‘Gone With The Wind’ Returns To HBO Max With Disclaimer Saying Film ‘Denies The Horrors Of Slavery’

Weeks after it was temporarily pulled from HBO Max, “Gone With The Wind” has returned to the streaming service’s catalog – with an important update.

Viewers who go to watch the controversial 1939 classic on the platform will begin the film with a short introduction from Jacqueline Stewart, a professor of cinema studies and Turner Classic Movies’ first Black host.

In the video, Jacqueline addresses “Gone with the Wind’s” racist depictions, which members of the public were critical of even before the film went into production.

“‘Gone with the Wind’ was not universally praised,” she explains. “The film has been repeatedly protested, dating back to the announcement of its production. From its prologue, the film paints its picture of the antebellum South as a romantic, idyllic setting that’s tragically been lost to the past. Producer David O. Selznick was well aware that Black audiences were deeply concerned about the film’s handling of the topic of slavery and its treatment of Black characters. Before shooting began, he assured the NAACP he was ‘sensitive to the feelings of minority peoples.'”

“Despite Selznick’s assurances, the film follows the lead of Mitchell’s novel, presenting the antebellum South as a world of grace and beauty, without acknowledging the brutalities of the system of chattel slavery upon which this world is based,” Jacqueline continues. “The film represents enslaved Black people in accordance with long-standing stereotypes: as servants, notable for their devotion to their white masters or for their ineptitude. And the film’s treatment of this world through a lens of nostalgia denies the horrors of slavery as well as its legacies of racial inequality.”

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Jacqueline argues that while viewing the film can be “uncomfortable, even painful,” it’s important that it and other classic Hollywood films be “available to us in their original form for viewing and discussion.”

“They reflect the social context in which they were made and invite viewers to reflect on their own values and beliefs when watching them now,” she says. “These films indicate what images and stories Hollywood has deemed as acceptable and what mainstream audiences have found to be appealing and entertaining fare.”

“Eighty years after its initial release, ‘Gone with the Wind’ is a film of undeniable cultural significance,” she adds. “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.”

Along with the short video, HBO Max made a one-hour, live panel discussion called “The Complicated Legacy of ‘Gone with the Wind,'” which was filmed at the 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival, available to view.

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Controversy surrounding “Gone with the Wind’s” spot in HBO Max’s library first erupted earlier this month, when “12 Years A Slave” screenwriter John Ridley penned a Los Angeles Times op-ed urging the streaming giant to take it off of their platform.

“It doesn’t just ‘fall short’ with regard to representation,” he wrote in part. “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.”

Less than a day later, HBO confirmed that they would be temporarily removing it, with the intention to reintroduce it with a proper disclaimer.

“‘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,” an HBO Max spokesperson told Access Hollywood 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.”