It’s been interesting over the last week or so to watch studios try to clean up some of their past history with race. It’s kinda funny when Bryce Dallas Howard suggests better options than watching The Help right now, but for a studio like Warner Bros. it ain’t so simple as their history stretches back nearly a century. Gone with the Wind has always been a problematic film for them with its romanticized view of the antebellum south, and WB is doing something about it now on streaming service HBO Max.
According to a statement issued to Deadline, WB is removing Gone with the Wind from HBO Max, for now, due its racist depictions of black characters and glorification of the Civil War south.
“‘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. 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. If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history.”
Like many other films, Gone with the Wind has been the target of renewed controversy of late. 12 Years a Slave writer John Ridley may have expressed his attitude towards the film best in an LA Times op-ed…
“It 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.”
“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.”
So it looks as if WB will bring Gone with the Wind back, perhaps as part of a special category where the context can be fully explained? Perhaps each film will be preceded by a segment from someone like Ridley, or another film historian? I’m curious to see how this plays out, but with WB also pulling the use of guns from Looney Tunes cartoons, they are on a mission to be as socially acceptable as possible.
