. :( I only wish I had a theatre near me that regularly played older movies, I would go to them all!!
Thank you for leaving such an awesome comment! :D It definitely made my night.