‘Gone With the Wind’ returns in Memphis theaters
Two years after it was booted from the Orpheum because of its romanticized portrayal of slavery and the Confederacy, “Gone With the Wind” is returning to the big screen in Memphis.
The four-hour Civil War-era epic — still the most popular movie in history at the American box office, when tickets prices are adjusted for inflation — will screen Feb. 28 and March 3 at two Malco multiplexes, the Paradiso and the Collierville Towne Cinema, as part of an ongoing series of “classic” movie revivals coordinated by Fathom Events, a national entertainment company.
The movie’s return marks the 80th anniversary of its original release in 1939, when “Gone With the Wind” quickly became the biggest money-earner in box office history — a spot it retained until it was supplanted by “Jaws” in 1975.
“Wind” also was Hollywood’s most lauded film, setting records at the time for Oscar nominations (13) and victories (eight, including Best Picture and a historic Best Supporting Actress award for African-american performer Hattie Mcdaniel).
However, the movie returns at a time of increased pushback against and impatience with idealized representations of the Confederacy, as demonstrated by the December 2017 removals of the statues of Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest from Memphis parks. “Gone With the Wind” itself was critiqued — along with D.W. Griffith’s 1915 “The Birth of a Nation” — in Spike Lee’s recent “Blackkklansman,” one of this year’s eight nominees for the Oscar for Best Picture.
Orpheum ceased screenings, calling film ‘insensitive’
In Memphis, “Gone With the Wind” generated a whirlwind of controversy in 2017, when the head of the Orpheum announced that the film would be dropped from the historic Downtown theater’s annual summer movie series, ending a 34-year tradition.
“As an organization 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,” Brett Batterson, president of the Orpheum Theatre Group, said in a statement.
Batterson made his decision about two weeks after “Gone With the Wind” was screened to an audience of about 1,500 people at the Orpheum on Aug. 11, 2017 — coincidentally, the same night as the deadly, racist “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville.
The decision attracted international attention and thousands of online comments, pro and con, on the Orpheum website. The story was picked up by the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly, People magazine, England’s Daily Mail, and many other outlets, including such conservative forums as Breitbart, the Daily Caller, Hermancain.com and the Rush Limbaugh radio show, which excoriated the Orpheum for “political correctness.” Said Batterson: “I truly underestimated the reaction.”
‘Some people really want to see the movie’
Tom Lucas, Fathom Events vice president of studio relations, said the company’s revival of “Gone With the Wind” is an acknowledgment of the movie’s continuing significance.
“‘Gone With the Wind’ holds a unique place in history as the single most popular film ever made, based on attendance, and is a milestone in moviemaking history,” said Lucas, in a statement to The Commercial Appeal. “It is one of the titles that moviegoers most request to be seen on the big screen.”
Lucas noted that “Gone With the Wind” has been placed in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, which recognizes “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films,” according to its mission statement. In fact, “Gone With the Wind” was in the film registry’s first class of inductees in 1989, along with “Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
Malco Theatres Executive Vice President Jimmy Tashie said the company doesn’t make value judgments about the movies it presents, hosting all types of movies representing many different types of values and viewpoints, from fundamentalist “faith” films to the annual LGBT film festival.
“We’re always in a funny position in that regard,” he said, noting the controversies that periodically accompany the release of various films. “Some people really want to see the movie, some people say they never want to see it.”
Classic film revivals finding an audience at theaters
Calling itself a “cinema event” company, Fathom Events provides a wide variety of “content” for Malco and other movie theater chains, including Metropolitan Opera and Bolshoi Ballet satellite broadcasts; Turner Classic Movies-hosted revivals of old films; new Japanese anime features; and numerous other one-shots and oddities, including the recent “The Trump Prophecy,” a documentary about a firefighter who claims God told him in a vision that Donald Trump would be elected president.
The revivals of classic movies have been a hit. “They do surprisingly well for us,” Tashie said.
In fact, Fathom Events on Monday announced that its Jan. 27 screening of the 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” — which included the Paradiso among its partner theaters — earned $1 million, setting a record as “the highest-grossing single-day classic film presentation in the company’s history.”
“There’s an audience out there that has never seen a movie like this, except on television,” Tashie said. “So to see it on the big screen is a whole new experience.”
Even in 1939, “Gone With the Wind” generated protests from some NAACP officials and other groups concerned with race relations. The movie’s success generally obliterated the opposition, however, and it was revived theatrically many times until its belated network television debut on NBC in 1976, when it reportedly was watched by 65 percent of viewers, making it the highest-rated film ever shown on television.
“Gone With the Wind” will screen, with intermission, at 6 p.m. Feb. 28 and at 1 p.m. March 3 at the Paradiso and Collierville theaters. Tickets are $13.50. For advance tickets, visit malco.com.