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2020-

2020-06-10 e
Classic Films Don't Matter

Gone With the Wind dropped from HBO Max over depiction of slavery

Temporary move followed call by 12 Years a Slave scriptwriter John Ridley for streaming services to review content that is ‘blatant in its demonisation’ of race

The US civil war epic Gone With the Wind has been dropped from HBO Max, the streaming service recently launched by Warner Bros as a rival to Netflix and Disney+, after protests over its depiction of slavery.

The move followed an article in the LA Times by John Ridley, Oscar-winning scriptwriter of 12 Years a Slave, in which he described it as “a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color”.

Ridley added: “At a moment when we are all considering what more we can do to fight bigotry and intolerance, I would ask that all content providers look at their libraries and make a good-faith effort to separate programming that might be lacking in its representation from that which is blatant in its demonisation.”

HBO responded with a statement, which said: “These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.”

The streaming service added that the film would return to the platform accompanied by “a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions”, but would remain unaltered “because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed”. (read more)

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