Frankly, My Dear: "Gone with the Wind" Revisited (Icons of America)

(My Kindle version is damaged. It clips off several characters on the right-hand side of each pages when I try to read this on my laptop Kindle cloud player. I'm guessing this is a bug up in the cloud. But it costs the review one star.)Now, this is not really a "movie" book, and that's fine, because we don't need a another Flesh & Fantasy film tome, or another picture book about GWTW. Rather it's a popular-but-serious social history of the past century or so, parsed through the prism of the film in question. Molly Haskell's peculiar insight into these matters derives from being a film and cultural critic, as well as a Southerner (Virginia and North Carolina) by birth and upbringing. Moreover she is descended from top-drawer ante-bellum aristocracy, literally the people who populate Mary Chesnut's Diary and are sometimes even referenced in the GWTW script.The first part of the book is a quick recap of the filmic phenomenon that is GWTW, how the book was quickly snapped up by Hollywood almost before it became a tremendous bestseller, and of course the familiar tale of how David O. Selznick searched for his perfect Scarlett O'Hara, until one night they were filming the burning of Atlanta, and Selznick's brother, agent Myron, walked up to him and presented him with Vivien Leigh.Intertwined with this is Haskell's meditation on the character of Scarlett herself. Apparently she identified with her very closely when growing up, and this was not unusual among girls in Richmond. There was a tomboyish toughness in that identification, a rejection of conventional female restriction and passivity. Making her name as a "feminist" film critic in her early days, Haskell found herself often arguing with the largely Jewish group of feminist critics who reflexively damned Scarlett without really looking at her--merely because they thought of her as a Southern Belle in a hoop skirt.So there's that identification between Molly and Scarlett, but other interesting parallels abound and overlap. Scarlett O'Hara and her family were largely based on the kinfolk of her creator, Margaret Mitchell of Atlanta. Mitchell's mother's family were mainly Catholic, and that's why Scarlett O'Hara's family was too (though like Mitchell herself, she seems to slip away from Holy Mother Church). And then in the film Scarlett is played by Vivien Leigh, Sacred Heart girl and yet another lapsed Catholic of Irish extraction. (Purely coincidental; it wasn't a casting requirement.) The febrile, ambitious, and somewhat unstable Miss Leigh was in her career very much a Scarlett O'Hara type, which should give pause to anyone conjuring up a happy end-of-life denouement to the Scarlett story.Haskell does not avoid the race question entirely, but she addresses it with a minimum of requisite hand-wringing. Likewise, Margaret Mitchell and the movie-makers stepped around the more "sensitive" matters surround the War and Aftermath. When Rhett Butler, Frank Kennedy, Ashley Wilkes et al. go off to clean out the encampment in the ravine, this is really a stand-in for the work of the Ku Klux Klan a couple of years after the War. Haskell makes a couple of nods to Communist historian Eric Foner, and his thesis that Reconstruction was really a good thing--a positive, progressive epoch that never should have ended. This Party-line argument sticks out uncomfortably; I can't believe that Haskell really shares it. With Christian charity in my heart, I suggest she's just giving Foner a shout-out because she knows him from Columbia.

To me "Gone With The Wind" is one of my earliest memories at the Movies, and the first book I ever read at age ten. I picked up Molly Haskell book with great anticipation and was not disappointed. She is an engaging writer who is both well versed in her close to the heart of the nation subject and she is fun and witty and utterly charming. A little like Scarlett herself. The book covers the three most important personas in the legend, Margaret Mitchell, David O. Selznick and the incredible and ultimately tragic Vivien Leigh. Miss Haskell peels the layers away from the history of each of these incredably fascinating real life characters to reveal complex and interesting people. She also delves deep into the psychology of GWTW as it connects through the decades and human ages of those it has effected, that being most of the world but in the end the United States most of all. How it defines us as a culture a people by our reactions to it both in love and hate, kind of like Scarlett and Rhett's relationship. "Frankly My Dear..." is a must have for any fan of history, film, Hollywood and that consummately towering epic that is "Gone With The Wind".

It is rare that I will get to within 10 pages of the end of a book and finally throw in the towel. I had read the reviews of this book before downloading it to my Kindle BUT was absolutely shocked at how poorly written/edited this book was.It is filled with non-sequiturs and only gives cursory information about the history of the book, author and movie. The focus is mainly on three people - Leigh, Mitchell and Selznick. This is a short book and roughly 50% is (as another reviewer so aptly put it) feminist claptrap. The last chapter of the book focuses on the Civil War and its outcome with only cursory references to either the book or movie and then tries to cram in all the other participants in the film with short descriptions of their roles in the film.Frankly my dear this book stinks.What this book made me want to do was:1] delete it from my Kindle2] re-read "Gone With the Wind" - I read it in German and never in English3] read "The Road to Tara" - a biography of Margaret Mitchell4] I ordered and will read "Victor Fleming: An American Filmmaker"I cannot recommend this book to anyone who has a serious love for either the book or movie. It's extremely disjointed and seems to be thrown together. Sad, because I was expecting so much more!

Molly Haskell has sustained a career of intelligence and insightfulness amazingly well. This book seems to be her labor of love: a Georgia gal deeply and romantically invested in GWTW. So, every so often I'd find myself say "Aw, c'mon lady; that's a little too much." But the book is entertaining, moves right along, and, for me at least, pleasantly informative.

Apparently the interest in Margaret Mitchell and Gone with the Wind, whether good or bad, goes on forever. There is not a whole lot of new material in this writing, and it is not a book that I added to my library shelves. Still, those fans of Mitchell will enjoy hearing more about this interesting lady who made such an impact on the literary world. Her life is as interesting as the one book she produced.

What a fantastic read! I devoured this book, underlining on every page. I've already given it as a gift to my sister and my best friend. If you love the novel or the film, and especially if you grew up in the south, you NEED this book. It's a joy to read, and full of things I didn't know.

Chatty, rather disorganized musings on the phenomenon on the GWTW musings. Somce interesting obsrvations especially about Margaret Mitchell, also some movie trivia. Quick, interesting read, fun, and a good insight here and there.

A little disappointing..Expected more about the actors portraying the roles in GWTW--Too much about Margaret Mitchell. However, still a satisfactory read---but only if you are addicted to the film---as I am Ellen Schoenberg

A most interesting book which arrived well ahead of schedule.

I can't believe no one has written a review yet!This a highly entertaining read for movie buffs in general and GWTW (GONE WITH THE WIND of course ;o) fans alike. It is a contemporary reflection on the impact of book and movie, an interpretation of the movie and the book within the literary confines of the story and within the greater confines of (cultural) history. At the same time it is very readable and at no time boring or too scholarly. It takes into account Margaret Mitchell as well as Vivien Leigh and of course Scarlett as a Southern belle of Irish descent.Apart from the necessaries it dispenses with well worn stories about the book and movie and enriches the reader with new facts and interpretations. Especially the chapter about Margaret Mitchell (from youthful firebrand to matronly writer) I found very enlightening.This is a book for people just getting into the phenomenon as well as others who already have detailed knowledge on the subject. The writing style is entertaining and the breadth of facts is balanced and well researched.

This was a present for my wife, who is really into this kind of stuff. Suffice to say that she is well-pleased with the book, and isn't lightly torn away from it!