It's all "Gone With The Wind"

Seventy years ago today, a movie that would become legendary in film history was released, spotlighting the South and the actors who portrayed and brought to life the characters written by Margaret Mitchell. The 1936 book made history by selling more copies than any other at that time and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. Over 20 million readers worldwide have read Gone With The Wind in 26 foreign lanuages and Braille.

Seventy years ago the Civil War had been over a mere 70 years ... barely longer than we are from World War II today.

And 70 years ago this film came out with a --gasp!-- curse word when Rhett said to Scarlett, "My dear, I don't give a damn," causing angst far and wide. How far we've come since then....

Today Stacy McCain writes in American Spectator about the "Romantic Rebel" in the character of the dashing man's man known as Rhett Butler. After reminding the reader of Rhett's shortcomings and strengths, Mr. McCain concludes:

Written during the grimmest years of the Great Depression, the novel offered a historical message of hope during an economic cataclysm nearly as crushing to the larger nation as Sherman's march through Georgia had been to the Confederacy. In Scarlett's fierce determination to overcome hardship -- "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" -- and Rhett's sarcastic laughter even amid the most disastrous war in American history, Gone With the Wind gave hope to an America badly in need of hope.

Though set in the Old South, Mitchell's story really represents the spirit of the New South, the can-do attitude espoused by Atlanta newspaper editor Henry Grady who, in the postbellum era, urged Southerners to reject nostalgic helplessness and embrace the challenges of industrial capitalism. The New South mentality and its consequences have their critics. The rush-hour traffic jams of my native Atlanta are a scourge that Georgians now curse as thoroughly as their ancestors cursed Sherman's Yankee invaders. Yet forward-looking confidence continues to triumph over the alternative as surely as Rhett's boldness trumped the honor-obsessed doubts of the rival he called "the wooden-headed Mr. Wilkes."

Seventy years after his first appearance onscreen, Rhett still charms millions, despite the damage done to his reputation by decades of political correctness. And as he tells Scarlett during their scandalous first dance, "With enough courage, you can do without a reputation."

When Margaret Mitchell was asked in later years if Scarlett and Rhett ever reunited, she would respond that she did not know because, to her, the story ended on the final page of the tome. On August 16, 1949, Margaret Mitchell was struck and killed by a cab in Atlanta ... thus forever leaving any reunion of the lovers to our imaginations.

An anniversary showing of Gone With The Wind can be seen tonight on Turner Classic Movies channel.