Passionate Drama

A visual splendor, this film presents memorable characters, comic intensity, sentimental romance, and passionate drama. The story is a historical romance set in the Civil War era, with enough grit to impress the masculine, and enough finesse to impress the feminine. Each character is explained and defended with ferocious detail and love. It was perfectly cast. Every acting performance is perfection, flawless. So intense and believable are the players performances in this film, that it makes all of their other roles in other films forgettable. The witty, humorous lines of dialogue are worth quotable redundancy. The dreamlike poetry inherent in the pacing and movement touch the human heart in a stylistic manner which surpasses the racing and flashing of modern drama. (What Hitchcock is to the Horror genre, Fleming is to the Romance genre.)

While each character is integral to the progression of the story, the plot unfolds through the eyes of the story's heroine, Scarlett O'hara. (Scarlett is to Mitchell, what Violet is to Shakespeare.) If she is the story's protagonist, then her romantic equal, Rhett, is the antagonist. Like the war between the North and South, Rhett and Scarlett battle in the name of love, in the heat of passion. While in spirit, they are both the same all the time, only Rhett acknowledges this truth, until all of Scarlett's games of pride and dignity have vanished. He tells her once, "I want to hear you say the words I love you." And by the time she tells him with her most sincerest heart, he is too wounded by the "war" to believe her. Symbolically, she represents the South, beautiful, graceful, "arrogant", and naively hypocritical. Rhett, (while explained as a man from Charleston) represents the North, confident, smart, debonair, and determined to win. The tragic irony is that we do not get to see him appreciate his victory. Perhaps for imagination's sake.

The other characters also represent some pivotal archtype within a society's structure. Ashley is not only Scarlett's unobtainable love interest, he is Honor's hero. Melanie is not only Ashley's true love and wife, she is the moral conscience of the women of their world. What is very fascinating to watch is who is protecting who. Scarlett defends Ashley, Ashley defends Melanie, Melanie defends Scarlett, and Rhett defends himself.

They all have specific character strengths and flaws.
We love Scarlett for her "passion for living" and her will to survive. We even love her for her supposed flaws such as her jealousy, her ambition, her frivolity in matters of the heart. We love Rhett for his rescuing the damsel-in-distress and especially for his supposed flaws such as his "reputation" and self-interest.

Melanie and Ashley are not as simple as they seem on the surface. While they are presented as the height of human goodness, they too have idiosyncrasies that are irritating to others. Rhett states Ashley's flaw specifically, "He can't be mentally faithful to his wife, but can't technically be unfaithful. Why doesn't he make up his mind?" Melanie's "complete kindness" irritates those who lack that strength.

The slave issue and how the "blacks" are presented is also very romantic. Ashley says it best, "That was different, we didn't treat them like that. And I would have freed them all..." Mammy is more like a mother to Scarlett than her white mother who dies due to falling ill from nursing other people. Big Sam rescues Scarlett better than her white father who only loses his mind after his wife dies. And Prissy, represents the child in us all.
While the use of southern drawl is emphasized in the speech of the blacks, I do not think it is done with any ill-intention.

Why is this film so adored? Because it is passionate drama at it's best. It is the passion, not the pain, that we adore and hold on to. It is the romance, not the tragedy, that we remember and embrace. It is the way we can see ourselves in each of these roles, and how interconnected they are.

This film is probably the best depiction of the idea that "Love is War" - While we may want to work for peace, as soon as we desire love, we have entered the war, knowingly or unknowingly.