HBO Max has removed the classic 1939 film “Gone With the Wind” from the platform amid heightened racial tensions in the U.S., saying the movie is a “product of its time” and “depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society.”
The Washington Times reports,
HBO Max said in a statement that when the movie does return, it will be “with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”
“If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history,” the statement said.
The move came after John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “12 Years a Slave,” wrote an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times saying the film glorifies the antebellum south in the U.S.
“It is 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,” he wrote.
