Gone With The Wind

Gone with the Wind is the love story of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara.  This film displays one of the most classic tragic romances in all of film history.  Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler have a complicated relationship.  Rhett first meets Scarlett when she is admitting her feelings for another man named Ashley.  Scarlett spends the entire film trying to get Ashley to like her and fall for her while essentially shunning the advances of Rhett.  The film takes place during the Civil War period and follows Scarlett as she learns about herself as well as attempting to find love with Ashley.

I think Gone With The Wind is a classic because it focuses on an entire relationship from beginning to end and most of it centers around unrequited love.  This idea of unrequited love effects both main characters in various ways.  The fascinating thing about watching this film is knowing that the longer this love between two people remains unrequited the more these specific people will change because of the pain they are experiencing.  For Scarlett, she loves Ashley and Ashley only and uses every resource available to her to try and gain his affections.  What she fails to realize is that he will never truly be able to give himself to her.  Ashley’s heart belongs to Melanie and throughout the film that fact remains the same.  Rhett’s ambition is to see that Scarlett learns and understands that she too can be loved.  Rhett gives all of himself to see that goal realized and ultimately fighting for Scarlett for so many years turns him bitter because he gets tired of being blamed for every problem that occurs in her life.  Ultimately, I was rooting for Scarlett to realize that Brett was right for her but her gaze was focused on Ashley.

This film would not succeed without its two main cast members.  Clark Gable engages, charms, and captivates us throughout the three and half hour film.  Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara earns our curiosity, anger and cheers throughout her evolution.  I think unrequited love is an idea people have tried to replicate, imitate, and remake but none can equal the level of depth provided by this film and the portrait of several relationships that all lead to decay because one side doesn’t know how lucky they are to have the other.  Frankly my dears I do give a damn.  This film is a timeless classic because it echoes all the mistakes people continue to make in relationships by wanting someone who is a fallacy and ignoring or disregarding those who have always been true to those they love.  Let go of the dream, love the reality.