Mrs. Kevin is a fan - well, maybe "was" but more on that later - of Gone with the Wind, the 1939 movie about life in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era that followed. Our local Movie Tavern theater shows old movies every Sunday & Wednesday for limited viewings (one theater, one matinee & one night viewing) which is a pretty cool way of catching movies you may not have seen in years.
Being the good husband that I am
I bought tickets for the recent Sunday 2PM matinee viewing and Mrs. Kevin was excited to see it on the big screen. This may have been a mistake.
I did not realize until after getting the tickets that movie is four hours long. Four. Hours. Four hours! That is longer than other movies like Titanic and Seven Years in Tibet (which felt like seven years when watching that clunker in the theater). Fortunately Movie Tavern has wide aisles so it's easy to sneak out for a bathroom break and that time of day it was pretty empty. Being able to order drink refills & popcorn without leaving our seats helped as well.
The length of the movie was not the real problem though. The big problem is that this had to have been one of the most depressing movies I have ever watched in my life.
Scarlett O'Hara, the main focus of the movie, is somebody who uses manipulation and deceit to get whatever she wants and has no concern for those around her even though she is ruining their lives. She is not a strong female character, she is a self-centered opportunist who clings to a vision of her life before the war and, till the very end, is only concerned with what will happen to herself.
Rhett Butler, the womanizing privateer, thinks he finds happiness in a marriage to Scarlett and a young daughter. He ends up being shattered when their daughter dies and finds himself in a loveless marriage. Bitter and emotionally empty he returns to his hometown.
Ashley, the focus of Scarlett's attention, wants nothing more than to take his wife, Melanie, to NY to start a new life. Instead he finds himself stuck in running a lumber company, a business that he knows nothing about, because of Scarlett manipulating her "friendship" with Melanie. Oh, and let's not forget that Melanie is also Ashley's cousin. He ends up a widower with a newborn.
Melanie, Ashley 's wife, knows that Scarlett envies her husband but she tries to see Scarlett as friend and defends her from those who see Scarlett for what she really is. Melanie, like Ashley, believes in honor and commitment though it may come at a personal cost. She dies after a difficult childbirth.
And those are just the major characters. Scarlett's father? Goes mad during Union occupation of Tara, the family plantation. Scarlett's mother? Dead. Scarlett's sisters? Relegated to the background as Scarlett takes over Tara. Scarlett's first husband? A young kid she married because she thinks it'll make Ashley jealous, he dies in the war. Scarlett's second husband? He was one of her sister's boyfriends but after the war he becomes a successful businessman and Scarlett deceives him into marrying her so that she can get his money to save Tara from taxes. He dies after him & group of men attack a homeless camp after Scarlett is attacked by men living in the camp. Scarlett's third husband? Rhett Butler, she used him & broke him.
Then of course there are the scenes of the brutality of the Civil War, thousands of men laying in the streets of Atlanta injured & dying with nearly no medical care while the Union canons decimate the city and are about to occupy it. Slaves are abundant and portrayed as either faithful servants or listless dullards. The society men of the South are portrayed as naive fools who literally jump for joy when war with the North is declared.
Fours hours of death, destruction, and desperation.
Leaving the theater Mrs. Kevin commented how she had not watched the whole movie in a good number of years and was surprised that it was more depressing then she remembered. I think she, like many others, thought of Gone with the Wind as an epic romance movie as that seems to be how US pop culture depicts it. In reality the movie is dark & grim but presents itself wrapped up in visually stunning scenes with some outstanding actors & actresses.
I'm not so sure if Mrs. Kevin is, at least for a while, as much of a fan of the movie as she once was.
Being the good husband that I am
I bought tickets for the recent Sunday 2PM matinee viewing and Mrs. Kevin was excited to see it on the big screen. This may have been a mistake.I did not realize until after getting the tickets that movie is four hours long. Four. Hours. Four hours! That is longer than other movies like Titanic and Seven Years in Tibet (which felt like seven years when watching that clunker in the theater). Fortunately Movie Tavern has wide aisles so it's easy to sneak out for a bathroom break and that time of day it was pretty empty. Being able to order drink refills & popcorn without leaving our seats helped as well.
The length of the movie was not the real problem though. The big problem is that this had to have been one of the most depressing movies I have ever watched in my life.
Scarlett O'Hara, the main focus of the movie, is somebody who uses manipulation and deceit to get whatever she wants and has no concern for those around her even though she is ruining their lives. She is not a strong female character, she is a self-centered opportunist who clings to a vision of her life before the war and, till the very end, is only concerned with what will happen to herself.
Rhett Butler, the womanizing privateer, thinks he finds happiness in a marriage to Scarlett and a young daughter. He ends up being shattered when their daughter dies and finds himself in a loveless marriage. Bitter and emotionally empty he returns to his hometown.
Ashley, the focus of Scarlett's attention, wants nothing more than to take his wife, Melanie, to NY to start a new life. Instead he finds himself stuck in running a lumber company, a business that he knows nothing about, because of Scarlett manipulating her "friendship" with Melanie. Oh, and let's not forget that Melanie is also Ashley's cousin. He ends up a widower with a newborn.
Melanie, Ashley 's wife, knows that Scarlett envies her husband but she tries to see Scarlett as friend and defends her from those who see Scarlett for what she really is. Melanie, like Ashley, believes in honor and commitment though it may come at a personal cost. She dies after a difficult childbirth.
And those are just the major characters. Scarlett's father? Goes mad during Union occupation of Tara, the family plantation. Scarlett's mother? Dead. Scarlett's sisters? Relegated to the background as Scarlett takes over Tara. Scarlett's first husband? A young kid she married because she thinks it'll make Ashley jealous, he dies in the war. Scarlett's second husband? He was one of her sister's boyfriends but after the war he becomes a successful businessman and Scarlett deceives him into marrying her so that she can get his money to save Tara from taxes. He dies after him & group of men attack a homeless camp after Scarlett is attacked by men living in the camp. Scarlett's third husband? Rhett Butler, she used him & broke him.
Then of course there are the scenes of the brutality of the Civil War, thousands of men laying in the streets of Atlanta injured & dying with nearly no medical care while the Union canons decimate the city and are about to occupy it. Slaves are abundant and portrayed as either faithful servants or listless dullards. The society men of the South are portrayed as naive fools who literally jump for joy when war with the North is declared.
Fours hours of death, destruction, and desperation.
Leaving the theater Mrs. Kevin commented how she had not watched the whole movie in a good number of years and was surprised that it was more depressing then she remembered. I think she, like many others, thought of Gone with the Wind as an epic romance movie as that seems to be how US pop culture depicts it. In reality the movie is dark & grim but presents itself wrapped up in visually stunning scenes with some outstanding actors & actresses.
I'm not so sure if Mrs. Kevin is, at least for a while, as much of a fan of the movie as she once was.
