The Lost Cause was the belief that the southern secession, even the defense of slavery, was honorable. Lost Cause proponents claim the true cause of the Civil War was not slavery but how the North was suppressing states rights. The Lost Cause outlook of the war viewed the South as brave and heroic; however, the contrasting belief was that the South had no chance to win the war and was doomed from the start. In the film, "Gone With the Wind" one gains an accurate depiction of the generalized Southern Society, where many of the Lost Cause concepts can be shown. Whereas, in "Gettysburg," the movie debunks the Lost Cause pro-Confederate myths.
During the age of the Great Depression, people went to the movies to relax and forget their worries. The prospective that is shown in the film, "Gone With the Wind," sways its audience into believing "the idealized home front" was how everyone in the South lived. "The typical moonlight and magnolias view of Southern Society is highly distorted from a historical standpoint" (Gallagher 24). In describing "Gone With the Wind," Gallagher explains how this "idealized the men and women of the plantation class, suggested the superior valor of Southern manhood, and is strongly peopled with happy slaves and gentle and indulgent masters" (17). In the film, the South is represented as all upper-class citizens going to parties and barbeques, always happy and dancing throughout the day. "In the context of the Lost Cause, Southern culture is portrayed as superior. William Garrett Piston finds the prewar South 'blessed' in the myth, peopled by cavalier aristocrats and martyrs along with the fortunate happy darkies" (17). The slaves in "Gone With the Wind" are continuously happy, well treated, and almost as viewed as part of the family as they are loyal to their benevolent masters.
