‘Gone With The Wind’ Is A Weeping Willow Of The South`s Demise!

I went to (channeled) Gone with the Wind as a Sunday matinee in the atmospheric majesty of the historic Paramount Theatre, here in downtown Austin. It was nearly sold out and featured actors and actresses dressed in period costumes; as crowded as it was, I climbed up the winding balustrades and took a seat in the drafty balcony for four exquisite hours of classic cinema. Nothing like a story about the decline of the Old South! I listened for ways that the music tried to capture this dramatic wilting of Dixie.

Tara`s Theme, written by Max Steiner, is about as perfect as it gets for romantic strains tweaking in adoration for this plantation in Georgia, that is the primary stage for Scarlet O`Hara, and her struggle to survive The Civil War, or the gruff years of Reconstruction. My favorite songs, though, were various folk tunes that appear throughout, at times with a Confederate martial band playing, such as at the announcements of rebel dead at Gettysburg.

These would include, of course, (I wish I was in) Dixie Land, Lou`siana Belle, Taps, Ye Cavaliers of Dixie, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Many of the compositions of Stephen Foster (My Old Kentucky Home, Under the Willow She`s Sleeping) have been clipped into the film, and these are good at capturing this culture, that is morphing to its twilight. Oddly enough, Max Steiner was beat out by Herbert Stothart`s Wizard of Oz score, in the Original Score category of the Academy Awards.

What do you think?

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