Gone with the Wind

Tara, the O'Hara plantation, demonstrates the use of leitmotif to recall a person, place, or idea, often when that object is in sight. Very basically described, the Tara motif, which is always underscoring, is a brief combination of predominantly stringed instruments playing a soft, almost melancholy tune. Some instances of the leitmotif follow. The theme is played when Rhett leaves Scarlett in charge of Melanie, Melanie's baby, and Prissy. They are at a fork in the road, the last turn on the way to Tara, and the leitmotif shifts the focus from Rhett and Scarlett's intriguing farewell to the fact that Scarlett's sole mission is to get the four of them to Tara, an idealized concept that seems a panacea to Scarlett. After Scarlett has reentered Tara, she finds her father alive, and a few servants, and seems to underestimate the drastic changes at Tara since Sherman's March until her screams of anguish at her mother's death bed kickstart a much more somber, slow version of the Tara theme that more accurately represents the current state of affairs. The Tara leitmotif also ends the first half of the movie, given more powerfully with a strong brass element. We pick up the situation after the intermission with another slow, somber version of the theme as Scarlett attempts to teach the former household slaves to pick cotton and must even help in the effort with her own labor. Much later, the tense underscoring linked with Scarlett's nightmare shifts into a Tara theme as she talks of visiting Tara.

Two examples of stock music--most of which seems to be underscoring--used frequently in the movie are "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," "Maryland, Oh Maryland" and "Dixie." At the very beginning of the film, sometime during or just after the opening title credits, a short clip of "Dixie" is played to highlight that the film occurs in the South, in the mid-1860's. Later, a quicker version--too quick to represent anything well-calculated or unemotional--of the same is used alongside excited new Confederates: war has broken out, and the theme serves to illustrate the naive or emotional excitement over the frightening reality of war. When Rhett Butler is honored for his military bravery, "Maryland, Oh Maryland" plays in the background to represent patriotism. After news of Gettysburg hits home, an excerpt of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" provides an appropriately respectful yet disciplined background piece for the strife of the newly widowed. In the same scene, the military band plays a diagetic version of "Dixie;" this time, the overly quick and joyful pace contrasts starkly with the tears rolling down the band members' cheeks. They next play a rather unobtrusive "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" after "Dixie." Along with the boldly capitalized SIEGE title introducing us to Sherman's March, "Dixie" reminds us that the Southerners are our protagonists. Overlooking a field of wounded Confederates in the hospital, "Maryland, Oh Maryland" somberly reminds us of their extreme sacrifice, and "Taps" immediately follows concurring with the Confederate Flag, representing the impending death of the Confederacy. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is next presented alongside Ashley, a former Confederate soldier splitting a railroad tie through tough physical labor. This highlights his continuing patriotism and discipline, yet also contributes to a sense that "Johnny" has now come home, and the home he has returned to is like that of the ransacked Tara.