‘Gone with the Wind’ returns to HBO Max
More than two weeks after “Gone with the Wind” was removed from the HBO Max streaming platform due to concerns about racial insensitivity, the 1939 Oscar-winning Southern war epic has returned — with additional context and a disclaimer attached.
Before the film plays on the service, it is now preceded by a 4½-minute video intro from Turner Classic Movies host and film scholar Jacqueline Stewart, who tells viewers, “You’re about to see one of the most enduringly popular films.” But she adds a warning: “(It) has been repeatedly protested, dating back to the announcement of its production” due to its flawed, romantic view of the antebellum South.
Stewart notes how producer David O. Selznick assured the NAACP at the time that he was “sensitive to the feelings of minority peoples,” yet proceeded to give America a movie that depicts a “world of grace and beauty, without acknowledging the brutalities of the system of chattel slavery upon which this world is based.”
Stewart, a professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Chicago, claims “the treatment of this world through the lens of nostalgia denies the horrors of slavery as well its legacies of racial inequality.” Stewart acknowledges that, while watching the film “can be uncomfortable, even painful,” it is important that classic Hollywood films are available to the public in their original form to “invite viewers to reflect on their own beliefs when watching them now.”
“‘Gone with the Wind,’ with its landmark production values, signature scenes and iconic characters has shaped the way generations have pictured slavery and the Reconstruction period that followed,” she says in conclusion. “It is not only a major document of Hollywood’s racist practices of the past, but also an enduring work of popular culture that speaks directly to the racial inequalities that persist in media and society today.”
The film is accompanied on HBO Max with a series of extras, including an hourlong panel discussion, “‘Gone with the Wind’: A Complicated Legacy,” shot during last year’s TCM Film Festival. Also included is a five-minute short, “Hattie McDaniel: What a Character!” that profiles the first African American Oscar winner.