Duality in Gone with the Wind (Pt. I)

A domestic war film.



Rivals in romance united after killing a Union soldier who invades their home:

"Scarlett, you killed him! I'm glad you killed him," says the ultimate Good Girl Melanie. Then she suggests, almost lustily, that they go through his haversack.
"I'm ashamed I didn't think of it myself," says Scarlett.


It's also about the before and after of war, long afterwards...










But most of all it's about a woman who marries in a split second,
three times, for survival.




"Marriage fun?"


And about surviving war trauma through equal parts delusional romance and scrappy common sense.






It makes an interesting companion piece to Shutter Island, another great war film, one that treats the trauma thread that's in all good war films as the subject, with no holds barred.