Gone with the Wind (GWTW)

Gone with the Wind reveals a very different view of the Antebellum south than most modern Americans are used to. The movie, released in 1939, had a very different view of the Civil War and Antebellum period. Through the movie the South was romanticized and the north demonized. The South was shown as the height of civilization and simply trying to protect their way of life. Through the movie the confederacy was seen as a hopeless idealistic cause rather than the strong and spiteful cause that it was. The view is presented from the southern high society ignoring the rest of the much poorer populations struggle.

The slaves in the movie were protrayed as stupid and enjoying being subservient. The slave also appeared to have much more freedom of speech than what I would expect. Black people in the early 1900 were still seen as second class citizens and still suffered through intense personal and institutional racism. The depiction would not be seen as a problem because it made people feel better knowing that they enjoyed their subservient status.

What probaby bothered me the most was how the Old South was glorified despite its tradition of disenfranchising the poor. The Southern nobility hated anyone poorer than themselves. Many poor white folks barely scraped by and a majority never had or cared about slaves. They did not care because they did not have time to. Later these southerners became soldiers because they were told that they would lose their way of life when it was the rich and powerful who were going to lose their way of life. Ultimately they were taught to hate black people despite only having a small amount more prestige than their black brothers. They were not allowed to hate their superiors so they beat down those a little worse than them.

One of the few aspects that the movie got right was the complete devastation of the south. The south was completely ruined by the Union army. It not only hurt the wealthy landowner it also crippled the economy and stole the homes of the poor southern people. The period post-civil war was literally marked as Reconstruction because the south was so badly scarred by the flaming union. It has even been said that the south has only finally recovered from this devastation. The film notably shows the burning of Atlanta which was one of the few major cities in the south.

Gone with the Wind is a fascinating film because of the historical perspective and the current feeling in the time it was written. The Antebellum Period and Civil War have been interpreted in many ways over the years. The way they have been talked about slowly but dramatically changed post civil rights. Then more so in recent times with research into all sides of the story. Gone with the Wind is a historical piece of the cinema that sparked discussion to this day.

Gone with the Wind