‘Gone With the Wind’ Back on HBO Max
By George Robbins
There has been a lot of attention on the movie industry as of late for a number of different reasons. One reason is the fact that many movies have had no choice but to either release straight to VOD or they have had to push back release dates to a better time period. After a spike in coronavirus cases, many movies that were meant to release later this year have had no choice but to be pushed even further back with many being pushed to some time in 2021. There are still a few films that are keeping close to their original releases like ‘Tenet,’ but the vast majority are being moved back in an attempt to find a better release window. The other reason that eyes have been locked onto the industry is because of the Black Lives Matter movement.
One of the points that has been brought to attention because of the movement is the treatment of black men and women in the movie industry throughout the years. A major point against Hollywood is the lack of any real diversity in many of the movies that are made and the treatment of the characters that were cast with black actors. The truth is that there are not many leading roles in Hollywood that have actors that aren’t white in leading roles. There have been a few attempts over the years to try and change this, to make at least some movies that have diversity, but not enough of them. This point of attention was one of the loudest points made by black actors that are already in the industry and people that are on the actors’ sides.
Another big point of contention are the portrayals that black actors have had to go through over the years in older films. This is one of the much more controversial topics that has been covered and has raised the question as to whether history should be remembered or not. The simple answer is that it should be remembered, but not necessarily memorialized in any type of way like people have tried to do. History is meant to be there as a reminder to people not to make the same mistakes that our ancestors did and to try and make the world better than it was yesterday. It also shows us how we got to where we are now and this is all important for moving forward. One of the ways it is trying to be forgotten involves the horrible history of Hollywood, but also our own nation.
‘Gone With the Wind‘ is one of the longest feature length movies that has ever been made and released theatrically and it holds a lot of cultural significance. It was up on HBO’s new streaming service HBO Max, but was taken down after people petitioned to have it removed due to the portrayals in the film. While black people in the film were treated horribly, it is also a film which takes place during the Civil War when slavery was still prominent. The portrayal of this terrible period in our nation’s history was just a way for Hollywood to make a film based on a literary classic, but it is something that left a mark on Hollywood all of these years. So now that the film is being put back up on HBO Max, there will be a four minute long introduction at the front-end of the movie to explain all of this and why it is important that it stays available.