WIND OF CHANGE

HBO Max Temporarily Pulls ‘Gone With the Wind’ Because of Its Racist Depictions of Black People

The 1939 movie has long been criticized for downplaying the horrors of slavery.

One of President Trump’s favorite films, Gone With the Wind, has been pulled from HBO Max due to its racist depictions of black people. The streaming service said in a statement that the 1939 Oscar-winning epic would soon be back on the site, but alongside a disclaimer that denounces those depictions. The movie has long been criticized for downplaying the horrors of slavery—earlier this week, John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter for 12 Years a Slave, urged HBO Max to remove Gone With the Wind while widespread protests against racial discrimination continued to take place across the nation. HBO Max said in its statement that 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... These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.”