Gone With The Wind
I went to see Gone With The Wind at the theater today - the same theater that showed all those Hitchcock films last week. I thought it was a good film, although I did not ooh and aah over it as I'd kind of expected, from its status as a movie classic. (Nope, I'd never seen it before.)
I thought the first half was excellent, developing its characters against the backdrop of the war. I was fairly impressed with Vivien Leigh's performance, although most of the southern accents in the film sounded rather funny. Clark Gable, of course, didn't even try to affect a southern accent, and although he was an affable and entertaining figure, I thought that he was actually a weak link in the acting.
The portrayal of the war seemed remarkably realistic given that the film was made over half a century ago. It implied some of the grisliness without showing it - particularly in the hospital - and provided a tense environment to develop the central story.
Unfortunately, I felt that the movie fell off considerably in the second half, especially once Scarlett O'Hara had overcome the obstacle of keeping Tara, had gotten married (twice!), and had plenty of money. Although Scarlett's attitude towards other people was fairly interesting, I felt it wasn't as exciting as in the first half. The outside world almost completely fell away and it was just her and her family and friends. It seemed shallower. Though the ending was fairly satisfying.
It's always interesting to watch these old movies from before 1960, to see all the effort and money that went into the sets and costumes. There are certainly big-budget films today which are similar, but the old films always seem to glamorous in this way. I thought the four-hour length was just about right, too. It didn't seem too long, unlike, say, Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, which illustrated clearly why people don't generally present the play unedited.
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