Since a new, deluxer-than-ever, first-time on Blu-Ray edition of
Gone With The Wind has just rolled out, I thought I'd throw up a link to a
post I did about Scarlett O'Hara over at Ta-Nehisi's spot when I was guest-blogging there earlier in the year, and before a lot of you knew me. The movie is severely dated in certain ways. It's racial politics are outrageously retrograde, and its sexual politics are problematic to say the least. But Scarlett is hard to beat as a heroine. Vivien Leigh is so vital in the role, and Mitchell gave her extraordinary material to work with. It's hard to believe that Leigh died of tuberculosis--it doesn't seem like anything could have defeated her. And it's hard to believe that no one's really come up with a female character that unlikeable and unscrupulous and brave and made her an absolute icon and role model of survival in the same way ever since.
