Why We Give a Damn About Scarlett (Gone With the Wind)

WSJ.com ^ | 12/12/2009 | DAVID MERMELSTEIN

[Colonel Kangaroo]

No one denies that "Gone With the Wind" holds an honored—even sacred—place in the pantheon of beloved American movies. Adjusted for inflation, its domestic box-office gross is variously estimated at $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion—vastly more than the sum earned by "Titanic." Still more impressive are its initial ticket sales, which totaled more than 200 million at a time when the U.S. population was just 130 million. And then there are those eight Oscars, including best picture, in a year widely acknowledged as Hollywood's greatest. But affection and respect are different things, and it is perhaps only now—70 years after its initial release on Dec. 15, 1939—that this film is acquiring a patina of venerability.

[Verginius Rufus]

An African-American woman novelist came out with a black version of the novel a couple of years ago (The Wind Done Gone). I don't know if that version will appear as a movie.

I think changes were made before the movie was released to make it less offensive to black people. The changes only went so far--the movie still portrays the KKK as good guys. At least it's not as extreme in that regard as Birth of a Nation.

[Publius]

The only character in that movie that had any reality was Rhett Butler, the one Clark Gable played. The rest were just plastic. Maybe Scarletts father had some reality...

Let me disagree with you on this. Mammy had more common sense than all the white characters put together.

[Poe White Trash]

Hattie McDaniel deserved the Oscar she got.

[lonestar]

I loved both movies.

[parsifal]

All right. I hate you! Go eat some worms! You, you, raccoon disliker! Take that!

parsy, who really doesn’t hate you or pity you and needs someone to take care of his raccoons for a while....hint. hint.

[lonestar]

We know who isn’t anything like Rhett Butler ...who wasn’t afraid of women!

[Caipirabob]

In real life Ashley Wilkes would have been more likely to stay at home to get even richer growing cotton and to economically exploit the families of the poor southerners who were doing the fighting for him.

Yep, if he was a YANKEE he would.

[parsifal]

LOL! In more ways than one. But I am just sensitive and I can’t take those skillets upside the head anymore. I have PTSD (Post Traumatic Skillet Disorder) now and freak out anytime I see a skillet. Therapy isn’t helping.

parsy, who wonders if a 20-something central European former Soviet block mail order bride type would cure this? I hear they respect their men and would never misuse kitchenware???

[Ole Okie]

parsy, who wonders if a 20-something central European former Soviet block mail order bride type would cure this? I hear they respect their men and would never misuse kitchenware???

Wishful thinking, parsy.

[Nuc1]

I happen to own a bridge in New York you might be interested in. :D)

[goat granny]

You are right on mammy, she was good and also won an oscar for her role (I think) and the first black actor to do so...

[goat granny]

Now that is funny......

goat granny that loves a good sense of humor..

I have a new 20 gage and would be glad to take care of your raccoons every night...:O)

[catfish1957]

Hey captain, why don’t you go have a fun time with Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit. You don’t know anything about the south. My plantation owning ancestors proudly fought.

[kalee]

ping

[goat granny]

Oh fiddle dee dee....I ain’t birth no babies....and frankly my dear I don’t give a damn.....thats all the dialogue I remember. :O) I guess it wasn’t so memorable to me after all......

[mjp]

the poor southerners who were doing the fighting for him.

the poor southerners were not fighting for rich slave owners. They were fighting for:

1) the right of secession
2) property rights
3) right of self defense and self preservation, and self determination
4) right to liberty
5) right to oppose, resist and escape from oppression and tyranny(of the North, Federal, and of the majority)
6) states rights
7) state independence
8) state sovereignty
9) right to withdraw or recall any or all delegated powers from the central government if those powers were used to oppress
10) the principle that the union and the constitution was a compact among the several sovereign states
11) the principle that the states are united in a confederacy
12) the principle that the people have the right to live under the consent of the governed
13) the right to resist the initiation of force
14) the idea of the federal government is an agent of a conditional union
15) free trade
16) limited government
17) preservation of the South’s institutions, culture, society, traditions, and way of life

[Rabble]

"In real life Ashley Wilkes would have been more likely to stay at home to get even richer growing cotton and to economically exploit the families of the poor southerners who were doing the fighting for him.

You conveniently failed to mention the well to do northerners that were able to "BUY" their way out of the draft and stay at home growing even richer economically, while exploiting the families of the poor doing the fighting for him !!!

[Rabble]

Oops, my bad -- Should have read:

You conveniently failed to mention the well to do northerners that were more likely to stay at home by "BUYing" their way out of the draft to get even richer and to economically exploit the families of the poor northerners who were doing the fighting for him.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

You conveniently failed to mention the well to do northerners that were more likely to stay at home by "BUYing" their way out of the draft to get even richer and to economically exploit the families of the poor northerners who were doing the fighting for him.

True, the rich in the North avoided fighting also but the difference was that the northern elite had not pushed for secession and war like those in the South. As the Southern man warned his son, the Dixie elite wanted the poor men to fight for his slavery and when it was over "you may kiss their hind parts for o tha care"

[Colonel Kangaroo]

the poor southerners were not fighting for rich slave owners. They were fighting for:

1) the right of secession 2) property rights 3) right of self defense and self preservation, and self determination 4) right to liberty 5) right to oppose, resist and escape from oppression and tyranny(of the North, Federal, and of the majority) 6) states rights 7) state independence 8) state sovereignty 9) right to withdraw or recall any or all delegated powers from the central government if those powers were used to oppress 10) the principle that the union and the constitution was a compact among the several sovereign states 11) the principle that the states are united in a confederacy 12) the principle that the people have the right to live under the consent of the governed 13) the right to resist the initiation of force 14) the idea of the federal government is an agent of a conditional union 15) free trade 16) limited government 17) preservation of the South’s institutions, culture, society, traditions, and way of life

Had the Dixie big shots not pushed for an unwise secession, the poor Southerner would have had everything but #1 which they did not wart, #15 which they did not care about and which was not guaranteed by the Constitution and #17 which was nothing other than a system of slavery which oppressed the Southern black man and impoverished the poor Southern white man.