Plot Intro
Girl (Vivien Leigh) meets boy (Clark Gable). Girl is spoilt daughter of Southern-state plantation owner. Boy is suave and debonair and calls out her bullshit. American Civil War breaks out. Girl loses wealth and status. Girl keeps encountering Boy. Girl married Boy. Boy leaves Girl. Girl decides that tomorrow is another day.
After Luise Rainer and Bette Davis dominated the late '30s Best Actresses with their double-wins, a new and upcoming actress ending the decade with their first win must have been pretty noteworthy. All the more noteworthy are the facts that she won for starring in one of the most expensive, most profitable and most gargantuan movies of all time, and for playing one of the most coveted roles.
The Search for Scarlett O’Hara had the same buzz as the search for who would play Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. The novel Gone With the Wind, which charts the fall and survival of spoilt Southern Belle Scarlett during the American Civil War, was published in 1936 and was a monster hit, leading to a 4-hour adaptation being released merely 3 years later. While other roles were filled with relative ease, the role of Scarlett O’Hara proved more contentious. Over 1,400 total unknowns were interviewed and a multitude of famous names auditioned (tapes of these auditions still exist). It was eventually narrowed down to Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh. Goddard very nearly crossed the finish line first but the role went to Leigh due to controversy over Goddard’s marriage to Charlie Chaplin.
And the role projected Leigh to absolute stardom at just 26 years old. By then, she was already married to Herbert Leigh Holman and had a 6-year-old daughter with him. She had also begun an affair with the also-married Laurence Olivier. She had put herself forward for the role of Scarlett after reading the novel and stating that she had already cast herself. Like most actresses with a taste for ambition, she gained a reputation for being difficult and demanding although later historians have identified the fact that she was a chain smoker and suffered from Bipolar Disorder for most of her life. In fact, her Gone With the Wind co-star, Olivia De Havilland, has spoken out in Leigh’s defence.
Biography aside, Leigh’s Best Actress win is surely one of the easiest decisions the Academy ever made. Granted, she was up against four massive names at the time (Bette Davis, Irene Dunne, Greta Garbo and Greer Garson) but she acts her socks off in this. It’s a big performance but she skilfully doesn’t take it too far. Even when she flounces about the huge set in massive dresses, Leigh gives Scarlett enough calculating looks, and makes the most of her moments of strength to create a character that’s exhaustingly manipulative and yet admirably resourceful. This is what makes Scarlett so enduring. She starts off truly awful, dangling proverbial carrots in front of idiotic suitors, dismissing her friends and throwing herself at a man who has very openly told her he’s not interested. But when the war destroys her family, home and lifestyle, she is the one to take charge over her pathetically dainty peers; she is the one that holds them up with her authority and refusal to lose. She is the ultimate anti-heroine, a very difficult role to get right, and Leigh totally pulls it off.
My opinion on the film hasn’t changed since we watched it for our Best Picture project. It’s a fiery, vibrant four hours, with more than enough happening to keep your attention for the whole time. It’s beautifully shot, with many scenes and moments gaining “Iconic” status. It is let down somewhat by a frantic second half where many plot elements are crammed in. The first half, which covers the war itself, has a more stable pace that allows the audience enough breathing space to process events. And while the film provided a (small) stepping stone for black actors to have more substantial, active roles, its presentation of black slaves is hugely problematic. They are all content in their social status and treated with familial warmth by their wealthier white owners- not the most realistic depiction of this time period. Gone With the Wind represents that tricky duality between being progressive but also regressive. This is further exemplified by the Oscar ceremony, in which co-star Hattie McDaniel became the first black person to win an Oscar, but had to sit at the back on a table away from the others due to the venue’s “No Coloureds” rule.
After Gone With the Wind put her to the top of Box Office, Leigh and Laurence Olivier divorced their respective first spouses and tied the knot in 1940. They were married for 20 years, and were a Hollywood power couple in the same vein as Burton and Taylor, Pitt and Jolie, Krasinski and Blunt. But we will leave Vivien Leigh there for now. We’ll see her again when she won her second Best Actress Oscar in 1951, for a remarkably similar yet subtly different role.
Highlight
Hattie McDaniel’s heart-breaking “ascending the stairs” scene with Olivia de Havilland towards the end of the film always brings a lump to my throat. It explains how McDaniels managed to nab Best Supporting Actress away from de Havilland, despite the level of racism that was rife in the US at the time.
Lowlight
The rose-tinted vision of black slaves is a major drawback and should certainly be acknowledged.
Mark
9/10
Doug says...
Vivien Leigh burst onto the scene, fresh and snarling with cat-like eyes and charisma for days. In Gone With The Wind, she pins down the central role in a sprawling, chaotic four hour mess that is at times both inspired and turgid.
If this is a verbose introduction, then it is only too fitting. Leigh excels in a wordy, over-the-top role in a film that doesn’t understand the meaning of ‘underplayed’. The dresses are huge, the gallantry even bigger, and as we write at a time of Black Lives Matter protests, the casual sweeping over of slavery is the biggest shadow over it all.
It’s worse in the book, of course. Slaves are always represented as house slaves who adore their families and stand by them through thick and thin. The field slaves are barely seen, except for one halcyon lit frame in the opening credits as they look healthy and contented, cotton-picking in the summer. Hardly accurate. Yet it provided an opportunity for actress Hattie McDaniels to shine, and subsequently become the first Black winner of an acting Oscar.
This aside, the story itself is ludicrous yet compelling. What makes it better than many other novels that would feature this time, is the presenting of Scarlett O’Hara as the anti-heroine, a character you at first despise and then come to support for her sheer refusal to submit to the crushing circumstances in which she finds herself. Scarlett goes from selfish, entitled Southern Belle, to entrepreneur, to cotton picker, to rich wife and back again. It’s a whirligig ride and we stay with her largely because of Leigh’s compelling performance. It’s an exceptional one, holding a massive film together despite being just 26 years old.
The film is noticeable mainly for its titanic set-pieces - the streets full of wounded soldiers after battle, Scarlett digging for vegetables in the grounds of her ruined mansions, the Southern belles all napping before the evening dancing and the burning of Atlanta. They are extraordinary and full of vibrancy and drama. But the smaller scenes too hold their own, largely because of the quality of Leigh and her scene partner Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. It’s a great cast full of excellent performances, and so despite the rushed second half, it remains a classic.
Highlight
Vivien Leigh encapsulates the spoilt yet steely Scarlett, with all her frills, fiddle-dee-dees and more. It’s a fantastic performance.
Lowlight
It’s more a fault of the novel, but having Black slaves not wanting to be freed doesn’t really sit well with a modern audience.
Marks
8/10
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