Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in a scene from 1939’s ‘Gone With the Wind.’
Photo: Turner Classic Movies/Associated Press“Gone with the Wind” was pulled from HBO Max while the long-running TV show “Cops” was outright canceled, a sign that entertainment companies are reexamining the content they offer in the wake of nationwide protests for racial justice and against police brutality.
Considered a classic of American cinema and winner of eight competitive Academy Awards, including best picture, the 1939 film starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel tells the story of southern belle Scarlett O’Hara and her love affair with Rhett Butler. Much of the four-hour film is set on the O’Hara plantation, Tara, and in Atlanta during and after the Civil War.
HBO Max parent AT&T Inc.’s move came amid growing concerns about racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd, a black man, while being arrested by a white Minneapolis police officer.
The arrest of Mr. Floyd, who was heard uttering “I can’t breathe” while the officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes, was caught on video and has led to nationwide outrage over police brutality with protests continuing throughout the U.S. for two weeks.
The killing has also started to shine a light on cultural insensitivity and race relations which is now hitting the entertainment industry.
On Tuesday, the long-running show “Cops,” a reality program which showed the police in a very favorable light, was canceled by the Paramount Network. Another pro-police reality show, “Live PD” has been pulled from the schedule of the A&E Network, which said it doesn’t know when the program will return.
“Gone With the Wind,” with its portrayal of happy slaves, has long been a lightning rod and criticized for its romanticism of slavery and that era of American history. Ms. McDaniel won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role as Mammy, a house slave, becoming the first black actor to win an Academy Award.
On Monday, John Ridley, who won an Oscar for the adapted screenplay for the movie “12 Years a Slave,” a brutal look at slavery in the U.S., wrote an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times calling for “Gone With the Wind” to be taken off HBO Max.
“It is a film that glorifies the antebellum south. It is a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color.” Mr. Ridley wrote. The film, he said, perpetuates “the racism that’s causing angry and grieving Americans to take to the streets.”
“Gone With the Wind” may return to the platform down the road but with an explanation or note attached to it explaining its history and controversies, which was how the movie was presented on the Turner Classic movie channel.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com
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