OK, maybe I was too harsh re: GWTW. My boyfriend Wallace, a black gay man born and raised in Georgia, told me he loved GWTW. He admitted it's politically incorrect (particularly coming from a black gay man from Georgia!) but admires the "fabulous" spunk of Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara, and the folk wisdom of Mammy.
And I had to admit being too harsh on Olivia de Haviland's performance. She let us see the invalid in Melanie, but also the steely will. There was some kind of Freudian frisson going on in the scene where Melanie and Scarlett make a game of how to dispose of the body of the soldier Scarlett has just gleefully shot down. Melanie shows herself to be even more ruthless, and bloodthirsty, as Scarlett, for the noble cause.
But I still think Leslie Howard's performance was stilted, stagey and just generally awful, and that Clark Gable preens too much.
Posted by jeb at December 10, 2005 1:53 PM | TrackBack