I’m not alone when I say “Gone with the Wind” is my choice for the best movie of all time. I saw it first while in high school in the early sixties and have seen all 222 minutes of it again and again since then, ten times in all. Last night I saw it once more, but this time everything was different.
Mary and I noticed a local theater here in Michigan showing some of the old classics. When we realized “GWTW” was playing this week, we made immediate plans to go. And when the young man selling tickets said, “That’ll be three dollars…” we looked at each other in surprise.
“How come so cheap?” Mary asked.
“Well, look at how old the movie is,” he said, eyeing us as if we might not know.
We skipped supper so we could have popcorn, Coke and Dots for dinner at the theater, and as the orchestra music began, both of us felt that old thrill of going back to the 1860s to spend time with our favorite characters.
Because “GWTW” is a chronicle of life during the Civil War, death and dying is present throughout the movie. But three poignant death scenes jumped off the screen like never before. The first was when the heroine, Scarlett, arrived home to find that her mother had died just the day before. Watching Scarlett react to this dreadful news made me use up both of my pocket tissues.
Later, after the 15 minute intermission, Scarlett’s five year old daughter died after being thrown from a pony. Watching her father battle intense grief over losing the love of his life made me cry, too. The third death, that of Scarlett’s angelic friend Melanie, was almost too much. Good thing I’d gone to the washroom during intermission for more tissue.
Although none of these deaths had ever made me cry before, this time death has touched me closely, and my perspective has been skewed accordingly. Watching the characters respond to the deaths of loved ones drew me into their sorrow and exacerbated my own. I thought of Jesus weeping outside the tomb of his good friend Lazarus. The biblical verb used describes him not just tearful but in anguished sobs.
Today I’ve thought about the movie often, particularly those three death scenes, and still feel a heavy load of grief. It’s silly, of course, to relate so emotionally to the characters of “Gone with the Wind.” They were just acting, and their tears weren’t based in reality.
But a great deal of my own grieving isn’t based in reality, either. It’s rooted in longings, wishes and if only’s. Love doesn’t evaporate when the object of that love disappears. If anything, it grows. What is a person to do with this increasing love? Without the presence of the one who is being loved, the only thing left to do is cry.
Jesus cried, too. He wept over death. I understand.
”When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him’!” (John 11:33, 35-36)