Gone With The Wind is, well, it's GONE!

Louis CK says some of the most vile sexist, racist, baby-killing **** I've ever heard.

But he makes millions doing it. Some comedians get a pass, others don't.

I still give him enormous cred for writing PootyTang, but I imagine there is a pretty tidy contingent of people who think Pooty was backhanded racism.

I had to stop trying to keep up with current trends in what's ok and what's not.

Had to look him up. He did have a show that ran for one season over here. He's just not funny.

I agree it's a good movie, and not particularly racist if memory serves.

Still, the theatre in question has shown it for 34 straight years and is perfectly entitled to stop doing so. And when some clown points out that "it's the way it started with Hitler", shame on him for trivializing nazism.

It wasn't me criticizing the theater. I didn't see that as my business.

Thank you for saying this. I'm sick and tired of people who use Hitler for their own selfish ends.

I know, was just venting about some "sky is falling" comments made upthread.

I guess Hitler is everywhere, even in theater programming.

Nearly three years ago, I started this thread and various things have taken place since then. Now, a new group of circumstances have entered into the morass. They are related in large part to the recent murder of Mr.George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The new HBO Max had Gone With The Wind in their lineup of movies. Now it's been pulled.
www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/media/gone-with-the-wind-hbo-max/index.html

Additionally from the newsreel today The debate over the film has been reignited.
www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/entertainment/gone-with-the-wind-history/index.html

Not to be ignored, Megyn Kelly delivered her thoughts on HBO's decision.
https://people.com/movies/megyn-kelly-slams-hbo-max-for-removing-gone-with-the-wind/

And for their part, an article from Variety. It seems Amazon has stepped in and scooped up the movie, zipping it up rapidly to the number one spot.
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/gone-with-the-wind-amazon-best-seller-hbo-max-1234639577/

According to the CNN article: "The spokesperson added that when the film returns to HBO Max, it "will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions," and will be presented "as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.""

So, it looks like it will return to HBO MAX with a disclaimer regarding the film's content.

I'm grateful that information will be provided to the viewe; however, I'm quite bothered by the fact that were it not for the recent events, they likely would not have done a darned thing, other than promote the film being in their collection.
well, it's a start and that itself is a positive sign.

There’s far worse than GWTW. We recently watched some of the Tarzans of old with Johnny Weissmuler... Black are depicted as barely superior to monkeys in there.

So you changed your mind about this movie? Three years ago it was an absolute shame that it was pulled out of ONE theater, a move leading to Hitler and ****... :-)

Well, yeah, but the Tarzan stuff didn't qualify as 'classic' - whatever that means. Kind of like the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn stuff done by Mark Twain.

There are also classic, but in another genre: the exotic adventure.

You mean 'Tarzan'? Okay, but that would let in 'Flash Gordon' and anything else that happens just happens to be old.

Well, I can't really define 'Classic', so can't argue with you.

Whether a particular movie should be considered a classic or not, my point is that hundreds of movies from this era convey racist tropes. Is HBO going to stop showing them? Are historians going to write notices for them all?

Why not after all, a bit of historical context is always good to get.

But then there are the books, the paintings, the plays, the graphic novels... etc. etc.

In short, don’t blame this particular movie — Gone With The Wind — for an entire era.

Aha! We agree.

That doesn’t let them off. There are other films from the same time that do not rely on racist stereotypes. Hellzapoppin’ is a fine example. The black characters in that film are accomplished musicians and dancers, and their talent is what is on display.

Some topics are touchier than others though. The setting of GWTW is the civil war. Any piece of fiction on this subject is bound to be more controversial than a Broadway dance show like Helzapoppin. So I don't think it's so easy to compare them, and the movie industry can't always avoid difficult topics.