Gone With The Wind Reconsidered

Gone With The Wind 
Movie Poster

When Mr. Smith said we were going to watch Gone with the Wind, I honestly rolled my eyes. A four hour movie from 100 years ago? I thought it was going to be black and white (it’s not), slow, and way too romantic for my attention span. But it's easy to admit that once I started watching, I got pulled in. It’s way more complicated than I thought, and it left me with mixed feelings.

The first thing that hit me was how huge everything felt the costumes, the sets, the drama. It’s like every scene is trying to be the most dramatic moment ever. At first, it almost felt over the top, but then I realized that’s what makes it so intense. It’s not just a love story, but it’s about a world falling apart and people trying to hang on to whatever’s left of it.

Scarlett's Green Curtain Dress

Scarlett had surprised me the most. She’s honestly hard to like in my opinion, she is selfish, rude, and always thinking about herself but she’s also kind of fascinating. I started out judging her, but by the end, I sort of respected her. She refuses to give up no matter how bad things get. She’s not the type of hero you usually see in old movies. She’s messy and unapologetic, but she’s also real. I think that’s why people still talk about her. 

What threw me off, though, was how the movie treats the South. It’s like it wants to make you miss that world, even though it was built on slavery. That part made me uncomfortable. You see all this sadness about the South being destroyed, but not much about what that way of life actually meant for the people enslaved there. Watching that in 2025 feels strange it’s beautiful to look at, but the story it tells leaves out a lot of ugly truth.

The one character who really stands out to me was Mammy. She’s the one person who actually seems to understand what’s going on. She’s funny, smart, and constantly calling everyone out. Even though the movie doesn’t give her the attention she deserves, every scene of her makes the audience feel strong and real. She honestly has a huge impact of holding the whole house together, and I wish the story showed more of her side.

The Burning of Atlanta 

By the end, I didn’t totally love Gone with the Wind, but I didn’t hate it either, which is good for me considering I become critical towards older films. It’s confusing, beautiful, and frustrating all at once. I get why it’s considered a classic the acting, the emotion, and the way it captures a time that no longer exists. But it’s also a reminder that old movies can carry ideas that don’t sit right today.

So yeah, it wasn’t what I expected. I went in thinking it’d be a boring old movie, and I came out actually thinking about history, survival, and how people can be strong in totally different ways.