Opinion on "Gone with the Wind"

    This week in class, we watched Part One of the famous 1939 film, "Gone with the Wind". Featuring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland, the movie was essentially a mix of a love story and  set in the American South during the reconstruction era during the Civil War. 
        
    The love story involves Scarlett O' Hara, daughter of a plantation owner, who pursues a marriage with Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. During this time, Ashley has to go off to fight in the civil war, and ask Scarlett to come with him. Scarlett agree's, not knowing the danger that is about to take place. 

    Over time, Scarlett starts to see the impending doom that the yankees were bringing. Setting all the buildings on fire around her, they learned they had to evacuate, quickly. Scarlett leaves with Ashley and a slave, and makes the long journey back home. On this journey, they ride through mounds of bodies and burnt forest, but finally make it back home. 

    Scarlett returns home to discover the only ones that survived were her father and her former slave housekeeper, "Hammy". She was less of a slave and more of a caretaker, and she was treated like family.

    Recently, the movie has been seeing some retaliation due to the fact of how slaves were portrayed in the movie. People feel that the slaves were not portrayed correctly, and the movie showed it as if they did not struggle. 

    Personally, I believe this was a great movie and I do not think it should be getting this much retaliation. Hammy, acted by Hatty McDaniel, went on to earn an award for best acting, and ended up having her own tv show later on. 

A film poster showing a man and a woman in a passionate embrace.

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