Hi Friends,
How are you doing?In this month's post,I shall once again be discussing the 1994 TV mini-series Scarlett,the sequel to Gone With The Wind and get analyzing on what clicked with me about this adaptation and what didn't vis-a-vis the plot, characters and story-line.And for those of you who haven't read last month's post which was a brief review of Scarlett then here's the link. It'd help you to connect on what I am just about to discuss in this month's post!
So then...let's get started!
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| Scarlett,the sequel to Gone With The Wind |
As I read the plot of Alexandra Ripley's book,I found that the series directed by John Erman starring Timothy Dalton and Joanne Whalley deviates sharply from the original novel with some unusual twists and turns that is hard to comprehend and as a result falls flat on the face!It doesn't by any account do justice to the characters and the plot that Margaret Mitchell had envisaged in her best-seller novel, Gone With The Wind which was further aptly adapted on the big screen with a perfect cast and deftly helmed under the direction of Victor Fleming in 1939 starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. However all said and done,I'd have been happier to watch the sequel,Scarlett from a different perspective altogether had it not been touted as the sequel to Gone With The Wind!However,this 1994 mini-series is one classic case of an adaptation to a sequel gone horribly wrong!Of course,Ripley's novel was sans any dramatic twists to get you hooked on to the book either however the 1994 television series,a varied version of the book was incoherent, inconsistent and formulaic to say the least with the intent of springing up surprise elements of suspense,crime and court- room drama to spice up the narrative of the story!
Unlike the numerous literary adaptations of Jane Eyre,Pride and Prejudice, Emma,Persuasion etc. that we've seen so far both on film and television which have stayed true to the author's novel however Scarlett on the other hand surprised me because this was for the first time that I watched an adaptation that was not in itself faithful to the novel!
Of course as we all know that where Gone With The Wind ends that's where Scarlett begins.So then it's time to get started with my five point argument on what I felt was amiss about this onscreen adaptation of Scarlett!
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| Scarlett shoots a Yankee point-blank in Gone With The Wind |
1. From what I saw in Gone With The Wind and observed in Vivien Leigh's fiery portrayal of Scarlett,I'd always imagined and believed that Scarlett was always a tigress!She was always the one to fight back especially when she was driven to the wall,call that an impulse or her head-strong nature. Do you remember when Scarlett blows a Yankee's head off when he attempts robbery in the ruins of her home in Tara? Do you also recall the moment when Scarlett does all that it takes to single-handedly restore Tara,her home ravaged by war and vows that she would never sleep hungry when bad times befell her family?Do you remember Scarlett's resolute to go back to Tara with Melanie and her new-born child even as the war-torn Atlanta was burning even as Rhett Butler deserts her to join the war?
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| But Scarlett cannot fathom killing Lord Fenton! |
Now contrast this with a helpless Scarlett in the sequel who admits in court that she would never have in her wildest of dreams killed Lord Fenton even though he violated her! I just couldn't digest this part! Margaret Mitchell's Scarlett would have done all that it would take-whether stab Lord Fenton with a knife, hurl a furniture or even hit him with a rod,but she would always have come up trumps in such a situation.Come on, don't you think that a girl who can survive a war and it's aftermaths would be weak enough to give it lying down to Lord Fenton?Certainly not,in my opinion!
2.Now,this point links to the above-I'd have much appreciated if Scarlett would have preserved Rhett's gun as a fond memory in her possession which he had given her in Gone With The Wind to shoot the 'nags' to protect her honor before leaving her to fend for herself at their parting scene in Atlanta.And this would have connected so aptly with the viewers when Scarlett would use the same gun to injure(or for that matter kill) Lord Fenton in self-defense who attempts to rape her.This treatment would have been just right!
3.I strongly felt that Scarlett's rape sequence was not called for! Period.The story was going along quite smoothly though in between it lost steam especially when you hardly saw Rhett and Scarlett in the same frame,it picked up somewhere in bits and parts and towards the end it hits a bump when you have a huge twist waiting to happen just for the sake of creating an impact!So,from the Scarlett-Rhett patch-up operandi that's on in Scarlett's mind and her love-child born even as Rhett is remarried,the story goes tangent where you as a viewer now have to witness the ordeal of a helpless Scarlett running all corners of her home screaming for help even as her servants and housekeepers bear silent witness to a crime unfolding before their very own eyes where none chose to react!
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| Rhett visits Scarlett in jail this time around! |
Now ideally one would have hoped that Mary,a victim of Lord Fenton's assault whom Scarlett had hired as a servant would show courage at the right moment and save her mistress's honor by striking Lord Fenton hard to the ground and render him unconscious.With the court proceedings on to indict Lord Fenton and Scarlett defending Mary's brave act, it would have however been a riotous scandal!Reason:The cat would be out of the bag in court when Scarlett O'Hara during her interrogation is questioned about the nature of her relationship with Lord Fenton and the numerous affairs, beaus and husbands she's had in the past when somewhere she would inadvertently blurt out that she was still in love with her dead husband.And on further probing,it would come to light that her ex-husband was not dead but very much alive and kicking,much to the amusement of Rhett who would be sipping his morning tea and reading the newspaper!Of course,quite unsurprising for Rhett who is well accustomed to Scarlett's antics and her knack of getting in and out of trouble.In fact,the scene could cut to a flashback when a widowed Scarlett in mourning shocks the confederacy as she dances with Rhett at the charity ball in Gone With The Wind!And Rhett like always on reading of Scarlett's tryst with the law would rush to her rescue,when she'd like always say-"Oh, Rhett, I knew you'd come." (Does this dialogue from Gone With The Wind ring a bell?)And this would have been the beginning of yet another epic love story not before both would get a fair-share in their side of the argument as they would gradually resolve their differences even as audiences of the court would burst into peels of laughter at every interlude of the bickering duo!Of course,in the midst of settling scores and winning brownie points over the other, Scarlett would even divulge the truth about their daughter where Rhett would be shocked(in a positive way knowing her mysterious ways and passing it off with his roguish lop-sided smile!)I also imagined here that the judge would pronounce a two month sentence that Scarlett would serve in jail for lying under oath and for spreading malicious lies of a man being dead even if the man alive was her ex-husband.And it would be interesting to see this time around when Rhett would visit Scarlett in jail and flirt with her with the intent of knowing the whereabouts of his daughter,Katie Colm.And Scarlett being Scarlett would play hard ball till she gets him to release her from jail.
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| But Scarlett visits Rhett in a jail in Gone With The Wind! |
The jail sequence would have reminded viewers of a sequence in Gone With The Wind when Rhett is be-fooled by Scarlett's visit to him in his "horse-jail" when he finds out that this was just a pretext of getting some money from him to pay her taxes!Oh and by the way,in this series I also missed Rhett's trademark style of offering his handkerchief to Scarlett whenever she bursts into tears!Did you miss that too?The director overlooked some of the finer nuances in the treatment and the character traits we saw in Gone With The Wind.
Among the society-elite class circuit,Scarlett calling herself a living man's widow would raise eye-brows and become a talk of the town on how she convincingly pulled wool over the eyes of the people as they reel under the shock of this outrageous tittle-tattle that rocks England!Furthermore,I had also imagined that juicy details of the daily proceedings in court would make news with sensational headlines in newspapers that would read as...
'Dead husband resurrects in court!'
'Scarlett, never a dull moment! ',
'And now there's a b...baby!'
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| Mary strikes back...but alas,it's too late to salvage the plot! |
But alas,nothing close to what I just mentioned above happened! In fact, what we witnessed in this series was that Scarlett was indeed raped by Lord Fenton. Mary, her servant who was violated, humiliated and raped by the same Lord Fenton was having a bout of a moral conscience rethinking going on even as the horrific assault on Scarlett was happening simultaneously in her presence when at last lightning strikes her and she decides to stab him to death. And then she flees in guilt and Scarlett is charged for murder.And towards the climax,Mary again has a change of heart and decides to surrender.Now,what was the point of all this?Just to create a turning point?But it just didn't make any sense at all....it was just a hackneyed end to the story!
All these concerted effort to revive the story with some forced twists and turns unfolding in quick succession towards the fag-end was detrimental to the plot when in the first place there was immense scope to let these events unfold mid-way through the series which was lost in focusing on Scarlett's escapades!Those parts could have been trimmed out at the editing table!They could instead have focused the story on making her the people's hero of Ireland where she would champion for people's rights,speak up against atrocities and even possibly stirred up a revolution!
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| Of twists & turns: Rhett marries Anne Hampton! |
4.The end was contrived. In my view, I felt Rhett should have seen Katie Colm with Ashley Wilkes and Scarlett and presumed that she was at last married to her true love and would have married Anne on a rebound to overcome his emotions,pain and grief for the woman he loved so dearly! Furthermore,I had also imagined that Rhett should have come to know the truth about the nature of Scarlett and Ashley's platonic relationship and the existence of his daughter,Katie Colm with Scarlett just days or weeks after he marries Anne Hampton.He would then have been pained about his action and filled with remorse,convinced that Scarlett was telling the truth that she had indeed changed for good for she so loved him that she carried his child and endured it all single-handedly even as she selflessly watched him divorce her and remarry.And then Rhett would be torn between the two women who loved him in all the world-his ex-wife and beloved,Scarlett and his present wife,Anne;where one would have to make the sacrifice.What'd be the sacrifice?I'm yet to apply my thoughts on it!When I think of some more possible twists and turns,I shall share them along!
However,what I just said above again didn't happen!Scarlett tells Rhett of their daughter,Katie Colm when he is visiting her in jail as she is facing trial for the murder of Lord Fenton!And you as a viewer come to realize what other choice did Scarlett have but to tell Rhett the truth about their daughter now that she would be going to the gallows!
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| The turning point of Gone With The Wind: As God is my witness,I'll never be hungry again... |
5.Even after the rape sequence,how could Scarlett have normalized once again so quickly?The transition to draw the curtains down to a fairy-tale happy ending was all too swift and sudden!We remember when Atlanta was burning, Scarlett bravely undertakes a journey back home to Tara and fends for her family by toiling hard in the fields-we see a drastic transformation in her from the girl she was before the war to post-war.She was no longer the vivacious girl with a romantic notion about life...she realized that money had a bigger role to play since she had seen poverty so closely. Remember, even during her honeymoon with Rhett in Gone With The Wind,Scarlett has nightmares about being hungry and impoverished?But post her rape sequence what we all saw was Scarlett back on the marquee,jovial and smiling without any remnants of the trauma of the horrific rape and torture by Lord Fenton.I just couldn't fathom that too!
Overall,what I did like about this series was the idea of Scarlett tracing her roots,visiting her ancestral land and building bridges with her relatives.I also particularly liked the healing touch of her strained relationship with her sister, Suellen(whose rich beau,Mr. Kennedy she stole from her by marrying him to protect Tara) and her adventures travelling to newer countries to discover life!
Did you like this month's post?If you did,then do write in!I recommend you to watch Scarlett at least once so that we could share our notes together and discuss more about it in this post on how this series could have been made even better and engaging without loosing it's original charm!
Take care and ciao until next month!
Love,
Sonyaa
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