What else can scholars say about Gone with the Wind? Biographies of all the stars, David O. Selznick, Margaret Mitchell, made-for-TV movies, etc., have mined the depths of the novel and the resultant film. What can Molly Haskell say that's new? Not much. However, the way she pulls together the strands of the story - both the novel and the making of the movie - makes old ground entertaining. The book is part biography, part history, and part feminist analysis. The author of From Reverance to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies and part-time film commentator on Turner Classic Movies stitches together disparate stories from how long it took Mitchell to write the book, why she was reluctant to have it made into a movie, Selznick's persuasiveness, and every other tidbit that seems trivial to produce a "big picture" view of the entire enterprise. She also analyzes characters and their impact on a Depression-era public using her feminist viewpoint to understand why the novel and the movie were unbelievably popular. This year is the 70th anniversary of the release of the movie and this book does a good job to make it relevant to readers now.
