Gone With The Wind has been temporarily removed by HBO Max from its streaming platform after it was criticized for romanticizing slavery, amid a nationwide re-evaluation of cultural values.
The 1939 Civil War epic, starring Clark Gable as Rhett Butler and Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara, is based on a novel written three years previously by Margaret Mitchell.
It tells the story of a turbulent romance during the Civil War and Reconstruction period. Hattie McDaniel, who would’ve been 127 today, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar.
Yet the film has been viewed through a more critical lens in recent years, with many questioning whether a film that glosses over the horrors of slavery should still be shown.
In the light of the killing of George Floyd, the debate has gained added power.
On Monday John Ridley, screenwriter for 12 Years A Slave, wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the film should potentially be removed.
‘It doesn’t just ‘fall short’ with regard to representation,’ he wrote.
‘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.’
The film was controversial from the beginning.
African American film critic Earl J. Morris, who wrote for the black Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, urged readers to write to the Motion Picture Producers Association and demand that the ‘n-word’ be removed from the script, because it featured heavily in the novel.
Morris also reported that many black actors refused to take the demeaning roles, but added that ‘we cannot criticize’ the black actors, ‘for they are economic slaves.’
When the movie was released in January 1940 the NAACP criticized McDaniel, who played Mammy, as an ‘Uncle Tom.’
McDaniel reportedly responded by saying she would ‘rather make seven hundred dollars a week playing a maid than seven dollars being one.’
McDaniel was seated at a table in the back during the Oscars, separate from the rest of the cast and crew.
The incident features heavily in the Netflix show Hollywood, released in May.
HBO said on Tuesday the film’s removal was only temporary.
‘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,’ the company said in a statement.
‘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.’
The decision is, however, likely to anger Donald Trump, who after the Oscars ceremony in February declared his love of the film.
‘The winner is … a movie from South Korea! What the hell was that all about?’ he said.
‘We got enough problems with South Korea with trade.
‘Can we get Gone With the Wind back, please?’
Supporters of the president were quick to condemn Tuesday’s decision on Twitter.
Erielle Davidson, who works with Republican congressman for Texas, Dan Crenshaw, said the move marked the start of ‘the left’s cultural purge’.
‘Gone with the Wind is just the beginning,’ she tweeted.
Greg Price, social media associate for The Daily Caller, tweeted: ‘Way to erase a historic black achievement in the name of social justice.’
His comment was ‘liked’ almost 2,000 times in one hour.
But Ira Madison III, host of the Keep It podcast, laughed with his 204,000 followers about the anger from conservatives.
‘My only opinion on Gone with the Wind right now is I find it hilarious so many racists are pretending they want it on HBO Max because it made Hattie McDaniel the first black person to win an Oscar,’ he said.
The movie is thought to be the first to be pulled amid Black Lives Matters protests following the killing of George Floyd.
However, others are also now thought to be at threat over dated depictions of minorities.
Chiefly among those are several classic Disney movies hosted on the Disney+ streaming service.
They include Dumbo (1941), Swiss Family Robinson (1940 and 1960), Fantasia (1940), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), The Sign of Zorro (1958), Jungle Book (1967), and The Aristocats (1970).
The movies currently stream with the warning that they ‘may contain outdated cultural depictions’.
As of last November, all of the above classics air on the streaming network with the warning that they ‘may contain outdated cultural depictions’ or that it may contain footage of characters smoking.
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