FILMS
3:05 PM PDT 06/24/2020
by
Katie Kilkenny
Before the movie plays in the service, it is now preceded by a video by TCM presenter and University of Chicago professor Jacqueline Stewart.
More than two weeks after HBO Max initially removed the 1939 Southern War epic gone With the Wind From his service, the film has returned, with additional context and an attached disclaimer.
Now, before the movie plays on the service, it is preceded by a video by TCM presenter and University of Chicago film and media studies professor Jacqueline Stewart, who tells viewers, “You’re about to to see one of the longest-running movies. ” of all time, but cautions that “the film has been repeatedly protested, since the announcement of its production” due to its romantic portrayal of stereotypical black characters from the South before the war.
The film, winner of the best 1940 film at the Oscars, is now also accompanied by “extras” including videos titled “gone With the Wind: A complicated legacy “and” Hattie McDaniel: What a character! As well as Stewart’s presentation as her own video.
In his introduction, Stewart adds: “Seeing gone With the Wind It can be uncomfortable, even painful. Still, it is important that classic Hollywood movies are available to us in their original form for viewing and discussion. “Watching such movies can prompt viewers to reflect on their values, Hollywood history, and what culture says pop about an earlier era, he suggests.
gone With the Wind He was initially removed from the HBO broadcast service on June 9, amid nationwide protests over systemic racism following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times June 8 12 years of slavery Screenwriter John Ridley asked HBO Max to “consider deleting” the title because “it is a movie that glorifies the pre-war south” and “when it doesn’t ignore the horrors of slavery, it stops only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color. “
In a statement at the time, HBO Max said it would return the film to service with “an attached discussion of its historical context and a complaint of those same depictions.” A few days later, WarnerMedia Entertainment President Bob Greenblatt called the decision “obvious” and added: “We weren’t able to put the disclaimer there, setting out the … problems this movie really raises.”
An adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel of the same name, gone With the Wind it became one of the highest grossing films in history and won eight Oscars, including an award for supporting actress for Hattie McDaniel as “Mammy,” a maid on the Tara plantation. Although McDaniel was the first black person to win an Oscar, she and other black colleagues were unable to attend the film’s Georgia premiere due to Jim Crow laws and, at the Academy Awards, had to sit at the back of the room, away from his cast partner and crew. Interestingly, McDaniel is not yet listed in “Cast & Crew” on HBO Max’s cast list for the movie.
