I had definitely forgotten how long it was; when, after two hours, we got to the “I’ll never go hungry again!” scene, I horrified them all when I said, “AND THAT’S THE HALFWAY MARK!” (We watched the second half on a different night.)

“What? You’ve watched Titanic, haven’t you?”

Ironically, something a lot of the people hating on Gone With The Wind these days are forgetting is that neither the book nor the movie were actually all that flattering to the Old South. As you say, the characters were thoroughly despicable (especially the relentlessly amoral and opportunistic Rhett Butler and the quite-possibly-a-sociopath Scarlett O’Hara, and they’re the protagonists!), and yet the arrogant and decadent society in which they were raised is shown to be even worse; which is one reason watching Rhett and Scarlett ruthlessly trampling its social mores to get their way throughout the story is so compelling. The Old Southerners around them are such grandstanding self-righteous douche bags that you kinda want to see Rhett and Scarlett exploit them.

In fact, speaking of Titanic, wasn’t that kind of the appeal of that movie as well? “Want to watch a bunch of astoundingly arrogant twits who think their wealth and power makes them invincible find out the hard way that it doesn’t? Well, then, this is the movie for you!”