MovieChat Forums > Raintree County (1957) Discussion > Gone With The Wind VS Raintree County

Gone With The Wind VS Raintree County

posted 18 years ago by FloatingOpera7
19 replies | jump to latest

When I first saw Raintree County (or parts of it) it was on late night on KCET channel 28. My immediate impression was it was almost a rip-off of Gone With The Wind. There are, in truth, some similarities. Both films are long and epic, both focus on the Old South, the Civil War and its effects. Elizabeth Taylor's character is a lot like Scarlett O'Hara, with a strong, willful nature, except she is far more tragic than Scarlett and even dies at the end. Both films are lovely to look at and contain beautiful costumes and cinematography. I'm curious as to what people think about both movies. For me, no movie, however similar, can top Gone With The Wind.

[–] jenny-maler 18 years ago

Gone With The Wind doesn't mean anything to me. I love Raintree Country and can't understand, why all people love Gone With The Wind. Well, there are good actors, beautiful costumes,..... but this film is boaring me. I don't know why, maybe I should watch it once again ;-)

[–] judyreader 18 years ago

Having seen both films several times I agree that the themes of both are similiar in some respects.e.g. war, the effects on the south,epic, etc. However, for me it wasn't the heroines that captured me but the persuit of a dream ... and survival of war... the persuit of the dream for Scarlett was the land or Tara, that her father told her was the most important thing in life.
The dream for John Shaunessy was the Raintree or gold/truth which could be attained by seeking/searching for it. Elizabeth Taylor's character is tragic and mad. The professor in Raintree points out early that the seach is an inner one and later adds home as the destination..(variations on clicking the heels and requesting Kansas, I guess). Scarlett is left with the land and a hope that dad is right and the dream's goal isn't questioned... but moves to getting the guy back home, now she's decided he's important also. What you think?? Bwana555

[–] FloatingOpera7 18 years ago

What a great analysis. Those are the exact similarities in theme for both Gone With The Wind and Raintree County. Didn't anyone pick up on how alike these films were back in the 50's ? People who saw Raintree County must have also seen Gone With The Wind. Both novels too are long. The Civil War is a shadow on both films. Both films seem to glorify Southerners (although Raintree County looks at both Northern and Southern perspectives). Both films deal with survival and chasing dreams like you said. Scarlett took for granted "the love of the land" (Tara) but she learns to love her home at the end of the film. I was just a little p-o'ed that Elizabeth Taylor was riding on Vivien Leigh's success. She was acting a lot like her- so flirty, so bold. She does go crazy at the end and dies tragically (something Scarlett would never do!) but thats about the only difference between the two.

[–] jgravely 18 years ago

I guess it would never occur to you not reveal what eventually happens to Elizabeth Taylor's character in Raintree County.

They're both great movies. I prefer GWTW.

It's a dirty job, but I pay clean money for it.

[–] Afroagogo 13 years ago

I know, right? A spoiler warner would have been appreciated!

Relax...it's just a message board

[–] butterflycomb-1 18 years ago

Big difference John Shawnesy is no Rhett Butler and Susanna is no Scarlett. A beautiful film though, i like Monty in this, but the film all in all can't touch "GWTW".

[–] BettySchaefer 18 years ago

Have you never heard of the term 'spoiler'?

[–] schappe1 18 years ago

...an attempt to recreate Gone With the Wind, (GWTW is in fact, specifically mentioned in the production short TCM just showed). It failed in the attempt but is a pretty good movie in tis own right. I think it lacks the strong characterizations of the previous film. Rhett and Scarlett are clearly more memorable than anybody in this film and the epic scenes in Atlanta are also superior.

Also, how could anybody fail to find the gigantic golden tree we see at the end?

[–] FloatingOpera7 18 years ago

My guess is the "rain tree", big as it was, was far too distant from any civilized town that no one could see it. Susannah and her son must have wandered off very far. About the movie. This was MGM's attempt to make a film which might possibly equal Gone With The Wind. Of course, this didn't happen because "The Wind" remains strong in people's memory and is the more beloved film. Nevertheless, on second viewing (I saw it on Tuner Classic Movies today) Raintree County is a great film. Unlike "The Wind", we look at both North and South and its people and ideaologies. In fact, probably because by '57 there was no way the majority of the people could sympathize with the slave-holding South, we feel sympathy for the Northerners. John Shawnessy (Monty Clift) is wonderful as a sensitive, intellectual dreamer (like a Northern Ashley Wilkes) who is searching for the meaning of life and a magic tree. Nell (Eva Marie Saint) is also wonderful as his kind and sweet colleague. The Northerners valued equality, freedom and community, which is what the American democratic spirit is all about. The South was like another world, from a time that preceeded the 19th century and they didn't give one thought to owning slaves, without empathizing with their situation (how would they have liked it if things had been different and the whites were the slaves to the blacks ?) Elizabeth Taylor as Susannah is hardly Scarlett O'Hara. She whines, raves and is a total mess inside and out. Not strong enough to live in the real world, she doesn't seem to belong neither in the South or the North, she lives instead in her dream world of dolls and faded memories of her childhood plantation home. But the cinematography is wonderful. The costumes are by Walter Plunkett who had also done the costumes for Gone With The Wind. There is an epic and yet intimate mood to the film and overall I enjoyed it.

[–] Masterblaster98 18 years ago

The characters in Rainbow county are tragic and dark and people don't like to identify with that. It is a very sad movie indeed and the different aspects of love and moral, which are shown in this movie, seem to critize the audience in a certain way.

That is why Gone with the wind is so much more liked: people can identify with the characters and the love is shown as something beautiful and strong, which keeps people alive and connected in the movie and it doesn't reflect any criticism at all.

And that is also the reason, why I like rainbow county so much more than Gone with the wind, because it is so different.

[–] dalbrech 17 years ago

The characters in Rainbow county are tragic and dark and people don't like to identify with that.

That is Raintree county,and you just lost a lot of credibility.
The characters in Raintree County were meant to be tragic and dark but it did not come off that way due to poor writing.
And parts of GWTW are dark,very dark.I sense a contrarian at work here.

[–] tarmcgator 17 years ago

IMHO, four big reasons why "Raintree County" didn't measure up to "GWTW" in popularity, and still doesn't:

(1) GWTW was a hugely bestselling novel in its day, which created a built-in audience for the film. That audience was further tantalized by Selznik's "Search for Scarlett" publicity. RC the novel was reasonably successful but didn't create nearly the stir that GWTW did.

(2) GWTW generally flattered the old Confederacy, and interest in the Civil War (or "War for Southern Independence," where I live) has generally been greatest among America's white Southerners whose ancestors lost that war. We've been trying to make excuses for the defeat ever since 1865. RC, on the other hand, was presented from a Yankee point of view and introduced all that nasty business about Susanna's parents, a distinctly unflattering aspect of antebellum Southern culture. Especially at the time when the Civil Rights movement was picking up steam in the South, RC must have been a painful reminder to many white Southerners as to what those colored folks were being so uppity about.

(3) GWTW was an unprecedented spectacle in 1939 -- Technicolor when Technicolor was still a relative rarity, and nearly four hours long. Few films had ever depicted the American past so vividly. By 1957, audiences were far less impressed by sheer color and scope and length. And, for that matter, the "spectacle" of RC is rather anemic compared to GWTW.

(4) I'm sorry to say it, RC fans, but "Raintree County" just isn't that good of a film. The primary problem is Montgomery Clift (and it had little to do with his accident during the production). Just as Vivien Leigh is the heart of GWTW, Clift was the core of RC, and he simply isn't very interesting or convincing. And, whatever his personal relationship with Elizabeth Taylor, their onscreen chemistry in RC was decidedly cool compared to that of Leigh and Gable. (Maybe MGM should have gotten George Stevens to direct them?)

Okay, fire away!

[–] rockcairn69 16 years ago

I always heard it referred to as "The War of Northern Aggression", but that's just more Southern propaganda, huh?? And being from the state that Sherman burned a swath through, they might have a point!!

But even so, I do like the fact Raintree County has the Northern perspective as well, makes for a more 'well rounded' view of the conflict. Of course, you could read that as part of the begining of the PC movement in films.

"Go back to your oar, Forty One."

[–] skiddoo 13 years ago

There was no way a majority of NORTHERNERS in 1957 could sympathize. You forget that in the South there was a push to take away all civil rights from blacks and re-enslave them in every way possible to turn back the clock. These were what Truman called his mother, "unreconstructed southerners." The segregation, lynchings, and bombings became so pervasive that even though it was political suicide for the Democratic party, federal troops were sent in and the Civil Rights Acts were passed. LBJ even underestimated the political damage by saying he had just lost the South for the Democrats for a generation. It was actually longer than that.

[–] Xcalat3 17 years ago

GWTW

I Worship The Goddess Amber Tamblyn

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Doylenf 16 years ago

The only similarity they have in common is the American Civil War.

RAINTREE COUNTY in no way measures up to the extraordinary success of GONE WITH THE WIND--it's a long, rambling tale full of sub-plots with a weak central performance by Montgomery Clift (accident or no accident, he had a painfully dull part to play) and the only distinctive thing about it is the background score and title song by Johnny Green.

GWTW remains in a class by itself as an enduring film classic decade after decade.