On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 5:40 AM 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV < [email protected]> wrote:
> I've seen it two or three times (nearly getting into a fight the last time > I saw it in a theatre) and, its racial politics aside, find it a lousy > movie. It's bloated, all of the characters are static, ending up either > dead or exactly where they started psychologically, and the two male leads > obviously dislike their characters. McDaniel struggles bravely with her > role, but there really is little of value in the whole thing. > In the days before TV there was just the movie theater. And the movie playing there changed frequently, so if one missed a movie during its run it was conceivable that one would never see it. And over the course of time moviegoers would have seen many movies that they would have forgotten soon after they left the theater and a few that stuck with them for months or years afterward. GWTW is one of those movies that stuck with viewers and got into the lists of best movies over the decades. A lot of that had to do with people who loved the book and were happy to see how it was brought to the screen and a lot were swept away from the romance. Today, with access to the movie, as well as film criticism, only a click away, we can form a different impression of GWTW. When the question of repertory movie theaters booking GWTW came up a couple of years ago I realized that I saw the movie when it was a massive event on network TV back in 1978 or so. Then it was shown on two nights and broken up for commercials. So I got a DVD from a used book store and then watched the movie and a commentary track from a film historian. I agree with Dave's assessment. The script went through several hands and the movie went through different directors and it shows. They were over budget and rushed for time and a lot of sloppiness remains in the film. One scene that sticks out to me was a scene with Scarlett and Ashley in a barn. Through the whole scene Leslie Howard talks with an English accent. I can't understand why they would print that and not do another take. I've also seen Birth of a Nation and I realized while watching GWTW that a lot of Griffith's visual language was copied into it. Since there was a 24 year gap between the movies I'm not sure if it was expected that viewers would resonate with those cues or just that was the way the era was going to be depicted. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiFpa8X9nVj8S1L4XwcUaTx6%3DaY4Zyyr22yoFAMTx%3Dzx-Q%40mail.gmail.com.
