This movie practically yells at you that it is striving to be another Gone With the Wind. It was a very mixed movie for me, but overall I liked it. Montgomery Clift (who famously was almost killed in a car accident during filming and had to have reconstructive surgery on his face) is a Yankee with dreams of becoming a great writer and marrying his sweetheart, Eva Marie Saint. Then southern belle Elizabeth Taylor comes to town and he is irresistibly drawn to her passion. As far as love triangles go, I thought this one was a good one. Eva Marie Saint is the wiser choice and whenever he encounters her there are still feelings, but Taylor wins (with a little trickery on her part, but Clift is a gentleman who takes responsibility for his choices in life). However, on a trip to the south, Taylor’s background comes out and it turns out she is damaged – the movie keeps us in suspense whether it is a mental illness or mixed-blood parentage.

There was a non-too-subtle theme of finding a mythical “Raintree” which would represent perfection and heaven on earth, for which only fools risked their lives looking. However, the much more interesting theme for me was Taylor’s confusion and self-hatred. Practically raised by a black Cuban woman named Henrietta who was also her father’s mistress, Taylor is torn between the love she felt for Henrietta and the fear that she may be Henrietta’s daughter. Although obviously not this overdramatic, I felt that this was probably a very real sympton of the slavery system. White children raised by “mammies” who in many cases were probably more dear to them than their real parents, but as they got older the mixed feelings being ashamed by such a love and guilty of their own part in it. Taylor’s character represents the South well – haunted by its past, a desire to pretend innocence (her obsession with the dolls), and a severely fractured self-view.

Unfortunately, I felt that the movie lost steam as it went on (for a long 3 hours). Raintree County is removed enough from the action of the Civil War that it does not seem real there, but unfortunately it still seems unreal once the battles start. Clift’s mission to save his son was probably the low point of the film. But, overall, if you’re in the mood for a period epic, this is worth a try.