Gone with the Wind

[Proud liberal 80]

No one in my liberal circle was asking for Gone with the Wind to be pulled by HBO....now the conservatives are all up in a tizzy blaming liberals....I can see people saying “things are going too far now.”...it’s almost as if HBO pulled it so that they could take away from this movement where people are finally being called out and held accountable for their racism....but by pulling a stunt like this, it gets thrown in to the same pile as taking down conservative monuments where as the two aren’t the same

[RiverbendsJoe]

1. We'll always have this:

[StarfishSaver]

2. I don't know anyone who has called for Gone With the Wind to be censored

None.

[bobbieinok]

5. Guy who made 12 Years a Slave: it should be retired for a while. Gives VERY false view of blacks, sl

[StarfishSaver]

9. I don't think it should be retired. It should be shown in context

[Wounded Bear]

3. First time I heard of it was when it was announced and linked here...

Not a big fan of actions like this. It's not a great movie, and the historical accuracy is suspect at best, especially in its depiction of how slaves lived and were treated.

What's needed is better education so that people could see and judge for themselves what the reality of what life was like back then.

[PJMcK]

4. I've censored GWTW for decades

Whenever it's on, I change the channel. Simplest censorship there is.

I hate the film and the story. Love the score, though.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. Max Steiner. He also did....

Max Steiner

{snip}

Steiner composed over 300 film scores with RKO Pictures and Warner Bros., and was nominated for 24 Academy Awards, winning three: The Informer (1935); Now, Voyager (1942); and Since You Went Away (1944). Besides his Oscar-winning scores, some of Steiner's popular works include King Kong (1933), Little Women (1933), Jezebel (1938), and Casablanca (1942), though he did not compose its love theme, As Time Goes By. In addition, Steiner scored The Searchers (1956), A Summer Place (1959), and Gone with the Wind (1939), which ranked second on the AFI's list of best American film scores, and is the film score for which he is best known.

{snip}

[PJMcK]

12. Thanks for the info!

Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Henry Mancini and Ennio Morricone are among my favorites of the "classic" film composers.

John Williams, of course, is the monster of all time! But I still admire others in the transitional time from the classic to the modern. Composers such as David Shire, Dave Grusin, James Horner, Bill Conti, Nino Rota and Maurice Jarre.

In the modern era, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore and John Corigliano stand out for me.

I'm sure I've left out some great talents inadvertently!

John Barry gets a special mention because of his iconic themes for the James Bond films as well as "Dances With Wolves," "Born Free" and "Out Of Africa." His melodies captured the aura of their eras.

Burt Bacharach gets a shout-out since he wrote (with lyricist Hal David) two huge hit songs for the films he scored, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" from "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid" and one of the greatest love songs ever, "The Look Of Love" for the James Bond spoof, "Casino Royale."

Damn, that went on too long! Sorry.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. "Damn, that went on too long! Sorry."

No, it didn't.

We have noted the birthdays of many of these composers over in the Music Appreciation Group.

[madaboutharry]

6. I don't think HBO had an ulterior motive.

Gone With The Wind has long been subject to criticism for racism and the glorification of the Confederacy. I think they just don’t know what to do about it. They said in their statement that they aren’t permanently pulling it but want to provide some kind of contextual statement to attach to it. That seems reasonable though I agree that this move has a bandwagon feel to it.

I have long been against censorship of literature that was written when cultural or societal norms were very different than the times we now live in. If modern standards were imposed on past works we would have to stop reading Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain and countless other works. Even the original Nancy Drew stories are tainted by racism and anti-Semitism.

HBO could have announced they were providing a statement of some kind at the beginning of the movie that acknowledges it was made in 1939 when racist tropes were tolerated in the film industry. They should also add that marital rape is now a crime.

[hunter]

7. If HBO decides not to show it, so what?

It's their house.

If the police were breaking down my door and rummaging through my DVD library searching for copies of "Gone With the Wind" to confiscate that would be a different matter.

[Merlot]

10. The slave scenes - "Quittin' time" comes to mind - are cringeworthy.

I watched it for the first time when I was around 12, and one thing stood out to me - the treatment of slaves was not accurate.

I don't see how HBO taking this off the lineup matters one way or another. There are thousands of movies depicting racism, sexism, and a host of other bad behaviors. As for right-wingers blaming liberals, who cares? right-wingers cry and moan about every little thing. Let them spend their time starting a campaign to return GWTW to HBO. That will keep their exceedingly small minds busy.

[Chainfire]

11. "Frankly, my dear...."

[CTyankee]

14. I think it should be taught in a class dealing with film's reinforcement of racist ideology in this

country. The racist memes should be listed, shown in actual scenes from the movie, and taught as examples. In that way, it will be a teaching tool that helps students understand how Hollywood reinforced racism and continued discrimination against African Americans. It should be regarded as a cultural "monument" to racism.