The Thing About Gone With The Wind

In recent days, folks are hyped up about Gone With the Wind.  I sat and pondered over this.

To be honest, I was probably 23 years old before I saw the movie....via my cable-TV connection in the barracks in Louisiana.  This was the 221-minute version, with another hour of commercials added in.  On the long-scale....this was about five hours of viewing and I could not imagine how you'd run this in a normal theater in 1940.

On the drama side?  Well....I give it plus-points.  Then I come to the final fifteen minutes of the movie.  This whole thing is mostly a five-hour dramatic piece about Rhett and Scarlett, and last minutes really deny this whole relationship thing, and Rhett has just had enough of all the drama and fake-love stuff....so he says adios and walks off.

I sat there for about half an hour.....mute on, with the next movie running.  I'd put five hours into watch what was a historical romance piece, which turned into a one-star ending at the close.  I felt negative about that.

Since then....I've probably watched about 90 minutes of the beginning on one occasion, and flipped the channel at some point.

Yeah, I'll admit.....it's just a marginalized story, bound into some epic deal, with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.  For historical content?  I might give it two stars.

Now with this anti-Civil War crowd?  I would imagine each person that made the anti-statement....would admit that they've never watched it, and probably can't pass more than 30-percent of questions on a general history quiz.  If you asked them who stars in the movie, or the direction of the script?  Zero knowledge.

The 'No Police' Era

Just my humble opinion, but as you get to some fairly progressive cities, and police operations are phased out....it'll take less than five days for some murders to capture the city's imagination and people will ask 'who' will save them?  The response....you can only save yourself, by carrying a gun and shooting the other guy as quickly as possible. 

At least three to five months will pass as the city council tries to explain the 300-percent increase in shooting deaths. 

Bouncers will carry guns.  Grocery operations will hire private security.  Banks will start to have two guys on duty with guns.  Schools will hire private security. 

At some point, the five big problems will present themselves: (1) Everyone seems focused on qualifications for private guards now, (2) Everyone will focus on the necessity of people carrying weapons on their belt into stores, (3) Enough news reporters will have been threatened to trigger some worry about the news, (4) Some 18-year old kids in schools will demand the right to haul a weapon into school, and (5) Gun rental shops will start to open up within a thousand feet of airports....where you can rent a pistol for a week while on vacation. 

Around the sixth month of this....the topic of bringing back the police will occur.  By the ninth month, the hiring process will start.