(A partial repeat of a post from 2015. This issue never seems to go away.)
True confession time: I have never thought much of the film personally, viewing it as a fairly standard Hollywood potboiler of the time, made epic by stars, Technicolor and a huge budget. Perhaps part of my dislike of the film is that I know too much about the period and when it rings false as to the time it purports to represent, my teeth go on edge. However, to ban it as some sort of avatar of the Confederacy is ludicrous.
The amusing part of this farce is that one of the major themes of the movie was how foolish it was for the South to fight a war with the North.
This theme is underlined by the scene showing a crowd in Atlanta getting the casualty lists of the battle of Gettysburg. The sorrow of the band director, who has just learned that his son has been killed, cries out from the screen as he has his band, largely made up of boys and old men, play Dixie, and the camera pans in on a fife player who is weeping.
The portrayal of blacks of course in Gone With the Wind now strikes most Americans as offensive, but Hattie McDaniel’s role as the strong willed Mammy won her an Oscar for best supporting actress in 1940. At the time there were some protests of the film by blacks, but far more blacks came out to see the film and appreciated the humanity and strength that Hattie McDaniel gave to a character who could easily have come across as a mere stereotype.
If we are now going to be judging Art by the sensibilities of twenty-first century Leftists, we will have precious little Art left to us, along with precious little History.
As you know, I’ve always been a fan of the film. But even if I wasn’t, I’m like you, and wouldn’t for a minute believe at this point it will stop with GWTW. In fact, I think the Left is just now getting started. And given the number who are falling into lockstep, including ones you wouldn’t have thought only a few years ago, I’m not seeing much resistance in the near future.
You don’t get it, Don. Once we get rid of all the problem art and history, we can then make NEW art and and NEW history! And it’s going to be better this time! How can I be remembered in the history books for writing the first story featuring a [person] of [description] if somebody else has already done it? Better to burn the past so I can get credit now for how stunning and brave I am.
/sjw_mode
They don’t admit it outright, but it’s hard not to wonder if this is the end goal.
This has absolutely nothing to do with popular demand, any more than does NASCAR banning confederate flags at its events. This is the professional-managerial class at war with everyone else.
AD, my son said this is a class war orchestrated by the upper class disguised as a race war.
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
George Orwell, 1984
Dave G., your son is a wise young man.
Perhaps on of the best sources about the social structures of the antebellum south is Eugene Genovese’s book “Roll Jordon Roll”.
The source for this book was the Federal Writers Project during the Great Depression that documented thousands of interviews from former slaves. It is a large detailed book but one of the best I have read about the antebellum south.
I noticed many details within the movie “Gone with the Wind” that I would have missed ifI had not read Genovese’s book first.
Thinking about all the uproar about monuments and the “need” to those deemed offensive – it occurs to me that since we are no longer interested in history, why is the a “Black History Month”?
Just wondering!
The BBC decided to ban “The Germans” episode of Fawlty Towers, despite it being the funniest thing that island has ever produced.
https://www.mail.com/int/news/uk/9970546-episode-uk-sitcom-fawlty-towers-pulled-racist-slur.html#.1258-stage-hero1-6
John Cleese called the decision stupid but sadly voiced his support for BLM. That’s how the vandals are able to make progress: the general public is always shocked by their vanguard but will cede to their slightly older, less extreme, demands.
Well, there goes “Going my Way”, the Bells of St. Mary’s” and all John Wayne films. None were very realistic, all were inspiring and enjoyable.