GONE WITH THE WIND

 Mammy, the character who stays with me close in heart, strikes me by her authority she holds despite her position on the ultimate lowest as it was for a black woman in this time frame. Her resounding confidence, management, and strive for excellence for all is something that is not present in any other characters, let alone one of the white characters. She becomes the backbone of the family holding them up with her sheer will power and determination for success while everyone around her seems to dwindle into the surroundings. At the same time, 

I am holding space for two different things here: Hattie McDaniel's overall acting and performance is beyond just a masterpiece but simply impossible to be recreated or destroyed, it is that iconic of a piece. It is truly masterful and the character has depth you can feel through the screen despite the old age of the film. In addition to this ovation, I hold appreciation for the hybrid persona from Mammy, it is so warm while so authoritative and stern, the persona and leadership that is hard to ever come across. This emotional truth existing beneath this ever so twisted time line and time of incredible strain is admirable.

Gone with the Wind through the spectacle of its female characters reframes the film entirely in the ever most inspiing and emotionally rich way possible. While some movies made in a time of uncertainty are based solely on the search for love and romantic endeavors, this movie becomes a study of different models of womanhood, never seen before in the industry and with the addition of the characters being under the utmost immense pressure. 

Characters such as Mammy with the steady authority, Melanie’s strength that she maintains in the evermost feminine and gentle way possible, Scarlett's ability to adapt even under the most uncertain of scenarios, and even Belle's honorable resilience on the margins of respectable society. The ability and great honor to see women working side by side makes it incredibly clear that this is far more then simply a romance as it’s plot suggests to it’s audience.

Scarlett’s arc is able to raise the question of whether wartime hardship is able to liberate women from the traditional constraints of the original, southern belle role so many women accentuate. I think this film’s response is ambivalent rather than triumphant. Scarlett does become more capable of challenge, and is far more willing to do work, negotiate, and survive by all means possible. However, this film fails to perpetuate this as empowerment but more as desperation and the plot ends up changing her into a far more isolated and aloof person. While she may gain competence she loses a key capability of being able to connect, while Melanie retains throughout. This pattern is not just a factor of the civil war; it shows what so many women were subject to in times of warfare where women would be taking a step into a completely different role than that they were previously used to out of necessity and dire need to make ends meet.

Rhett Butler’s war profiteering is to me the most cynically honest moment of this entire film. The fact he flat out refuses the era’s romantic mythology about noble sacrifice and rather treats the war as simply another market shows his role here, as an opportunist. Although, as a character he also is very valid for his ability to see what is reality and to not sugar coat. 

Finally, I do not think that this film's historical controversy and its moments of honest, genuine emotions can cancel out one another. I believe it is very much possible to capture and show a situation in a romantical way while in reality it is an absolute nightmare while still being able to capture loyalty, grief, and resilience. Though it is much to put into one story, it was needed to make this as successful and as ultimately controversial of a film as it is.