Movie Review: Gone with the Wind

Last night Lisa and I finally got around to watching that old classic, Gone With the Wind.

Reaction:

When the movie finished, I was angry.  What a dissatisfying ending!  It felt like the movie makers just ran out of minutes and weren’t able to tell the second half of the story.  The ending was abrupt and kind of weird.  The movie lasted through all kinds of horrible events, then stopped short when Rhett walked out.

Characters:

I really fell in love with Rhett, that roguish, good-looking, inexplicably rich leading man.  In fact, he’s probably the arch-typical leading man.  I don’t think I’ve even seen anyone stronger in that role.

Scarlett was reprehensible, inspiring true disgust.  Somehow, at the end she turned from the very definition of a bitch into a hope-possessing angel bent on following the true love she’s just discovered she always had.  This change of character was so complete as to be unbelievable.

I kept waiting for the movie to parallel Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. That never happened, at least not completely.  Scarlett, the shrew, was only tamed after Petruchio, Rhett, gave up and turned away from her.

A few technical notes:

  • It might have been our jank-tastic home theater system (or lack thereof), but we had a tough time understanding the dialogue for the first half of the movie.  Subtitles helped, but made us feel like we were watching a foreign film.
  • The special effects were pretty cool to see.  I’ve heard that a lot of the movie is actually illustrated, and that would explain the rich contrast and great coloring.

Movie Review – Amazing Grace

Lisa and I watched Amazing Grace (newer movie – it was in theaters a few months ago) last night. It was a great, truly enjoyable movie. It tells the story of William Wilberforce in England about the time of our revolutionary war. Wilberforce fought long and hard to abolish slavery within the British Empire. His pastor was John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace (the hymn). Wilberforce was a man motivated by faith and haunted by the specter of slavery.

It was nice to see Hollywood portray a man of deep and reckless faith in a true and legitimate (instead of mocking) light. It was also nice to finish watching an enjoyable movie and not have to repent of enjoying something morally objectionable. This movie is highly recommended, and may make its way into our small collection.

UPDATE – My favorite quote from the movie: “I remember two things very clearly; I’m a great sinner and Christ is a great saviour.” – John Newton