Changes

The book and film do not attack slaveholders, the slaves appear to be too happy and the Freedmen too angry, so [[Neoabolitionist]] critics have been hostile.  In fact Hollywood gave black actors the best parts they had ever received and Hattie McDaniel (1895-1952) with her performance as Mammy, the sassy, independently minded, and opinionated maid who is never slavish, became the first black to win an Oscar.

The book and film do not attack slaveholders, the slaves appear to be too happy and the Freedmen too angry, so [[Neoabolitionist]] critics have been hostile.  In fact Hollywood gave black actors the best parts they had ever received and Hattie McDaniel (1895-1952) with her performance as Mammy, the sassy, independently minded, and opinionated maid who is never slavish, became the first black to win an Oscar.

The story is intensely anti-war, showing how hot-heads (repeatedly ridiculed by Rhett Butler) take the highly prosperous South into a needless war and destroy their whole way of life.  It takes a very hard-headed woman, Scarlett O'Hara, to whip the underperforming menfolk into shape.  Rhett, although Southern-born is a war profiteer who is hated by the men because he resembles a mercenary money-grubbing Yankee. Only prostitutes like him. Scarlett finds the war merely tiresome as the foolish young men rush out to get killed, spoiling her parties. Scarlett only loves Ashley; she can't have him so she marries a series of men for the money to save Tara. As the the first female capitalist of the New South, she resists Rhett's overtures even after marriage showing her choice of money and power over sex and romantic love. In Shakespearian terms, she is a shrew who will not be tamed.

The story is intensely anti-war, showing how hot-heads (repeatedly ridiculed by Rhett Butler) take the highly prosperous South into a needless war and destroy their whole way of life.   

 

None of the characters is profoundly changed by the war, except for Scarlett.  She moves from the frivolous lover of leisure to a Yankee-like shred, hard-driving business leader. It takes a very hard-headed Scarlett to whip the underperforming traditionalistic menfolk into shape to deal with the modern postwar economy.<ref> Scarlett's transformation is exactly what they Yankees had planned for the Southern white men during Reconstruction. See C. Vann Woodward, "The Southern Ethic in a Puritan World," ''William and Mary Quarterly,'' Vol. 25, No. 3 (Jul., 1968), pp. 344-370 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1921772 in JSTOR]</ref> Rhett, although Southern-born is a war profiteer who is hated by the men because he resembles a mercenary money-grubbing Yankee. Only prostitutes like him. At first Scarlett finds the war merely tiresome as the foolish young men rush out to get killed, spoiling her parties. Scarlett only loves Ashley; she can't have him so she marries a series of men for the money to save Tara. That motivation marks her transformation. As the the first female capitalist of the New South, she resists Rhett's overtures even after marriage showing her choice of money and power over sex and romantic love. In Shakespearian terms, she is a shrew who will not be tamed.

Gable gave the best, most expressive acting of his career. De Havilland provided the movie with a moral center, and Leigh gave one of the most electrifying performances in the history of film.  

Gable gave the best, most expressive acting of his career. De Havilland provided the movie with a moral center, and Leigh gave one of the most electrifying performances in the history of film.