Gone With The Wind Temporarily Removed From HBO Max: Understand The History & Controversy Around This Classic Film

‘Gone With The Wind’ considered to be a Hollywood classic, has been temporarily removed by streaming platform HBO Max from its library. This comes amid mass protests against racism and police brutality. The multiple Oscar-winning US Civil War epic released in 1939 remains the highest-grossing movie of all time adjusted for inflation, but its depiction of contented slaves & heroic slaveholders has garnered criticism. George Floyd died last month as a white Minneapolis officer pressed a knee into his neck for almost nine minutes. The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Starring Hollywood icons Vivien Leigh & Clark Gable, the 1939 film, has for long been considered controversial for its depiction of black people and its overt positive view of slavery. It was again under the microscope after 12 Years A Slave screenwriter John Ridley’s op-ed appeared in the Los Angeles Times on June 9. In the article titled “Hey, HBO, Gone With the Wind romanticizes the horrors of slavery. Take it off your platform for now”, the Oscar winner argued that the film had its “own unique problem”. The recently launched streamer from WarnerMedia said the film will eventually return, along with a discussion of its historical context. Paramount Network cancelled the long-running police reality show ‘Cops’ in the wake of protests against police brutality.