Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Whether or not someone liked the movie has absolutely nothing to do with this. It's all about Mob Rule.
Never cave into an angry, disruptive mob. The placating never ends because it's never enough according to the mob.
It is also, as noted, a completely pointless act. My first assumption was that this was another property that HBO had acquired full control of and theirs was the only streaming source available.
Hardly.
This is one high school library putting a "controversial" book on a shelf behind the librarian's desk. "Tempest in a teapot" is a gross overstatement.
I have no problem with them dropping -- temporarily -- what is my favorite movie until they can add a piece about the type of thinking of the time (which still exists).
But any thought that it should be locked on a shelf. Nope. This is a case of liberals who usually hate censorship suddenly liking censorship. It's a lack of principles. And I mean you, Latifah.
The history of the Hayes code (and pre-Code movies) is endlessly fascinating. One of the last movies affected by it was The Bad Seed (1956), in which a thoroughly evil little girl causes Damien-like mayhem...
That book (by William March) scared the heck out of me. Just the name "Rhoda Penmark"....
I agree, it isn't yet. But it seems to me that's what Latifah is suggesting.
We are in a moment of extreme overreaction; it's what happens when a tight rope — tightrope — snaps. Many people are saying many wise and stupid things, and those with a high public profile and nothing much else tend towards the latter.
We are in a moment of extreme overreaction; it's what happens when a tight rope — tightrope — snaps. Many people are saying many wise and stupid things, and those with a high public profile and nothing much else tend towards the latter.
For the last two nights I watched "Gone With The Wind", and tried to do so from the perspective of what's happening in our country today. A few observations:
1. Whether one personally likes the film or not -- and there is no accounting for taste -- from a technical standpoint, considering the year, it's a masterpiece.
2. It's one person's perspective on history. Margaret Mitchell grew up in a time when Southerners still preached "The Lost Cause" concept in regard to the Civil War and the period before and after it. Most of us may not like that perspective today, but to be honest, if one doesn't understand the Lost Cause perspective on Southern history, then one cannot understand the infection of slavery and Jim Crow, the vestiges of which still exist today. GWTW is almost as good (or perhaps better than) as any textbook in teaching what The Lost Cause meant to the South...and still does. And anyone who thinks it isn't still around...just remember how often we see confederate flags displayed, and how many racial incidents occur among certain populations.
3. It's disgusting that there was slavery. It's disgusting that there were mammies. But there was slavery and there were mammies. And I think people need to understand that; and in our modern life, I would guess most don't know or understand much about that whole culture. What's interesting about Mammy in this film is that of the main speaking parts in the film, there are only two characters who are truly good people -- Melanie and Mammy. All the other major characters in the film are seriously flawed people. Scarlet is a spoiled brat that ruins other people's lives. Rhett is a scoundrel who has some good qualities, but is pretty much a selfish man who does what he does for himself. Ashley is a pathetic wimp. Pa is a secessionist and braggart, and ends up with PTSD. Only Mammy and Melanie come across as truly good people. And, if you focus more attention to Hattie McDaniel's acting -- it was a helluva good performance and perhaps the most substantial role a Black person had had in American cinema up to that time.
4. In terms of the speaking roles, the slaves mostly come across as decent people. Not true of many of the white characters. There are two problems here. The first is that they are portrayed in the film as being rather dumb. However, virtually every slave state had anti-literacy laws that prohibited teaching slaves to read or write. Slaves were often beaten for learning to read and write, and even whites were sometimes jailed for teaching slaves to read and write. The other problem was the role played by Butterfly McQueen. It is jarring. It's almost impossible to defend.
The bottom line here to me is that this is a film that needs to remain available...just as every film should. It's still the biggest box office in history (adjusted for inflation -- the first time I saw it, the ticket price was 75 cents). It can be a teaching tool because "The Lost Cause" concept -- that this film so accurately depicts -- is still a problem today. What is needed is context.
The bottom line here to me is that this is a film that needs to remain available...
It is available. Vastly so. Perhaps more than most pre-WWII films.
To go back to the statement you addressed (well, I might add): HBO's action is a reaction to the mood of hysterical overreaction of the day. If they were the only source of this film (as they are with others), and their withdrawal was a "Song of the South," a film that (AFAIK) cannot be legally viewed or purchased anywhere because of Disney's mothballing of it... it would be censorship and worth getting agitated about.
But HBO's pointless action leaves only millions of copies in private hands, more in libraries, an essentially endless supply from Amazon, and fifteen streaming sources.
GWTW is in no way "unavailable" except to some very small fraction of people whose only source is HBOmax.
No one's covering up anything. There's a time to stop promoting/celebrating "things" when an uninformed audience might take away an inappropriate message.
It's FICTION for crying out loud.
The book is a literary classic and the movie has superb acting.
Nobody reads the book or watches the move to "celebrate slavery".
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
