Gone with the Wind

The Oscar-winning adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel, Gone with the Wind, Victor Flemming focuses on an elite white southern woman's life before, during, and after the American Civil War. Scarlett O'Hara, favorite daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, pursues love, lust, and wealth as the men in her life leave her or fall to war. The film presents an overly romanticized version of the Old South and a flawed interpretation of Reconstruction, best exemplified through the maintenance of white supremacy and racist stereotypes of slaves and freed people who remain committed to their masters. Nonetheless, Scarlet's thoroughly modern woman defies gender norms of the era.