'Gone with the Wind' Returns to HBO Max with Disclaimer on Slavery Portrayal
The streaming service HBO Max has returned the classic film Gone with the Wind to its library after previously removing it for "racist depictions."
The film page now includes extra videos contextualizing its portrayals of slavery, including an introduction from Turner Classic Movies' Jacqueline Stewart and a panel discussion about the films' "complicated legacy."
Gone with the Wind was temporarily removed came after Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley urged HBO Max to pull the movie, which he explained perpetuates "some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color" in an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times.
Update, 6/25:
Gone with the Wind is back on HBO Max, now with disclaimers of how it "denies the horrors of slavery," according to Variety. The 1939 film, which is set in the Civil War era, was removed from the streaming platform over two weeks prior after screenwriter John Ridley called out the classic for romanticizing depictions of slavery and perpetuating "painful stereotypes of people of color."
Now, HBO Max users wanting to stream Gone with the Wind will find the original film on the site, along with a four-and-a-half-minute introduction from Turner Classic Movies' host and film scholar Jacqueline Stewart and an hour-long panel discussion called "The Complicated Legacy of ‘Gone With the Wind" from April 2019.
Stewart calls Gone with the Wind "one of most enduringly popular films of all time," but points out that it depicts "the Antebellum South as a world of grace and beauty without acknowledging the brutalities of the system of chattel slavery upon which this world is based."
She adds, "The film’s treatment of this world through a lens of nostalgia denies the horrors of slavery, as well as its legacies of racial inequality."
Original story, 6/8:
Victor Fleming's Gone with the Wind has been temporarily removed from HBO Max after the platform was urged to pull the film for its romanticized depictions of slavery.
Director and screenwriter John Ridley, the Oscar-winning scribe of 12 Years a Slave, made the plea in an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times published last night. Though he acknowledged that the 1939 film, which is set in the Civil War South, portrays a specific period in history, he pointed out that it falls well short of representation. "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," he wrote.
Such portrayals include the Mammy character (played by Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel), which birthed a shallow and detrimental stereotype for Black women in cinema, and other depictions that contributed to the "happy slave" myth.
Ridley added that Gone with the Wind "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."
Mindful of censorship, though, Ridley asked not that the film be locked up completely, but that it be accompanied with other works on HBO Max that give a fuller picture of slavery and the Confederacy. "Or, perhaps it could be paired with conversations about narratives and why it's important to have many voices sharing stories from different perspectives rather than merely those reinforcing the views of the prevailing culture," he continued. "Currently, there is not even a warning or disclaimer preceding the film."
HBO granted Ridley's request and released the below statement.
“‘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.”
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