Mitchell, a former journalist who wrote the novel (her first and only) while recovering from an injury, expected it to sell 5,000 copies. “Gone With the Wind” is one of the mythic lightning strikes of American cultural history. (A few days later, the African-American film scholar Jacqueline Stewart announced in an opinion piece for CNN.com that she will be providing the introduction when the movie returns to the streaming service.)īut it also represents a belated reckoning with African-American criticism that started immediately after the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell’s novel - even if it was barely noted in the mainstream white press. HBO Max’s move came a day after The Los Angeles Times published an opinion piece by John Ridley, the screenwriter of “Twelve Years a Slave,” criticizing “Gone With the Wind” for its racist stereotypes and whitewashing of the horrors of slavery, and calling for it to be presented only with added historical context. But they have seen it - just not in its original form.”
“People will say they haven’t seen the movie.
“You want to have a Southern antebellum wedding - where does that come from?” said Kellie Carter Jackson, a historian at Wellesley College who teaches a course on slavery and film.
And for every prominent conservative accusing HBO Max of censorship, there were plenty on social media calling the movie, well, boring.īut the 1939 classic - still the highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation - has enduringly shaped popular understanding of the Civil War and Reconstruction perhaps more than any other cultural artifact. “Gone With the Wind” may register with younger people today only as their grandmother’s favorite movie (or maybe, the source of a lacerating joke that opens Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman”). What qualities are in those who fight their way through triumphantly that are lacking in those that go under? I only know that survivors used to call that quality 'gumption.' So I wrote about people who had gumption and people who didn't.When HBO Max announced Tuesday that it was temporarily removing “Gone With the Wind” from its streaming service, it seemed as if another Confederate monument was coming down. What makes some people come through catastrophes and others, apparently just as able, strong, and brave, go under? It happens in every upheaval. Margaret Mitchell wrote, "If Gone With the Wind has a theme it is that of survival. Known As: A bestselling American love story that chronicled the time during and after the Civil War and inspired the Academy Award Winning movie of the same name starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.Main Characters: Rhett Butler, Frank Kennedy, Sarah Jane “Pittypat” Hamilton, Scarlett O’Hara, Ashley Wilkes, Melanie Wilkes.Setting: 1861–1870s Atlanta and Tara, Scarlett's family plantation.Genre: Romance novel historical fiction.
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