Gone With the Wind
Spike Lee Thinks Gone With the Wind and The Birth of a Nation Should Be Screened With Proper “Context”
Legendary director Spike Lee thinks that problematic films like Gone With the Wind and The Birth of a Nation should still be seen — provided the viewing experience includes “historical social context.” Lee shared his thoughts in an interview with Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. The conversation about Lee’s career and latest movie Da 5 Bloods quickly veered into a discussion on two of the most famous movies in history — both of which are also notoriously racist. 1939’s Gone With the Wind is America’s highest-grossing film ever, adjusted for inflation, but its depiction of Black people as cheerfully dumb and eternally grateful to white people was bad when it was first released and hasn’t improved since. 1915’s The Birth of a Nation was originally titled T...
R.I.P. Olivia de Havilland, Oscar-Winning Actress and Star of Gone With the Wind Dies at 104
Olivia de Havilland, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and one of the last remaining stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, has died at the age of 104. de Havilland died of natural causes at her home in Paris, according to her publicist. The British-American actress is perhaps best known for her role as Melanie Hamilton in 1939’s Gone With The Wind, for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but lost to fellow cast member Hattie McDaniel. de Havilland won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 for the film To Each His Own, and then again in 1949 for her performance in William Wyler’s The Heiress, which was based on the Henry James novel Washington Square. Arguably her most popular films, though, were the string of adventure films she made with Errol Fl...
HBO Max Restores Gone With the Wind, With Historical Disclaimer
Two weeks after HBO Max pulled Gone With the Wind, the Oscar-winning film has returned to the platform, with a new historical disclaimer in tow. The 1939 film is the recipient of ten Academy Awards, and ranks as the highest-grossing motion picture in American history (adjusted to inflation). Yet, in the eyes of some, the film’s depiction of Black characters as racist stereotypes who are cheerfully and gratefully subservient to the white characters is untenable in modern day America. On June 10th, HBO Max announced it was temporarily removing Gone With the Wind until the film could be prefaced by “a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement” of its ethnic and racial prejudices.” Such a discussion has now been added in the form of a four-minute featurette w...
Queen Latifah Wants ‘Gone with the Wind’ to be Gone Forever
While some have criticized HBO Max’s removal of Gone With the Wind from its streaming service — including those who wonder if it hurts the legacy of Hattie McDaniel, the first African American woman to win an Academy Award — Oscar nominee Queen Latifah says good riddance. “Let ‘Gone with the Wind’ be gone with the wind,” said the Emmy, Golden Globe and Grammy winner in an interview last week. Latifah, who portrays McDaniel in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix Hollywood series, says the story behind McDaniel’s Oscar win is not as shiny as the golden trophy. “They didn’t even let her in the theater until right before she got that award. Someone came outside and brought her into the auditorium. She wasn’t even allowed to sit in there. And then she had to read a speech that was written by a stud...
