"Gone With the Wind" pulled from HBO Max library for now
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 5 years ago • 18 commentsBy: Zach Seemayer (CBSNewsEnt)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Zach Seemayer
June 10, 2020 / 7:33 AM / ET Online
HBO Max removes "Gone with the Wind"
"Gone With the Wind" is generating controversy once again. The once-acclaimed 1939 Civil War drama has been temporarily pulled by HBO Max from its slate of streaming options amid outcries over the film's dated depictions of slavery and racism, according to multiplereports.
Just two weeks after launching, HBO Max has reportedly decided to reevaluate its streaming content, a move that comes amid nationwide protests over systemic racism in American society.
The film -- which has long been revered by film critics and is the highest grossing movie of all time when adjusting box office totals for inflation -- was recently decried in a high-profile op-ed in the Los Angeles Times penned by "12 Years a Slave" screenwriter John Ridley.
Ridley called on HBO Max to pull the film -- which tells the story of a tumultuous love affair between two wealthy Southern aristocrats and is set against the backdrop of the end of the Civil War and the destruction of the Confederacy. Ridley argued that the movie "doesn't just 'fall short' with regard to representation. It is a film that glorifies the antebellum South."
"It is a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color," Ridley wrote. "It is a film that, as part of the narrative of the 'Lost Cause,' romanticizes the Confederacy in a way that continues to give legitimacy to the notion that the secessionist movement was something more, or better, or more noble than what it was -- a bloody insurrection to maintain the 'right' to own, sell and buy human beings."
However, a spokesperson for HBO Max explained that the film would eventually return to their streaming catalog, along with additional content that would contextualize the controversial historical depictions and elements of the story.
"Gone With the Wind" is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society. These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible," the spokesperson said in a statement released to "Deadline."
"These depictions are certainly counter to WarnerMedia's values, so when we return the film to HBO Max, it will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed," the statement continued. "If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history."
-- This article first appeared in ET Online.
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While I can understand why some think Gone With The Wind glorifies plantation life and negatively stereotypes blacks, I never really felt that way about it.
I havent read the book but I have seen the movie a few times, and I think , generally, it shows the southern plantation owners as frivolous self absorbed people who were made to pay the price of the destruction of their way of life. The slaves in the film are house slaves who , although subservient, usually show more wisdom and humanity than their owners.
IMO the movie Gone With The Wind shows the plantation way of life in that era as a failure.
But maybe I am reading something into it that wasnt there.
I think the novel, from what I've heard, is more offensive.
I've read the book and I agree with your assessment. I've also seen the movie about a hundred times.
I've always thought that "Wind" was a metaphor for the war. The war came and then it was all gone. Some were able to get back on their feet but they did it through exploitation of poor black and white people.
But the book especially portrays the wisdom of Mammy better than the movie does.
I think the novel, from what I've heard, is more offensive.
Well, we just can't have anything that some might find offensive, so if that's the case...the book should be banned and burned, and the movie never shown again
The book has been around for 84 years, and the movie for 81. There has hardly been a rush to judgement.
Book burnings next.
I was just watching field of dreams the other night and watching the “liberal” wife give an impassioned speech against banning an offensive book and it drove home how times have changed. The 80s progressive stood up for free speech, in 2020, they shut down And ban anything think doesn’t support their ideology.
Pretty soon ….. the "Black Crayon" will be removed from the Crayola Crayon Box.
The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.
Albert Ellis
There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy.
Albert Ellis
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)
Burn the books, burn the movies. Let's start with "To Kill a Mockingbird" because a black man gets lynched, and for sure "The Jolson Story" because it uses blackface, and "Gone With the Wind" should be gone with the wind - surely there are hundreds of movies that tender eyes must not see.
However, Farenheit 451 should be required viewing.
And don't forget to tear down all the statues. I don't know if it was fake news, but I read somewhere that Trump wanted to tear down the Statue of Liberty because it encouraged immigration.
We want the next generation to be zombies who study only the RIGHT history. God forbid they should discover that Americans actually ENSLAVED black people.
And on a related note.....
because a black man gets lynched
Was that in the book because it was not in the movie. In the movie, the man was shot trying to run away after being convicted.
You're right, he wasn't lynched, he was shot when supposedly running away, as explained to Atticus, "like a crazy man". That being so, I would still assume a deputy released him in order to produce him to the vigilantes to be victimized. I never read Harper Lee's novel.
There are those who would prefer that we all remain ignorant. I recently read a news story reporting that a black woman celebrity called for the total banning (book burning) of Gone With the Wind, NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that the Oscar award to Hattie McDaniel was one of the most important Oscar awards in the whole history of the Academy Awards and a milestone not only for motion pictures but also for civil rights and the fight for equality. Idiots who cannot see that are blind and deserve to be put in the back seat, and never a driver.
The only thing I had a problem with in the movie was George Reeves (Superman) with orange hair.
I can understand any intelligent person having an aversion to "orange hair". LOL
There were actually two of them. They were supposed to be twin brothers.