HBO’s Gone With The Wind is not gone just yet. After HBO Max announced that it would pull the classic civil war drama in light of ongoing global protests for racial equality, the online streaming giant said that it will bring the film back, but with a disclaimer.
As many fans know, the film focuses on the life of petulant southern belle Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh). Starting with her idyllic on a sprawling plantation, the film traces her survival through the tragic history of the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and her tangled love affairs with Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). However, HBO Max has decided to shelve the film because of racial prejudices.
HBO Removes Gone With The Wind From Streaming Service But Will Bring It Back With A Disclaimer
In a statement, the streamer said, “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 statement continued with, “These depictions are certainly counter to Warner Media’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.”
The film was released in 1939 and won ten Oscars that year. It has also been considered one of the top-earning movies of all time and was heavily features in HBO Max’s advertising push. It was actually Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley who first called for Gone With The Wind to be removed from the streaming library. He called it “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.”
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