400. Gone With The Wind (1939)

Starring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell

Director: Victor Fleming

Running Time: 238 mins

Gone With The Wind is an American film about the life of a manipulative young woman, Scarlett O’Hara, and how her relationships and reputation is affected by the arrival of the Yankee invasion into her home state of Georgia during the American Civil War.

This film is epic. It’s not just an epic, but it has a story of truly EPIC proportions. A fully fascinating tale, with absolutely everything in it, brilliant characters, action, a great romance story, drama, and an interesting context to set it in, making it very enjoyable to watch.

Normally, films edging over the three-hour mark put me off, so when I saw that this film was nearing on FOUR hours long, I was worried it would be so boring I would have to turn it off halfway through.

Fortunately, though, that wasn’t the case. In the end, it seemed to me as if this film needed to be this long, in order to create the full emotional atmosphere that really hit hard in the brilliant ending, after having experienced such a detailed story that was the life of Miss Scarlett.

The character of Scarlett, and also her lover, Rhett Butler, were two of the most interesting I’ve seen in ages. Scarlett is presented as being your typical Southern belle: delicate as a flower, however the portrayal of her true dictatorial and ruthless character was fascinating to look into as the story went on.

Also, Rhett Butler was probably the coolest, suavest man I’ve ever seen in a story. There was barely anything that made you deny his brilliance throughout, and his demeanour was the epitome of this film’s truly convincing nature, a very entertaining aspect to follow throughout.

The story was engrossing right from the start, and once it was put right into the middle of the civil war, it was often action-packed and also really exciting to watch. The only times I grew slightly bored of this film was in the sequences where the women were waiting for their men to arrive and ‘sweep them off their feet’, but apart from that, it was an extremely entertaining film to watch, so that’s why I’ll give it an 8.5.

(And that’s it! I’ve watched a movie every day in 2013! 400 in the end just like I wanted. Thank you for following my progress, and I look forward to 2014 with excitement!)