Why Gone With the Wind Was Temporarily Removed From HBO Max
As Civil War monuments fall around the country, so does one that was rendered in film. Gone With the Wind is one of the most popular films in history
—but its upbeat depiction of slavery, racist stereotypes, and other outdated aspects of its story has made it too toxic to stand alone.
That was the determination of HBO Max,
which removed the film from its streaming service Tuesday night amid the protests in the United States over racial injustice,
sparked by the killing of George Floyd beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. His death has led to widespread demonstrations and a reckoning over longstanding wrongs throughout all corners of the culture.
The film will not go away forever, though. It will return with new material framing its shortcomings in historical context.
“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," HBO Max said in a statement. "These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today,
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."
None of the film’s main cast is still alive, except for Olivia de Havilland, who is 103 and has withdrawn from public life in recent years.
Based on Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel about life on an Atlanta plantation before, during and after the Civil War,
Gone With the Wind remains the highest grossing film in history when box office is adjusted for inflation. In today's dollars, it would have earned at total of $3.7 billion in ticket sales, putting it ahead of 2009's Avatar's $3.2 billion.
Its popularity has endured for decades due to its sweeping romance, epic visuals, and emotional performances, even as its depictions of slaves and its rosy view of their servitude has grown increasingly disturbing.
The decision to remove the film from HBO Max came after 12 Years a Slave screenwriter John Ridley, who won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for his work on the best picture-winner, penned a column in the Los Angeles Times saying it should not continue to be shown. The headline read: "Hey, HBO, Gone With the Wind romanticizes the horrors of slavery. Take it off your platform for now."
Ridley acknowledged that many films age poorly as social norms change. "Gone With the Wind, however, is its own unique problem. 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," he wrote.
He went on to say that the 81-year-old film does real harm today by romanticizing the Confederacy and legitimizing the notion that secession from the Union in order to protect slave ownership was a noble cause: "It continues to give cover to those who falsely claim that clinging to the iconography of the plantation era is a matter of 'heritage, not hate.'"
Ridley did not call for the movie to be removed forever, as Disney has done with the similarly troubling Song of the South. "Let me be real clear:
I don’t believe in censorship. I don’t think Gone With the Wind should be relegated to a vault in Burbank. I would just ask, after a respectful amount of time has passed,
that the film be re-introduced to the HBO Max platform," Ridley said, saying it should be paired with films that depict the slave era more accurately, or be placed in context that acknowledging the damaging aspects of the movie.
That is exactly what WarnerMedia said it would do.
"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 company said in its statement. "If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history.”
Ironically, the movie was responsible for what counted as progress in Hollywood at the time, with Hattie McDaniel, who played the slave Mammy, winning the Academy Award for best supporting actress—the first Oscar ever to go to an African-American. She was also the first to ever be nominated.
The next black actor to be nominated was Ethel Waters ten years later for the film Pinky, and the next to win would be 24 years after McDaniel's victory, with Sidney Poitier claiming best actor for 1963's Lillies of the Field.
