Memphis theatre's pulling of 'Gone with the Wind' viewed as 'cultural cleansing' by critics
Memphis theatre's pulling of 'Gone with the Wind' viewed as 'cultural cleansing' by critics
'Common sense has gone with the wind in my hometown of Memphis,' one critic wrote, saying the movie 'has been done-in by a bunch of meddling, no-account, liberal Yankee carpetbaggers'
Washington Post, August 29, 2017
In this Dec. 19, 1939 file photo, a crowd walks past the Astor Theater during the Broadway premiere of "Gone With the Wind" in New York. A Memphis, Tennessee, theatre has cancelled an annual screening of the classic 1939 film because of racially insensitive content. AP file photo
A Memphis, Tennessee, theatre has ended its 34-year tradition of screening the 1939 Oscar-winning-film “Gone With the Wind” at least once a year.
The Orpheum Theatre dropped the movie from its programming after several patrons complained about an Aug. 11 screening, saying the film was “racially insensitive,” USA Today reported.
“While title selections for the series are typically made in the spring of each year, the Orpheum has made this determination early in response to specific inquiries from patrons,” Brett Batterson, president of the Orpheum Theatre Group, said in a statement obtained by Entertainment Weekly.
Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind. File photo
“As an organization whose stated mission is to ‘entertain, educate and enlighten the communities it serves,’ the Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of its local population,” Batterson added.
Taking inflation into account, the Civil War epic “Gone With the Wind” is the highest grossing film of all time, according to Box Office Mojo. Even so, its treatment of black characters – referred to as “darkies” throughout the film – has been at the center of an increasingly heated debate.
The movie follows the life of Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), who grows up on a plantation and eventually falls in love with former blockade runner for the South Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). To many, the film depicts the Confederacy in a nostalgic, loving way while drawing its black characters in broad and demeaning stereotypes.
In 2015, film critic Lou Lumenick wrote that the film “buys heavily into the idea that the Civil War was a noble lost cause and casts Yankees and Yankee sympathizers as the villains, both during the war and during Reconstruction.” He suggested it should “go the way of the Confederate flag” and be phased out of American culture.
Outraged defenders of the movie, though, seemed to feel otherwise and quickly vocalized their objections. The loudest voice belonged to Fox News commentator and Memphis native Todd Starnes.
In two different tweets linking to a commentary he wrote on the theatre’s decision, Starnes said, “Common sense has gone with the wind in my hometown of Memphis” and said the movie “has been done-in by a bunch of meddling, no-account, liberal Yankee carpetbaggers.”
“The cultural cleansing of my hometown has gone too far,” Starnes wrote on his blog, calling those who complained “culture jihadists.”
“And now our beloved film is gone with the wind – done in by a bunch of meddling, no-account thespian carpetbaggers,” he continued. “Many Memphians must be wondering what has come over this here town. To borrow a phrase from ‘Gone With the Wind,’ Liberals have come over it. Same as they’ve come over all of us.”
Starnes concluded:
“But there’s no use crying in our sweet tea, Southerners,” he wrote. “We must stand up to the scourge of the Yankee liberals. We must stand up and fight. In the words of Scarlett O’Hara, as God is my witness – we’re not gonna let them lick us.”
Some people who had seen the movie in Memphis agreed with Starnes.
“My grown daughter and I went together to see this movie during the summer screening 5 years ago. It is an Epic Movie that no one should miss on the big screen,” wrote Sherrye Britt, who said there was nothing racist about the movie. “Stop trying to rewrite history. The next thing you know they will ban To Kill a Mockingbird, Driving Ms Daisy, and other iconic movies.”
“I was fortunate enough to go and see GWTW last year at the Orpheum,” wrote Vickie Lewis. “I can say without a doubt that I will never give this theater my money again.”
“Shame on the Orpheum,” wrote Sherry Fullbright Fowler, who complained that the move was “helping” to destroy history.
But others, such as Erin Maher, supported the theater.
“Agree with this decision,” Maher wrote. “This is no time to be romanticizing the Confederacy and slave-owners. People who want to watch it can still watch it. They’re not burning the only print.”
For all the outrage, though, the Orpheum Theatre hasn’t backed down. Batterson told the Commercial Appeal this isn’t the first time the theater considered pulling the movie from its annual schedule, but the decision has finally been made.
“This is something that’s been questioned every year,” he said. “This is about the Orpheum wanting to be inclusive and welcoming to all of Memphis.”
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INSANITY !!! America has become totally insane.
Burn all copies of Birth of a Nation - the most racist movie ever produced.
Burn all copies of Casablanca - Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) said: "The BOY playing the piano..." meaning Sam, the middle-aged black piano player.
Burn all copies of To Kill a Mockingbird - it shows a mob wanting to lynch an innocent black man.
What's next? Because there's going to be a "next", and a "next" after that.....
INSANITY !!! America has become totally insane.
I might agree with that, but not because one theater in Memphis won't be showing Gone With The Wind anymore. The movie has had a great run, and no doubt will continue to, with countless Americans. I watch at least part of it everytime I see it show up on TV.
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America has become totally insane.
I just seeded an article that shows 'Trumpers' blaming Obama for not taking care of business as president during hurricane Katrina.
Now that is insanity.
It is insane, Buzz.....and then you have people trying to derail this so they can make it about their favorite obsession. I said before, taking down and/or destroying monuments, now classic films, what next? Maybe books-books will offend us, so we should probably burn them.
Sounds like history repeating itself, doesn't it?
The obsession that people like you and Buzz have over the relatively trivial comings and goings of "political correctness" is disturbing.
What is disturbing, John, in reality, is that you can't have a discussion without trying to drag it to something you want to talk about, even though the conversation has absolutely nothing to do with the subject that you are obsessed with. Smacks of narcissism and borderline personality disorder.
A movie theater canceling Gone With The Wind is not insanity.
29% of Louisiana Republicans believing Obama was president in 2005 may be though.
It may very well be that they are crazy, but again, has nothing to do with this discussion and all to do with your obsessions.
So, tell me, it's just a movie, it's just a statue? Where do you think it should stop? Where do you draw the line? Oh yeah, while still allowing people their constitutional rights?
Tell me John, would you treat a melanoma on a person's cheek before it metasticizes, or do you wait until it has invaded a person's body until it has become incurable and death is a month away?
I'd call this hyper sensitivity to racism, and it's a sign of the times.
Young people with the computer age have international friendships and know racism is wrong. They are out to end it.
So, if you feel like you don't want to see it, don't go watch it. When did trying to not let other people see it and make their own decision become acceptable? If there's a book I don't agree with, is it okay for me to tell the library to remove it so you can't read it? No.
I'm not defending what's happening I'm merely pointing it out.
I think Gary was agreeing with you. His first sentence was a statement basically agreeing with you, not a criticism.
We are going over the top!
On the other hand this movie was, probably, on the protesters's list of things to do. What will they replace it with?
"I won't think about it today, I'll think about it tomorrow".
A clockwork orange perhaps or maybe Pulp Fiction... You know a more modern classic far less controversial film..
lol
So, you don't think a privately owned business should be able to show or not show what it wants? I wonder if you conservatives really believe in any of the things you say you do.
"I'll think about it tomorrow".
Thank you, Scarlett. LOL
There apparently is nothing that won't make rightwingers hysterical these days.
Nobody is being hysterical. Many of us believe in not burning books. Perhaps you should be looking in a mirror instead of at others.
“This is about the Orpheum wanting to be inclusive and welcoming to all of Memphis."
The Orpheum is a business. A business does not make moral calculations, a business calculates what produces the most profit. Here they are going to play to a very vocal minority.
INSANITY !!! America has become totally insane.
Not America - a vocal, favored few, who through social media & a like minded media have managed to magnify their voice & numbers
Please clarify, as I find this statement to be somewhat ambiguous:
"Here they are going to play to a very vocal minority."
You continue that with your expression "a vocal, favoured few." That could be interpreted so mean those who consider the movie to be racist, or it could mean those who oppose banning an American artistic achievement. Which do you mean?