After being pulled from the streaming service, HBO Max has announced it will reintroduce Gone With The Wind, this time adding “multiple historical contexts.” Last week 12 Years A Slave screenwriter John Ridley wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, accusing the 1939 film of romanticizing slavery.
The film will now be prefaced with a message from Jacqueline Stewart, an African American film and media studies professor at the University of Chicago. In an op-ed for CNN Saturday, Stewart said, “I will provide an introduction placing the film in its multiple historical contexts. For me, this is an opportunity to think about what classic films can teach us.” Then later added, “Right now, people are turning to movies for racial re-education, and the top-selling books on Amazon are about anti-racism and racial inequality. If people are really doing their homework, we may be poised to have our most informed, honest, and productive national conversations yet about Black lives on screen and off.”
Gone With the Wind is the highest-grossing of all time when adjusted for inflation. It has pulled in more than $3.3 billion and won 10 Academy Awards, including best picture and best director. Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy, also won for best-supporting actress, becoming the first black woman to ever win the title. So far, neither Stewart nor HBO has confirmed an official date that the film will return to streaming.