Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer PicturesHBO has added a new accompanying video titled ‘Hattie McDaniel: What a Character!’ to bring back the controversial movie adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel.
- Jun 26, 2020
AceShowbiz – “Gone With the Wind” has returned to the HBO Max streaming platform alongside additional disclaimers critiquing its depiction of race and slavery.
The 1939 movie adaptation of Margaret Mitchell‘s novel about the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era South won eight Academy Awards, including a Best Supporting Actress gong for Hattie McDaniel, who was the first black person to be nominated for and win an Oscar.
However, it was pulled from the service earlier this month, June 2020 amid global anti-racism protests and a Los Angeles Times op-ed by Oscar-winner John Ridley, detailing the “racial prejudices” depicted and accepted in the movie.
The controversial classic was made available again on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 alongside newly added videos discussing its place in America’s cultural history and idealisation of the post-Civil War south despite its brutal racism.
One of the videos features the host of TCM’s “Silent Sunday Nights“, Jacqueline Stewart, discussing its cultural advocacy for white supremacy.
“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,” Stewart, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Department of Cinema and Media Studies says, according to Deadline.
“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.”
Another accompanying video is titled “Hattie McDaniel: What a Character!”, which details McDaniel’s career, as well as the prejudice she faced when forced to sit at the back of the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel before receiving her prize at the 12th Academy Awards.
Also included is a 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival panel moderated by Donald Bogle and titled “The Complicated Legacy of Gone With the Wind”.
Source: Movies - aceshowbiz.com
