The platform has added two shorts that acknowledge the film depicts the South as a world of grace and beauty without acknowledging the brutalities of slavery.
“Gone With the Wind” is no longer “gone” from HBO Max.
The new streaming platform pulled the 1939 Civil War flick a few weeks ago after it was criticized for glorifying the antebellum South, but it promised to return the movie after adding historical context and a condemnation of slavery.
The film was returned to the lineup on Wednesday with the addition of two new videos, according to Variety.
The first is a 4:26 video featuring TCM host and film scholar Jacqueline Stewart, who explains that the film’s depiction of Blacks was controversial even in 1939.
Although producer David O. Selznick promised the African American community that “GWTW” would be sensitive to their concerns, Stewart acknowledges the final product depicts “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.”
She also points out in the introduction that the film’s Black actors weren’t allowed to attend the film’s premiere in Atlanta and that Hattie McDaniel wasn’t allowed to sit with her fellow cast members at the Academy Awards even though she won the Oscar for supporting actress.
The other new addition is an hourlong discussion called “The Complicated Legacy of ‘Gone With the Wind,’” which was taped at the TCM Classic Film Festival in April 2019 and moderated by author and historian Donald Bogle.
The removal of “Gone With the Wind” from the HBO Max platform managed to irk many conservatives, including President Donald Trump, who used the decision to also gripe about the South Korean drama “Parasite” winning this year’s best picture Oscar.
Charlotte Clymer, of the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, called the president’s remarks “the doggiest dogwhistle that ever dogwhistled.”
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