**Gone with the Wind** is divided into 3 camps.

1. **Time capsule**: At its best, the film is a sad reminder of America's not-so-distant racist past, made more tragic given how little things have changed in the last 100 years (#BlackLivesMatter). Told from the perspective of white slave owners, this revisionist film is biased and glamorizes antebellum colonial south. Blacks are portrayed as uncle Tom, gladly working at plantation as a slave worker. Racists frequently use this film as a recruiting tool, glamorizing and legitimizing white supremacy nationalism.

2. **Soap opera drama**: If you can overlook racist undertone, and the film tries to downplay and ignore it whenever it can, it has everything soap opera lovers want. Glamor, love triangle, and danger. And **Clark Gable** so charismatic -- he dominates just about every scenes. And **Vivien Leigh** is stunning and her transformation from annoying southern socialite to survivor is sublime.

3. **Technical triumph**: Although dated in parts, this film encapsulates the golden age of Hollywood cinema. Innovative technicolor cinematography, lush score by **Max Steiner**, A-list cast, countless quotable lines, authentic sets and costumes, the list goes on.

All said and done, is **Gone with the Wind** a great film? The film's most successful entry is the middle act -- a tale of survival. But the message is diluted with 4-hour running time devoted to cliched love triangle, annoying characters (e.g., Melanie, Ashley, Prissy), racism and KKK, and uneven pacing on the first and third acts. The final "tomorrow is another day" is forced and all too conveniently wraps up abrupt and sloppy conclusion.

While **North and South** TV series (starring **Patrick Swayze**) is campier and considerably cheaper looking, it offers far better story with balanced look at the racist past, more effective as soap opera, and all in all superior to this lavish but ultimately overrated and racist film.