Sherice Galloway

It's a well acted over hyped melodrama. This film is a definite sheer delight for those with a deliberately obtuse view of the atrocities of the Civil War, a deliberate romanticism of the immorality of slavery and for those who take special glee and escapism in the depiction of Blacks as inferior and dimwitted. The main character Scarlett O'Hara is the mistress of a Southern plantation who yearns for a man that's not in love with her, uses another man, and is determined to maintain the status quo and her "way of life" and heritage during the Civil War. Her way of life involves being rich with an insidious need to feel superior by enjoying the proceeds of forced human bondage all while wearing pretty dresses from Europe and sipping on mint julep. She is ridiculously portrayed as a sympathetic, determined heroine towards the end of the film, not because she realizes that her "way of life" is steeped in degradation but because she TRULY BELIEVES in her way of life and proudly, defiantly, looks towards the future whereby "her South" shall rise again. There were many other romantic and lush cinematic films of the GWTW era dedicated to overcoming financial ruin, finding love and coping with loss but this movie is ONLY SPECIAL BECAUSE IT DELIBERATELY ROMANTICIZES THE CIVIL WAR AND NUMBS THE VIEWER TO THE EVILS OF SLAVERY AND WHITE SUPERIORITY WHICH IS THE NUCLEUS OF THE CIVIL WAR. Remove the Civil War from this movie, remove the Black maids and their stereotypical dialect and mannerisms, and guess what... this movie remains a well acted melodrama but wouldn't be considered a cinematic masterpiece by the status quo. Bottomline, America's insatiable hunger for, and devotion to, O'Hara's "way of life" allows this film to remain the highest grossing film of all time.