Rhett, Scarlett, who could say more?

Gone With The Wind was the first sweeping epic that I can remember seeing. 31 years after its 1939 release, I can remember an old art house was playing GWTW. My parents took me. There was nothing like seeing this film on a big screen in all its glorious color. Rhett, Scarlett, Ashley, Tara, the Burning of Atlanta, all larger than life. I, like millions of females before me, fell in love with Clark Gable. I was caught up in the costumes, the magnificent plantation houses, the accents..yes, the Southern charm cast its spell upon me. Margaret Mitchell’s words were weaved through every inch of film. Tara’s theme echoed in my ears. I longed for Gable to walk back through that door and into Scarlett’s waiting arms to say “yes Scarlett, I do give a damn.”

I always had an interest in the civil war since I was little. I never knew till I was much older and doing research into my personal history, that I was born at the Columbia Hospital for Women in DC., which was built in 1866 for the wives and widows of civil war soldiers. Maybe that did plant the seed. Going to battlefields of the civil war was always a de`ja` vu experience for me, that is, if you believe in de`ja` vu.

Make no mistake, the Civil War was not glorious. The civil war was not a figment of one author’s imagination, but instead, a very real dark page in our young nation’s history. Brother fought against brother, families were torn apart, the land ravaged by the blood of men: old and young, and humans were enslaved by humans. It is said that more soldiers died in the Civil War than any other war that America has been involved in. A grim reality set amongst the grand story telling of Hollywood.

GWTW is a testimony to the remarkable talents of the early pioneers of a very young film industry and the legacy that they have left behind for the Steven Spielbergs of today’s world.
By: Jolene Jones