‘Gone with the Wind’ should go the way of the Confederate flag

Thought I'd share the latest target to be extrapolated from the Confederate flag-banning frenzy.
Liberal Hollywood is about to start eating it's babies.
OOooo...I hope we can all start having some good ol' fashioned book burnings soon.

I'll bring the marshmallows and we can all have S'mores.

If the Confederate flag is finally going to be consigned to museums as an ugly symbol of racism, what about the beloved film offering the most iconic glimpse of that flag in American culture?

I’m talking, of course, about “Gone with the Wind,’’ which won a then-record eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1939, and still ranks as the all-time North American box-office champ with $1.6 billion worth of tickets sold here when adjusted for inflation.

True, “Gone with the Wind’’ isn’t as blatantly and virulently racist as D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation,’’ which was considered one of the greatest American movies as late as the early 1960s, but is now rarely screened, even in museums.

The more subtle racism of “Gone with the Wind’’ is in some ways more insidious, going to great lengths to enshrine the myth that the Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery — an institution the film unabashedly romanticizes.

When I reviewed the graphically honest “12 Years a Slave’’ in 2013, I noted, “It will be impossible to ever look at ‘Gone with the Wind’ the same way.’’

Apparently someone at the motion picture academy — possibly president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who is African-American — agrees. “The Wizard of Oz’’ got a special 75th anniversary tribute at the same Oscar ceremony where “12 Years’’ won Best Picture. “Gone with the Wind,’’ which beat “The Wizard of Oz’’ for Best Picture, barely rated a mention during an Oscar segment on 1939 movies.

Based on a best seller by die-hard Southerner Margaret Mitchell, “Gone with the Wind’’ buys heavily into the idea that the Civil War was a noble lost cause and casts Yankees and Yankee sympathizers as the villains, both during the war and during Reconstruction.

Producer David O. Selznick, a liberal Jew, did temper Mitchell’s vision somewhat, banning the N-word but allowing a lot of references to “darkies.’’ There is no direct reference in the film to the Ku Klux Klan, but it’s still pretty clear that the unseen “political meeting’’ that Rhett and Ashley attend after the attack on Scarlett involves the activities of vigilantes in white sheets.

Warner Bros., which has owned “GWTW’’ since 1996, resisted any analysis of the film’s problematic racial politics until a 26-minute featurette was included with last year’s Blu-ray set. In it, black and white scholars discuss the film’s embrace of the view propagated by (mostly Southern) post-Civil War historians that slavery wasn’t such a bad thing.

FULL Article:
nypost.com...

a reply to: IAMTAT

Have to get rid of "Blazing Saddles" also!

a reply to: beezzer

Yup. AND Forrest Gump.

a reply to: IAMTAT

This is just a lie. "Apparently Cheryl Boone Isaacs agrees"? Can you link to a story where she agrees?

This is just another right-wing hit piece. NO ONE is calling for the movie to be relegated to museums, but the author of this piece.

In fact, no one is calling for the Confederate flag to be relegated to museums.

More hyperbole!

a reply to: beezzer

beat me to it, sammich? made these special just for you! Feel free to share!

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

I agree the guy is a moron...but he's a famous Hollywood film critic...so we all have to listen to him.
For my part: "Frankly, My Dear, I Don't Give A Damn"...for what he thinks. He's influential, no matter how ridiculous his view may be.

originally posted by: beezzer
a reply to: IAMTAT

Have to get rid of "Blazing Saddles" also!

They'll have to pry my DVD of 'BLAZING SADDLES' from my cold dead hand.

Good job on more fake outrage, cant have a day go by without people posting peoples opinion and saying its fact.

Thanks for your great job of fake outrage, as well.
And yet,..it's a real story, by a real liberal film critic in a real big newspaper...which real people really read. Go figure.
Crazy world.

Some people go beyond stupid. We need a new word to describe it.

a reply to: IAMTAT

So one guy has a stupid opinion and suddenly that is indicative of everyone?

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: IAMTAT

So one guy has a stupid opinion and suddenly that is indicative of everyone?

Why not?

One nut job kills nine people and it certainly does!

a reply to: Krazysh0t

That seems to be the way things in the press are presented these days.
Whether it's an abusive cop, a Christian baker...a bat-sh*t crazy racist kid...or even a liberal film critic.

a reply to: seeker1963

Uh not exactly the same thing buddy. Racism TOTALLY still exists in large swathes in the South. That fact is undeniable. Everyone in the South may not be racist, but you would be lying to yourself if you claimed that it wasn't still a problem (at least under the surface). Quoting one person's opinion about a piece of art doesn't mean that "they are coming to steal your movies"

a reply to: IAMTAT

No the media presents all those things VERY differently depending on which media outlet you are listening to.

I wonder if this person thinks that Roots should also follow suit? Let's get rid of all things that had to do with slavery hell lets just ban everything that has happened since last week because sensitive people and all.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: seeker1963

Quoting one person's opinion about a piece of art doesn't mean that "they are coming to steal your movies"

And yet, showing a photo from the Facebook page of some murdering racist idiot posing in front of a Confederate flag...leads to the banning of the stupid flag.
Yup...It's all so logical.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: seeker1963

Uh not exactly the same thing buddy. Racism TOTALLY still exists in large swathes in the South.

OK, this is something that needs to stop right about now. Racism exists EVERY-DAMN-WHERE. Don't for one second try to bull # me into thinking this is strictly a southern issue. That dog won't hunt.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Wow, this is a nice reply to the article.
(from the reply section)

Dear Mr Luminick, You truly do your profession a disservice. Critiquing a film for what is and for what is in the time it was made that doesn't live up to your modern liberal standards is, dare I say it, poppycock. Our past, humanities past, is not pretty. It does not hold rainbows and unicorns, nor, quite frankly, does our present day life, or more pointedly does out future - if you and people like you begin to destroy all of our poignant and riveting cinema (add that to literature, art…etc). A cliche you should post on your wall is "You can please some of the people some of the time, but you will never please all the people all of the time." Offensive and racist you say? I say not. Taking away the positive and negative aspects of history, in every context, leaves nothing for people to learn about, debate and move on from. A hundred years from now when our descendants, who will be hopefully wiser than us, stand together and burn copies or files that contain our present day "offense" material, will you turn in your grave sir? Probably, I wager. Until then pull up your big boy panties, take a drink and suck it up. Life is full of offensive and unpleasant things for us all - it all depends on how much space you give it in your head. Good day Sir.

Nice.

This is stupid, pure nonsense. There are plenty of movies with Nazi's and swatzikas and we're not clamoring to get rid of those. This is an inflammatory piece meant to play on the emotions of those that already feel that way yet read the article anyway to make themselves feel justified.

I'm going to make a new flag with a rainbow dixie cross with little pink swatikas instead of stars before all this is said and done.