Gone With the Wind

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 4:42 pm

[quote=""Michy""]I've never seen the movie, but I would guess it also leaves out all the backstory on Scarlett's parents. Not absolutely necessary to the plot, but it does add so much to the story overall, and helps in understanding Scarlett's character.[/quote]

Yes it leaves that out. It leaves out so much that explains Scarlett and some of the others and puts them in an entirely different light. A great film given the time limits of the big screen, but I'd love to see a miniseries some day (probably not going to happen, but I have fun casting it in my head).

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 4:48 pm

I think it would be almost impossible to correctly depict the complexity of Scarlett's personality via the screen, because that is primarily an outside-looking-in viewpoint. So much of her character in GWTW is understood, not through her dialogue or actions, but through her thoughts. Difficult to translate that to any medium other than printed.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 6:11 pm

I do love the movie, but it is so completely different from the book that I consider it a competely different beast.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 6:49 pm

You make a very good point, Misfit.

But I would have loved to see that scene with Rhett and Gerald in Atlanta. That would have been hilarious!

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Mon February 14th, 2011, 7:37 pm

Even long films like GWTW end up having to cut some of a book, it's the nature of the beast. I've always thought that this film is one of the best renderings of a book I have ever seen (except for Apocalypse Now in an entirely different way). To my mind GWTW is also Holywood at its most magnificent in a way we will probably never see again. The burning of Atlanta in CGI just would not be the same.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Tue February 15th, 2011, 7:28 am

GWTW is a great example of a long novel that is relatively quick to read because it is never boring for an instant! Some of the modern writers of long historical novels (and even some of the shorter ones) could take some lessons from that novel.

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Tue February 15th, 2011, 3:51 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]GWTW is a great example of a long novel that is relatively quick to read because it is never boring for an instant! Some of the modern writers of long historical novels (and even some of the shorter ones) could take some lessons from that novel.[/quote] Oh, absolutely. GWTW is a paragon on so many levels.

One of the things about it that fascinates me, as a piece of writing, is that Mitchell actually does a lot of telling rather than showing, and yet it works so magnificently. For instance, long before the author shows that Scarlett's personality is as simple as the winds that blow through Tara and that she never understood a complexity in her life, we already know this about her because the authors tells us flat out. Normally this would greatly weaken a book, but amazingly, in GWTW it doesn't. I guess because Mitchell was a true born storyteller, and so even when she does tell rather than show, she does it in a way that is captivating.

wendy · Post by **wendy** » Tue February 15th, 2011, 7:28 pm

Any of you read the "follow up" book Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley?

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Tue February 15th, 2011, 7:48 pm

Not me; I'm a GWTW purist. If Margaret Mitchell had written a sequel, I definitely would have read it. But I'm not interested in anyone else's spin-off of her book.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Tue February 15th, 2011, 8:14 pm

[quote=""wendy""]Any of you read the "follow up" book Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley?[/quote]

I considered it, but the reviews on Amazon convinced me it would be best to avoid it.

I agree that GWTW reads very fast, I blew through it in a week I think. IIRC there's a lot of dialogue which moves things along.