Scarlett Special Collector's Editon

Love on dvd

"Scarlett" is a mini-series based on the book "Scarlett" by Alexandra Ripley, which is a sequel to "Gone With The Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. "Gone With The Wind" is a classic tale of a woman, Scarlett O'Hara, growing up in Georgia just before the Civil War. Her father owns a plantation and the family is wealthy. Scarlett herself is lovely but spoiled, used to getting her way. Thus it comes as no surprise that when she falls in love with Ashley Wilkes, the son of a neighboring plantation owner. Scarlett decides he would love her if only she told him how she felt, and so she does so. But it blows up in her face as he informs her he's going to marry his cousin. Not only that, but a scalawag named Rhett Butler heard the interchange between the two of them, and he continually reminds her of that fact."Gone With The Wind" is one of my favorite books, so I was leery of reading "Scarlett," a sequel, much less seeing a mini-series based on it. But my curiosity got me and I read the book, then saw the mini-series.My fears were groundless. The book is quite good, even though I was predisposed to not like it. It's well written and seems like a logical expansion of Scarlett's life.***SPOILER ALERT*** At the end of GWTW, Scarlett has finally realized that it's Rhett she loves, not Ashley. But he walks out on her, saying that famous line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." She is determined to get him back, and that's where "Scarlett" comes in. She tries all she can to win Rhett back, but to no avail. She decides to go to Ireland, where her father came from and where she still has relatives.The mini-series does a good job of presenting the most important events of the book. Even better are the stars who portray Scarlett and Rhett. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer does a fine job of bringing out both the good and bad traits of Scarlett, and she portrays her growing up finally. But my favorite is Timothy Dalton as Rhett. Okay, he's gorgeous...I have to admit that. He does a marvelous job of being kind and cruel, still loving Scarlett but not willing to have his heart broken again. I won't give away the ending, but if you are a GWTW fan, you'll love "Scarlett" the mini-series.

Scarlett, the movie, bears scant resemblance to either the Gone With the Wind book or its squeal. The plots have only the most superficial resemblance. Ashley Wilkes for one does not appear in Charleston at anytime, and he has nothing to do with why Scarlett left after the boating accident. The movie portrays Scarlett getting thrown out of Rhett Butler's house after word reaches Rhett's wife of a illict meeting between her and Ashley. That never happened in the book, quite the contrary in fact---Rhett's letter pleading for her to please leave after he admits he cannot stand the truth of his feelings is why she leaves, and her note to his mother is that she loves her; the angry confrontation is pure fabrication.After Charleston the movie deviates almost entirely from the book story. First Rhett does not divorce Scarlett while she is Savannah, nor does she leave America for Ireland with any expectation that he will. The story once she arrives in Ireland is completely different. Firstly, Earl Fenton is not there when she arrives at Ballyhara, nor does he appear in the book until 4 years after her arrival. She returns to America to sell here Atlanta real estate holdings some time after Rhett divorces her, but that has nothing to do with Suellen, and certainly has nothing to do with Fenton's growing violence as portrayed in the movie. Rhett discovers where Scarlett is on her return trip to Ireland with a port call in Charleston where they see each other, him from the dock, her from the boat deck, as the boat pulls out to sea. Rhett does come for her, but most certainly not with his new wife Ann Hampton in tow. Scarlett proves remarkably successful in rapidly advancing up the ranks Anglo aristocratic society in Ireland. That ultimately is how she gets Rhett back, as Rhett, an Anglo aristocrat himself, cannot stand the richest men in England and Ireland fawning over her while he's left out. He makes repeated trips to Ireland, purportedly to buy horses, employing his friends to keep tabs on her. Lord Fenton, the richest man in England, takes note after her début in Dublin Castle and dance with the Viceroy (and Rhett), and when he moves in to court Scarlett, this after his wife Ann Hampton has died, it is the last straw for Rhett. In the movie Fenton's role and character is completely misrepresented; his movie portrayal as a rapist is all wrong. Fenton never displays any violence toward Scarlett (except a brief encounter on horseback which she rather enjoyed). He displays supreme aristocratic arrogance viewing his marriage plans for her as an exercise in horse breeding (and tells her as much)---the plan being to mix his aristocratic blood with her quality strains and traits, which he sees in Cat her daughter, and produce an heir which he needs. She agrees knowing she cannot conceive a child anyway anymore. But he certainly does not rape her or anyone else in the book; nobody kills Fenton; and of course there is no murder trial. Rhett rushes to Scarlett after learning that she is to be married to Fenton, whilst Scarlett discovers from Moreland, Rhett's friend, the truth about Ann's death, convinced that he will come for her...The movie is alternate sequel to Gone with the Wind, not one "based" on the book...The objective of the movie seems to be to create a role for Sean Bean to play another villain, thus necessitating the changing of the story to make a villain out of Fenton...Joanne Whatley plays an excellent Scarlett O'Hara and carries the story, in many ways far more credibly than Vivian Leigh (1939) who is a bit too young and for her role...Whatley displays the mature Scarlett O'Hara remarkably.

No issues works great

I do not think it was what Margaret Michell would have intended. I have read the Road to Tara and to me that is more like Margaret Michell would have intended, In Gone with the Wind thought they cut bits of the book out It was always stressed about Tara and that is where Scarlett got her strength , also in Gone with the wind Rhett had given Scarlett permission to spend as much as she wanted to restore Tara to its former glory, Tara, In Scarlett, it is still shoddy and run down and Scarlett does not restore it , in fact later on she gives Tara to Suellen her sister and sells everything in Atlanta to move permanently to Ireland.I do not believe after all she went through to keep Tara she would leave it for good

Well Timothy Dalton was wonderful has Rett Butler, but so much of it was not about him but more about Scarlett and her family in Ireland which I liked but what was the chance of them both meeting in Ireland. It was a shame there where no sub-titles for people like me who are deaf, together Timothy Dalton and Joanne Whalley did real well in the lead roles, but you could tell this was not written by the hand of Margret Mitchell but was a good try, the lead actors where good some back ground actors bad, Sean Bean was also good as the rich Lord who was evil and comes to a sticky end only for poor Scarlett accused of his murder and about to be hanged, Rett tying to find the missing girl and real killier, and losing all hope only for Scarlett to reveal another secret she has a child a daughter with Rett that he new nothing about will he turn from her or carry on to save her....watch and find out the second disc was the better as the first disc a little boring, but worth the money and great to watch.

this dvd is fab. I had seen a previous copy which was poor. Great sequel to Gone with the Wind. fab story and Timothy Dalton is so sexy. excellent acting have nearly worn the dvd out. Great buy.I think Timothy Dalton played a better Rhett Butler than Clark Gable he was fab. I have watched the film over and over must be at least 100 times. Great follow up to Gone with the Wind, also the actress that played Scarlett was fantastic

I personally think Joanne Whalley is an amazing and such underrated actress, I’ve enjoyed many movies and tv shows she has starred in and this being one of them. I think these two roles or Scarlett and Red no matter who played them would have been given a hard time by some of the audience because you can’t compare to the original actors in Gone With The Wind and that would be the same even if at the time Julia Roberts had played the role of Scarlett or even multi award winner Meryl Streep who were massive at the time and still are today . It’s no about acting more like there was only one Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable and no one could live up to their versions of Scarlett and Rhett no matter how big or famous the actors were but I think both Joanne and Tim did amazing jobs for a 90s adaption sequel to the original and I enjoyed it despite the horrible storyline that involved Sean Beans character.

I have always loved Timothy Dalton, ever since I saw him playing an Arab Prince in a TV series of the "1001 Arabian Nights" in the 60s! Those amazing eyes! And in "Scarlett" he was still looking fantastic! I saw this TV series decades ago and have now bought the DVD version. A really worthy successor of "Gone With The Wind"!