Posted on 11/13/2004 11:12:00 AM PST by LouAvul
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Based on Margaret Mitchell's hugely popular novel, producer David O. Selznick's four-hour epic tale of the American South during slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction is the all-time box-office champion.
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Considering its financial success and critical acclaim, "Gone With the Wind" may be the most famous movie ever made.
It's also a lie.
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Along with D.W. Griffith's technically innovative but ethically reprehensible "The Birth of a Nation" (from 1915), which portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as heroic, "GWTW" presents a picture of the pre-Civil War South in which slavery is a noble institution and slaves are content with their status.
Furthermore, it puts forth an image of Reconstruction as one in which freed blacks, the occupying Union army, Southern "scalawags" and Northern "carpetbaggers" inflict great harm on the defeated South, which is saved - along with the honor of Southern womanhood - by the bravery of KKK-like vigilantes.
To his credit, Selznick did eliminate some of the most egregious racism in Mitchell's novel, including the frequent use of the N-word, and downplayed the role of the KKK, compared with "Birth of a Nation," by showing no hooded vigilantes.
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One can say that "GWTW" was a product of its times, when racial segregation was still the law of the South and a common practice in the North, and shouldn't be judged by today's political and moral standards. And it's true that most historical scholarship prior to the 1950s, like the movie, also portrayed slavery as a relatively benign institution and Reconstruction as unequivocally evil.
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Or as William L. Patterson of the Chicago Defender succinctly wrote: "('Gone With the Wind' is a) weapon of terror against black America."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacticket.com ...
1 - Article is one more example of demonRAT liberals trying to discredit their opponents, and explain away how they lost - "it's a cultural thing".
One would not receive many votes when one was not on the ballot.
I'm with you. I can't enjoy a movie knowing the stars are guilty of treason. I love this country and can't stand anyone publicly badmouthing it, especially a star with a wide audience that hangs on their every word.
Yup. The Wizard of Oz comes to mind.
GWTW is more accurate than any of the Oliver Stone films.
"Paging Mr. Stone. Paging Mr. Oliver Stone."
True! But that would have implicated black Africans for their part in the slave trade.
Not often mentioned is the fact that there were Black slave owners. There is also little emphasis on the fact that it was Black tribal kings who sold Blacks to the slave ship captains for re-sale in US auctions.
If you want to watch a really racist movie, go to Blockbuster and rent "Soul Plane." Just because it was written, directed and produced by Blacks does not excuse the ugly, vulgar and negative stereotypes of Blacks it portrays.
Reconstruction was a Republican policy. It was, in fact, the first attempt at restitution.
It was quickly replaced by Jim Crow, under the democrats. Both policies were extreme and destructive.
Vivian Leigh sure was a sultry wench.
Virginia--2 thousand
Delaware--4 thousand
Kentucky--1 thousand
Maryland--2 thousand
Missouri--17 thousand
For Delaware that represented about 25% of the vote (so Lincoln was about as popular as Kerry was in Utah in 2004); for Missouri the Republican vote was about 10% (of 165,000).
Lincoln got less than 1% of the vote in his native state. In 1864 he did better, getting almost 1/3 of the popular vote in Kentucky, but the total that year was the lowest since 1836 and less than 2/3 of the 1860 total--a lot of Kentuckians were either actively or passively showing their support for the other side in the conflict.
Even after the trans-Atlantic slave trade was suppressed, slavery continued in many places in Africa, and even the European colonial powers (in control of most of black Africa from the 1880s on) had a hard time ending slavery. Of course it hasn't been ended totally even today in at least a couple of the Islamic countries in Africa.
What does that matter? It's equally damning. What if Kerry had won and had not even bothered to put himself on the ballot in 11 contiguous states? Wouldn't those people feel even more disenfranchised than if he was on the ballot and they didn't vote for him? Imagine something other than slavery -- like water rights. Imagine Kerry's people all say they are planning on having the federal government take over all water production sources -- rivers, lakes, even home wells and plan on shutting down access to most of them in dry areas to "save the aquifers". Then Kerry runs for President and does not even bother to list himself on the ballot in 11 Western states and wins. Do you not think that would be a problem?
b-u-m-p
I hear you! My ancestors were also Irish, but we sure aren't getting any reparations from the British now are we? As far as the debate about the book goes, take a look at "Uncle Tom's Cabin" written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was a Yankee Abolitionist who never set foot on a plantation, yet the elitist Yankees up in New England took her rant as gospel. As for the rest of the "We Yankees are right, and you Southerners are wrong" crap, the whole root cause the war was fought was because the elitist Yankees couldn't keep their noses out of the South's internal business. Like it or not, that's the truth of it. So its like the liberals now days saying "We know whats best for you!" And you know what happens when liberals run out of facts, they make a movie.
In those days, a Black man in a coat and tie was assumed to be a preacher or an undertaker, and would be shown more respect by the whites than would a laborer.
And, yes, I know that there were Black bankers, insurance company executives, doctors and lawyers in the urban south of those days, but that probably wouldn't have come to mind in a less urbanized area.
I love "Song of the South" and have a copy I picked up in the UK (I can play it on a multiband VHS).
Although the time setting is somewhat ambiguous, it is not Antebellum. The word "slave" is never used; neither is the "N" word. Uncle Remus in fact prepares to leave the Aunt Sally's on his own - something he could not have doe as a slave.
It's a delightful movie with great songs, characters and pioneering live action/animation. In fact, Uncle Remus is the hero, with more sense than any of the white characters. Too bad Disney is so PC they would rather lose money by not selling the movie.
I agree, it is a good movie. But Disney would prefer that it didn't exist. I haven't seen the movie since I was a child, so I assume you are correct about it's ambiguity. Nevertheless, the stereotypes (real or imagined) terrify Hollywierd.
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