Theatre in Memphis pulls 'racially insensitive' Gone With the Wind
Orpheum Theatre ditches 34-yearold tradition of screening classic film after customers complained
A Tennessee theatre has cancelled a long-running screening of Gone With the Wind over complaints that it is racially insensitive. Officials at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis have announced the film will not be shown during their summer movie series in 2018.
Theatre president Brett Batterson said in a statement that “as an organisation whose stated mission is to entertain, educate and enlighten the communities it serves, the Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of its local population”.
The cinema’s management told Entertainment Weekly it had made the decision “in response to specific inquiries from patrons”. The move comes after the film was shown at the Orpheum on 11 August, prompting “numerous comments”. This is the 34th straight year it has screened at the theatre.
The classic 1939 film, adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer prize-winning 1936 novel, tells the story of the daughter of a Georgia plantation owner during and after the civil war. The film has long been felt to be one of America’s finest, but has also been criticised for romanticising slavery.
Batterson told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that a “social media storm” played a role in the decision to pull the film. However, following the move, the Orpheum’s Facebook page was inundated with angry posts.
Michael Bly wrote: “We cannot rewrite nor erase films, art or novels of the past. In order to move past we must understand the times in which art was made and those who made it. We are a nation that is constantly growing but to deny showing this as a victory of ‘not-offending’ in a ‘free society’ is absolutely irresponsible.”
But some people on the page supported the move to stop screening the film. Erin Maher posted: “Agree with this decision. This is no time to be romanticizing the Confederacy and slave-owners. People who want to watch it can still watch it. They’re not burning the only print.”
Gone With The Wind, which starred Vivien Leigh as leading lady Scarlett O’Hara, won eight Oscars, including best supporting actress for Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African-American to receive an Academy award.