Gone with the Wind

I love old movies. On any given Saturday I so could waste the whole day by watching the Turner Classic Movie channel. I love the dialogue, the costumes, the acting. One of my favorite movies was on the other night, Gone with the Wind. It has so many good lines, beautiful costumes, etc.. Not only can it be used as a partial history piece, but it has so many complex characters that you could discuss their flaws and attributes forever. The more you watch it the more you notice. Depending on where you are in life the different aspects mean more to you than others.

I watched the entire movie the other night. The uncut version that has the intermission and orchestra portions. Such a classic movie. So many parts of the movie deal with life today even though it is set in civil war times. This time around I focused more on Scarlett and why she does what she does throughout the whole movie. This time I saw her more as someone who was not just a selfish "man"ipulator, but someone who was moved to do whatever she had to do to survive at whatever cost. I explained to Michael that in the beginning of the story she is only about 16-17 years of age when the war starts. Even at that age, when she has not experienced true hardship, she is so selfish in her reasoning and that continues throughout the whole movie.

But this time I saw something a little different. After she leaves Atlanta and is struggling to make it to Tara. She is starving, her family is starving, her mother (her advocate) has died - you can almost justify the things that she does. She never wants her or her family to starve or be poor ever again and the murder and manipulation that she does in the middle of the movie is to that end. She wants to go back to being safe, to not have that unsurety about her life or her future.

I never identified that character to myself until the other day. No, I'm not going to go out and use and manipulate people to get what I think my family or myself need, but I identify with the loss, the need. Need not want. Food, medicine, shelter, money, security. In the past there have been times in my life I have not had any of these things and you do what you have to do so that your loved ones do have these things. Going back some years there were times when I did what I had to do so that there was enough food in the house for Patrick to eat for the rest of the week until I got paid. As an adult or even as the head of the household you just learn to do without for the sake of the people that you love that have the greater need.

Of course Scarlett was not beneath manipulating for what she wanted, but she never would just come right out and ask for help. Situations throughout the movie would have been so different if she had just asked for help. Again, I identify with her. I find it very difficult to ask or accept help. It's a pride thing. We all know it. But I also think it is more complicated than that. It is pride that we are in a situation that we need to ask for help but it's also shame that we were not able to fix the situation ourselves. That is one of the first rules of adulthood - your an adult now, you need to take care of things yourself. Don't parents say "I'm not always going to be around so you need to be more responsible, take care of this." Also, I think as a society we tend to look down on those that may ask for help. It's OK for me to offer to help or to give to charity, but DON'T ask me personally for help, which is why I think most people cross the street when they see a homeless person. Of course asking for help or charity means that you were not able to do or to fix what needed to be fixed and we are a society of self-help zombies anyway.

So, where am I going with all of this? Don't know. What I do know is that it's not just about a movie, it's about watching people become who they are because of circumstances that have happened in their life. Scarlett shows what can happen if we take the low road. But what happens if that is the only road open to you at the time? Can it honestly be the ONLY road open? Or is it the only road that you see? Are some of us meant to follow that road until we can turn off?

Again, don't know. I think it becomes a personal journey that any given person has to make on their own. It has a lot to do with personal experience and a persons faith to decide which road to take and what decisions to make while on that road. Even though those old movies are sometimes in black and white - not all decisions are. The only thing you can say is that once the decision is made, you can't take it back - it's Gone with the Wind. Which is why the title means much more than just a way of life going away.