swasat
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Post by swasat on Jun 12, 2012 13:45:56 GMT -5
Oh I read that book Petunia. It started off well, but lost track mid way. All that going to Ireland and finding roots and what not. All the old characters were hardly present. And there was hardly any Rhett. That character..... The book did redeem itself a bit in the end when Rhett was brought back
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Plain Old Petunia
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Post by Plain Old Petunia on Jun 12, 2012 13:52:47 GMT -5
Oh I read that book Petunia. It started off well, but lost track mid way. All that going to Ireland and finding roots and what not. All the old characters were hardly present. And there was hardly any Rhett. That character..... The book did redeem itself a bit in the end when Rhett was brought back I don't want to give away the story line, so let me say that I was disappointed with how it seemed to be going, then accepting, then delighted. When I went to Ireland in 2003, I got quite a thrill about visiting places Scarlett had fictionally visited. They made it into a TV movie too, with Joanna Whaley Kilmer as Scarlett and Timothy Dalton as Rhett. The script deviated, I didn't care for it. The casting was great.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 12, 2012 14:35:59 GMT -5
LOL - wasn't the whole point of the movie was that Scarlett was spoiled and unlikeable - but strong and compelling? I never liked her - but I loved watching the character. Nothing ruins a movie faster than a shallow, but flawless main character ({{cough, cough}}{{christina agularia in burlesque}}{{cough cough}}). It just makes for a boring, boring movie. Given me a multi-dimensional protagonist/antagonist rolled into one any day.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Jun 12, 2012 14:44:15 GMT -5
LOL - wasn't the whole point of the movie was that Scarlett was spoiled and unlikeable - but strong and compelling? I never liked her - but I loved watching the character. Nothing ruins a movie faster than a shallow, but flawless main character ({{cough, cough}}{{christina agularia in burlesque}}{{cough cough}}). It just makes for a boring, boring movie. Given me a multi-dimensional protagonist/antagonist rolled into one any day. I would have liked Scarlett better if she showed some improvement in her character. Like if she realizes the war wasn't just about her missing opportunities to dress up and go to dances. I would have liked it better if she got tough, worked hard and returned Tara to it's former glory by her own efforts. Instead she goes after the rich cad who made a fortune as a war profitter so she can go back to living a life full of afternoon teas and evening musicals. Then she treats him like badly until he dumps her ass - at which point she realizes her gravy train is leaving and once again has another temper tantrum. I thought she was ridulous, whiny, vain, shallow and annoying and the stereotypes of the Uncle Tom black people offensive. Granted, I don't like the whole romance genre, so maybe I should have just skipped this thing from the beginning.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 12, 2012 15:10:02 GMT -5
Well - she did grow up quite a bit during the movie, but her same basic personality was in effect. She showed herself to be a pretty hard worker, but did continue to whine. I liked it. If she had a sudden personality change I would have thought the movie was total bull----oney. I like movies that show the human condition that we are who we are, and we can change a little here, and change a little there, but at some point, we can't escape ourselves.
I love movies that end and leave you feeling unsatisified. I love movies with loose ends, and unsettled business. I love that we left Scarlett, alone, swearing she was going to do better tomorrow. And Rhett just out there roaming around like the scad he always was. I loved the end of "Up in the Air" where George Clooney just returned to his business, and got back on that plane. I would have hated both of these movies if they ended with them having a happy marriage, and everything was just hunky-dorey.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 12, 2012 15:13:02 GMT -5
BUT - I hate movies that have unresolved endings so they can make a sequel - those suck. I like unresolved endings because life doesn't work that way, and stories about people shouldn't "end" (unless they are dead.)
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 12, 2012 15:15:18 GMT -5
I love that we left Scarlett, alone, swearing she was going to do better tomorrow. And Rhett just out there roaming around like the scad he always was. It would have totally sucked if they had tried to tie it up with a happily ever after. Scarlett is who she is, she was a product of the antebellum south. I hate it when movies try to couch historical type characters with modern feminism. It don't work.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Jun 12, 2012 15:38:39 GMT -5
I would have liked it better if she got tough, worked hard and returned Tara to it's former glory by her own efforts.
Except that's exactly what Scarlett was doing. She was a white woman in antebellum Georgia. Her looks and guile were the only tools she had. She married rich, because that's what she could do. And she worked hard to make sure that husband #2s business made money. She did every bitof work she could do and still remain part of her society. In fact, she worked a bit more than she should have, and it was only Melanie's friendship that kept her "socially acceptable". I didn't like the movie because it left out Scarlett's first two children. I felt they were integral to understanding Rhett's relationship not with their child but with the rest of society regarding their child, and really helped show the difference between what men could get away with in that society vs what was acceptable for women.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Jun 12, 2012 16:09:00 GMT -5
I think one of my major objections to Gone with the Wind (aside from Scarlett herself) is the way it glamorizes the antibellium South. I'm a Yankee living in the South and I run into this attitude not infrequently. The movie glosses over the whole issue of slavery and wants us to empathize with this spoiled young woman who lost her fabulous lifestyle and now has to dig in the dirt to survive. Well what about the slaves that had to dig in the dirt - for free - for generations in order to make Tara fabulous?
The antibellum south had a handful of wealth plantation owners who ran things like feudal lords. Sure for them life was a series of balls and teas and afternoon bar be ques. For everyone else it was pretty tough, if not miserable. Maybe if this story was set out West, on a cattle farm, and the spoiled rich girl looses her family and her ranch and has to fight her way back from poverty I might have disliked it a little less.
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Peace Of Mind
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Post by Peace Of Mind on Jun 12, 2012 18:26:15 GMT -5
She's 15 and uneducated (as ladies should be) at the start of the movie. She is a spoiled, pampered child with no responsibilities one moment, and the person her entire extended family is relying on in the next. She does things which make her a social pariah, such as field work, and orders those in her charge to do the same. She's a survivor. LOVE Scarlett O'Hara. Exactly!! Scarlett did whatever she deemed necessary to ensure her family would never be hungry again. And she did what was necessary to keep a roof over their heads. She had no use for the stubborn "Southern Pride" of her peers that kept them in poverty and did business and socialized with the Yankees as a means to an end. I will say the book was much, much better than the movie IMHO. And for the life of me I never understood what she saw in Ashley - he was such a wimp. x 100!! That is how I saw the story of Scarlett too. A survivor even though she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. And is it just me or did Ashley kept leading her on? But what a wimp! Yuck!
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Jun 12, 2012 18:36:17 GMT -5
Well with a name like Ashley, whaddaya expect?
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jun 12, 2012 20:32:12 GMT -5
I lived in the south and southern women are sweet on the outside and tough as nails on the inside. I rarely saw one not get what they put their mind to getting, whether it was good for them or not.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jun 12, 2012 20:33:33 GMT -5
My FB line says THE BEAUTY OF A SOUTHERN WOMAN IS THE ABILITY TO TELL A MAN TO GO TO HELL WITH SUCH CHARM THAT HE LOOKS FORWARD TO THE TRIP.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 13, 2012 8:04:28 GMT -5
And is it just me or did Ashley kept leading her on?I thought that too! The scene in the barn made me wnat to smack him in the head with a shovel. WTF your wife had to be hauled out half dead from a burning Atlanta with your newborn son and you're out there telling Scarlett you'd run away with her if you could?!
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michelyn8
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Post by michelyn8 on Jun 13, 2012 14:54:28 GMT -5
Speaking of GWTW, I just saw in my paper's obit section that the lady who played Scarlett's youngest sister, Carreen, passed away at the tender age of 94.
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Plain Old Petunia
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Post by Plain Old Petunia on Jun 14, 2012 10:47:55 GMT -5
Speaking of GWTW, I just saw in my paper's obit section that the lady who played Scarlett's youngest sister, Carreen, passed away at the tender age of 94. BF told me that last night. I think she must have been the last of the cast.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Jun 14, 2012 12:17:03 GMT -5
Speaking of GWTW, I just saw in my paper's obit section that the lady who played Scarlett's youngest sister, Carreen, passed away at the tender age of 94. BF told me that last night. I think she must have been the last of the cast. Nope, I read an article on msnbc that the actress who played Melanie is still alive and lives in Paris - she is the last one left from the cast.
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Plain Old Petunia
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Post by Plain Old Petunia on Jun 14, 2012 12:29:10 GMT -5
BF told me that last night. I think she must have been the last of the cast. Nope, I read an article on msnbc that the actress who played Melanie is still alive and lives in Paris - she is the last one left from the cast. Wow! She must be over 100.
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