By Jennifer Baldwin. I ran across an interesting list from Filmcritic.com the other day: The Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time. The list was compiled in 2006. Many of my favorite endings were listed, including the endings to Casablanca, The Godfather, and Bonnie and Clyde. But as the list got closer and closer to number one, I waited giddily for my favorite ending of all-time to appear. I knew it would be near the top spot, at least top five, maybe it would even be the number one ending. It is, after all, one of the most famous endings in all of Hollywood’s history, and includes two of the most famous lines in all of cinema. It’s one of the greatest classics of all time, how could it not be near the top of the list?
I’m writing, of course, of the ending to Gone With the Wind. There is no more iconic and well-known ending in all of cinema, with the exceptions of perhaps The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, or The Empire Strikes Back. But Gone With the Wind stands as one of the greats, arguably the greatest, if only for the thrill of hearing the word “damn” uttered for the first time in mainstream cinema and to see Scarlett rejected so deliciously – only to see her rise again with indomitable resilience. I knew it was coming. I kept reading. I was almost to the end of the list …
And Gone With the Wind was nowhere to be found. They had left it off.
I couldn’t quite believe it. A few people in the comments section couldn’t believe it either. Where was Gone With the Wind? Where was “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”? Where was “After all, tomorrow is another day”? Where was that last gorgeous Technicolor shot of Scarlett returned to Tara, the sweeping main theme of Max Steiner’s unforgettable score rising to a crescendo on the soundtrack? I was in a bit of shock, sitting there looking at a list of the Top 50 Movie Endings that did not include Gone With the Wind.
But then again, why should I be surprised? GWTW has been losing its place in the pop culture pantheon for a while now. The writing was on the wall when the revised AFI Top 100 American Films list came out and GWTW had slipped from fourth place to sixth place, replaced at #4 by Raging Bull. Not a huge slip, of course, but a telling one I think. GWTW is too iconic, too huge (still the top box office of all time, adjusted for inflation), to really go away altogether. But slowly, in little drips and quietly telling ways, it’s losing stature in the film community – especially in the mainstream online film community. And it’s not surprising because the online film community – which drives so much of film culture and conversation these days – is simply not that interested in what gets called, for better or worse, a “chick flick.”
And despite its status as a Civil War epic, GWTW is a women’s film. Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara is in nearly every scene. It’s her story that we watch unfold, even as Rhett Butler pops in and out of the narrative. It’s her emotional journey that dominates the film. And in the second half especially, it is her domestic drama that takes up most of the action (and it’s not surprising to read commentary from guys online who think the second half of the film is “weak” compared to the first, more war-focused half – the domestic struggles of Scarlett hold little interest for the online fanboy types).
GWTW’s slow fall from the top is of great concern to me and should be a concern for any film lover who cares about both classic films and today’s Hollywood. I fear that the devaluation of GWTW is only the beginning of a devaluing of other classic “women’s films” from Hollywood’s golden age. Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life, for example, has already been dismissed in some quarters of the online community. Other women’s films often get the “Why should we care?” treatment in many a comments section.
Considerable copy at mainstream movie sites gets devoted to praising classic war movies and westerns and gangster pictures (deservedly so, of course), but relatively little gets devoted to the glories of romantic comedies, melodramas, and romances. If these genres get discussed at all, they are generally derided and/or highly criticized. Many a blog commentator on these mainstream sites makes comments such as: “Why is this movie a classic again? It’s all about boring, melodramatic girly stuff. And the music is too over-the-top.” This is the thinking that drives much of movie culture these days and it’s depressing.
It’s no secret that most movies made these days for women are fairly terrible. And it’s not surprising that online movie critics and commentators take these films to task for being banal, clichéd, annoying, and inartistic. I’ve said the same myself.
But there are still the classics: Gone With the Wind, of course, but also the great films of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur, Ginger Rogers, and so many more. And these classics need to be championed and treated seriously as art by the online film community, instead of dismissed and devalued by the adolescent tastes of internet fanboys.
Of course, there are still many pockets of the internet that love these actresses and their films. The classic movie blogosphere, in particular, is free from the dismissive juvenile tastes of the fanboys. But the classic movie blogosphere is a niche. The general tenor of film conversation on the web quietly dismisses these classic women’s films, devalues them, or simply (and probably worst of all) ignores them altogether. And most of the film community is left-of-center. What does this say about liberalism’s so-called ‘feminism’ that it could be so ambivalent toward these classic women’s films? What does this say about the values of modern liberalism that it has yielded an online film community that disregards and ‘doesn’t get’ the appeal and artistic value of classic Hollywood ‘women’s pictures’?
This isn’t a scientific observation on my part, of course. It’s more of a feeling and an intuition that I have. But it’s in little things like leaving Gone With the Wind off the Top 50 Movie Endings list that make me worried that in another ten years GWTW won’t just drop two places on the AFI list but will fall out of the top ten altogether, maybe even out of the top fifty. Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but with the way film culture seems to be going (more superheroes, ridiculous action, spectacle, dumbed-down stories, and superficiality) I don’t think my intuition is off base. And if GWTW can lose such stature, how will other women’s films of the classic era be perceived? As these great films of the Golden Age continue to lose prestige and respect, what effect will that have on the women’s films made in today’s Hollywood? If we lose the classic women’s films of the past to the superficial and action-oriented tastes of today, what will happen to the women’s films of the future? What happens when a culture’s stories are completely dominated by juvenile male fantasies – and even the women starring in these films are just male action heroes with breasts?
Our movie culture is sick. We’ve turned women into men (i.e., the female kick-butt action star) and men have become feminized metrosexuals (i.e., every emo, doubting male hero of the last ten years from Aragorn in LOTR to whiny Peter Parker). By abandoning realistic representations of women on screen and not telling stories that are concerned with traditional women’s issues, we’ve hurt both women and men. And by slowly abandoning the classic women’s pictures of Hollywood’s Golden Age, we risk losing our way altogether when it comes to making and appreciating films for and about women.
And frankly, my readers, this is something we should all give a damn about.
Posted on July 13th, 2010 at 8:48am.
I don’t think they didn’t leave out GWTW because it’s a “women’s picture.” I think they left it out because it’s a film about the South during the War For Southern Indepedence that doesn’t depict white Southerners as drooling fiends who whip their slaves six times a day and it depicts the Northern Invasion for it was, a looting expedtion. And guess what it depicts White and African southern Americans as getting along, Why you can’t have that, why next you’ll be remembering that the settlers didn’t kill every Native American they saw, that there were decent and honorable tycoons, and the “Big” ranchers may have actually had some right on there side.
Excellent article Jennifer – I couldn’t agree more! It’s shocking to me that this attempt is underway to devalue classic women’s films … but then when you see what they are doing to women’s movies today, it’s not so surprising. All we get thrown at us is “Twilight” and a few romantic comedies a year, and that’s supposed to keep us happy (and even that may be pulled away from us, since all the media and Hollywood establishment deride these films). As for the men, they get billions spent on comic book movies, action movies, and moronic gross-out comedies (I am so tired of Judd Apatow, Will Ferrell, and all other aging, overgrown boys of their ilk)) that just cater to the stupidest fan-boy audience. Where is Hollywood’s supposed liberalism and support for women in the midst of all of this???
Thanks, as always, for the great comment, welshbard!
I think there’s definitely something to what you’ve written. GWTW will often get labeled as irredeemably “racist” by certain critics, leaving some liberals afraid to admit they like it. Even now, liberals film critics who write about the film in a favorable light often have to couch their essays in apologetic terms and “of course it’s racist” qualifiers. And yes, it is sympathetic to the South and this bothers the leftists as well.
But the racist/pro-Southern critiques against the film have been there from the beginning. Melvin B. Tolson called it more dangerous than Birth of a Nation. GWTW has always had to deal with this kind of thing.
But what I’ve seen in comments sections and on film blogs in the past few years has been something quite different. The film has been criticized for being a “soap opera” and not being enough of a war film. It gets the “overrated” treatment a lot from the male-dominated fanboy culture. This is what I mean about online film discussions devaluing traditionally female stories. GWTW gets passed over in lists like the one I mention in this piece because it’s not on the radar of the guys who put together lists like these. It’s a “chick flick.”
But if GWTW is a soap opera/chick flick, it’s the most financially successful one of all time. The problem is that executives in today’s Hollywood, if they decided to remake GWTW, would, I guarantee you, add more action scenes and focus more on the male characters because they are under the belief that women’s stories don’t make money in today’s marketplace. Either that or they’d have Scarlett fighting off whole squadrons of Yankee renegades in the second half to keep the action going.
Very nice piece! Thanks.
I’ve been ranting for years about the action genre ” . .men with tits” female characters, glad to see someone else has noticed. I agree with Welshbard about why GWTW is slipping. The culture has changed, and art that reflects an earlier culture tends to get downgraded, particularly by the “cutting edge” critics.
Very well put, K. And “cutting edge” these days means hardcore graphic violence, cartoonish action sequences, scatological humor, depraved themes, nihilistic world views, and the same old tired liberal pieties. Everything GWTW is not, basically.
I would even say that ALL older films tend to get devalued today because “old” equals “boring” in the eyes of our novelty obsessed culture. But, I also think women’s films from the classic Hollywood era get devalued even more than the men’s films from that same era. It’s still pretty cool to like Cagney in a film like The Roaring Twenties or Bogie in High Sierra. Less cool to like Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama.
Great comment, Prehistoric Woman! Thank you.
I have to admit, I’ve got a soft spot for Apatow and Ferrell. But really, I’m a fan of those guys and even I think things are getting out of hand! One Apatow movie a year is cool. Ten Apatow knock-offs a year = Do Not Want.
The reason these classic women’s films made in the old studio era are so important is because I think they are key to rescuing women’s films made today. Executives, writers, directors, actresses — everybody needs to revisit and study these films to see what made them work and made them so successful with audiences. That’s why the reputation of a film like GWTW matters.
Given your concerns, you might find interesting this post in which Robert Avrech nominates a romantic comedy as the greatest American movie ever made.
http://www.seraphicpress.com/archives/2010/07/friday_flickers_6.php
Jennifer – I totally agree with everything you’re saying. I’ve even heard Nicole Kidman and some other actresses (I think Gwyneth Paltrow as well) complain about the lack of good roles for women in Hollywood today. It’s depressing because I would like to see more movies, but there’s nothing I want to go to that appeals to me. I enjoyed “Sex and the City 2” because it had actresses in it who are more like the women I know, and because it addressed real women’s issues. Aside from that, it’s been pretty thin.
Gwyneth Paltrow has had lots of good roles; she has nothing to complain about. And her character in Iron Man is a real girl.
I like Paltrow and the character she plays in both Iron Man movies, but she’s definitely playing a supporting role there. And as much as I love me some superheroes (seriously — I collect comic books), that’s a “guys” genre. Where is Paltrow in a “girls” movies?
Where are the lead romantic comedy roles like the ones she had in “Shakespeare in Love” and “Emma”? Of course, I would say it’s partly her fault for picking some bad projects after her success in “Shakespeare” (“Shallow Hal” anyone?), but it’s also partly the fault of Hollywood writers and producers that there’s not many quality projects out there for actresses to choose from.
Well, I was actually thinking of Shakespeare as a great role in a “girls” movie, but how about Possession – good movie, good role, definitely not a guys movie. Royal Tanenbaums – good role, good movie (for some). I’ve also seen her Duets, which was a trashy movie, although she did well enough in it, and in Sliding Doors, which was totally a girls film. Her only guys role that I can think of is Sky Captain (which I didn’t see).
Great article, Jennifer. I think it’s a variation on PC culture. GWTW is a great woman’s movie, but it’s about love. She doesn’t act like a man. These ratings are influenced by ideology, let’s face it!
I once read a review of Memoirs of a Geisha, which I thought was good, where the writer said he really liked it but didn’t feel he could give a good review to a movie that depicted a Japanese woman having a consensual (and caring and happy) affair with an American officer after WW II. These reviews destroyed the box office for that movie.
Party Girl: This isn’t a knock on Kidman, Paltrow or women actors in general, but on *any* group–conservative, liberal, religious, ethnic, whatever–that feels it’s maltreated by Hollywood.
With digital filmmaking,cgi, working @ union scale for profit points on the back end, etc.:
MAKE YOUR OWN MOVIES
& KEEP MAKING YOUR OWN MOVIES
Hollywood will become irrelevant.
The women in the films of classic Hollywood were not afraid to use their feminine mystique. They understood that the movies were about enchantment and irrational dreams. “Gone With the Wind” will always represent that magic to the millions who continue to enjoy it today.
I totally agree with the article, thank you for writing it, it was very good.
I hate how the hollywood industry is treating female movie genre; and just look at all the Twillight issue.
I had read the series before the film project was even conceived, and I loved the book, as it is based on many previous great romances, like Rhett and Scarlett’s. But then it was labeled as a chick flick, when the movie came out, and that ruined everything. The critics couldn’t even consider it as noticeable. I admit that the film is no chef-d’oeuvre, but still, there’s so much prejudice out there,
Thank God, this can’t really happen with GTWT which is my favourite, because there’ll always be people protecting its magic. Or at least while I live…!