Customer Reviews

The Greatness of Gone With The Wind

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Professor Engel is a brilliant public speaker whose insight is hilarious and informative. Very similar to Bill Bryson in his ability to entertain and educate at the same time (think of Bryson's Mother Tongue or Made in America books). Short on frills, it is just Engel at a podium discussing the film, but long on quality, this is an excellent video. It probably won't fit easily between Shrek and Lethal Weapon in your home entertainment library, but perhaps you can convince your local library to invest in a copy.

The author takes Gone With the Wind fans on a journey into how the author wrote many of her own life events into the book. Must see for every fan of the book or the movie.

I read GONE WITH THE WIND for the first time when I was 14-years-old, enjoyed it but had nothing to compare it to. I read it again at 35, enjoyed it as a romance of the Civil War. At 60, I found myself re-reading it for the 3rd time and finally I'm completely blown away by the amazing understanding of this unique writer. Reading this book, I fell in love with Margaret Mitchell, who died when I was four months old. I had to find out where she did her research for this massive book which can only be compared with Tolstoy's WAR & PEACE. Several biographies of Mitchell have been written, but very few are in print and used copies are offered at hundreds of dollars. So, I picked up Professor Engel's video. I was concerned that it might deal too much with the movie. As good as the movie of GONE WITH THE WIND is, it pales in comparison with the details in the book. I needn't have worried. This video is about Margaret Mitchell, who she was, where she came from, and where she got her ideas for the most popular novel of all time. In 54 minutes, Professor Engel answered many of my questions and filled in anecdotes, stories and little know facts about the author I was delighted to learn. He does this talking straight to the camera, illustrating his narrative with photos that peel to full screen to make his points. Professor Engel lectures quickly, his voice pleasant, familiarity with his topic is without question. Although quite a young man, Professor Engel is a born educator and I am completely satisfied with all I learned from this video. It was exactly the product I was looking for. I wish that I had the opportunity to ask Professor Engel to elaborate on a few points. Most specifically, I've read elsewhere that Mitchell's brief marriage to Berrien Kinnard Upshaw, her model for Rhett Butler, subjected her to spousal rape and that she slept with a loaded gun under her pillow until the day she heard he was dead, a suicide, shortly before her own death in 1949. This rumor is at odds with Professor Engel's statement that Upshaw never abused Mitchell. None the less, Mitchell's novel clearly depicts a familiarity with mental cruelty and spousal rape. I wonder if anybody living knows the truth? Anyway, thank you, Professor Engel. I loved this video.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this video since there wasn't really a synopsis and/or review of it and thought that I'd take a chance and purchase it since I'm such a big fan of GWTW (both the book and the movie). I was hoping for something at least relating to the movie, and instead got a video with some guy lecturing to the audience about his perspectives on GWTW (for the ENTIRE video). It felt like a boring classroom lecture ..... definitely NOT worth the price nor the money spent!