I can't believe I forgot to include Gone with the Wind in my list of the top ten romantic movies! I mean, I love this movie! It definitely beats either The Phantom of the Opera or Dear Frankie, which got on the list because of some weird Gerard Butler fixation I was experiencing last year.
The only question is whether to put Gone with the Wind in the romantic or serious movie category. Even though the movie is romantic, I'm not sure the romance is why I love it. I love it because it is like a Greek tragedy. I love how Scarlett's greatest strength—the determination that got her, her sisters, her servants, and the Wilkes family through the war and the immediate postwar period—also is her greatest downfall because she cannot show the vulnerability that comes with love. I love it because Scarlett acts as I acted as a girl and probably would still act if acne and a weight problem had not humbled me in my teens. I love it for the catharsis I experience when Scarlett and Rhett's failure to communicate rips them apart. I love it for how much it makes me wish I were Vivien Leigh—beautiful, deeply unhappy, and unhealthily attached to Lawrence Olivier. I love it because I both love Melanie for her own sake and hate her for Scarlett's sake.
I also really love the pretty dresses.
No comments:
Post a Comment