Episode 100 - Gone with the Wind (1/2)

In our 100th episode, we cover the first half of the epic classic
1939 film "Gone with the Wind" that tells a story of Southern
belle Scarlett O'Hara who begins her life as a bratty rich girl
on her idyllic plantation, and then loses everything when the
Civil War strikes. Then she lies, cheats, murders and marries her
way into being rich during Reconstruction, like some kind of
airheaded Daniel Plainview.


Marred by a tumultuous production due to its maniac producer
David O. Selznick, this almost four-hour flick went on to win 8
Oscars, including Best Picture, and is the highest-grossing film
of all time (adjusted for inflation) with more than 200 million
tickets sold.


Vivien Leigh plays Scarlett O'Hara, a woman who is secretly in
love with a married man named Ashley, and won't let that go. When
her family loses all their money, she turns extra evil and does
whatever it takes to get rich again, even if that means lying,
cheating, killing and entering into three loveless marriages.


Clark Gable plays Rhett Butler, a pencil-thin-mustachioed
scalawag scoundrel who spends half the movie negging Scarlett
into submission. Then, despite the fact that she openly
articulates her love for another man, he gets her to marry him as
a business decision and he proceeds to intermittently fly into
fits of rage over her not loving him. Oh, and he also rapes her
and habitually walks out on her. He's a real gem. 


Hattie McDaniel plays Mammy, Scarlett's long-time slave nanny,
who is used as comic relief in this movie by muttering "white
trash" under her breath the whole time. McDaniel became the first
African-American actor to be nominated for and win an Oscar, so
at least that's something.


Olivia de Havilland (who is still alive at 102 years old) plays
Melanie, a kind and oblivious woman who marries her cousin, has
an incest baby and doesn't seem to notice that her sister-in-law
and best friend secretly wants her husband.


Join us as we discuss how the Scarlett O'Hara character doesn’t
change and she is an awful person, decide that the slimy Rhett
Butler would make a good used carriage salesman, and discuss this
movie's crazy production and its novel.


Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff)
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shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.


This episode is sponsored by Less Fear Tactical Gear.


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