Unlike Rhett Butler, many people do give a damn.
And because they do have strong feelings about a film that depicts the slave state of the “Old South” as “a pretty world” where “Gallantry took its last bow,” the 1939 Hollywood epic “Gone With the Wind” will not screen during next year’s “Summer Movie Series” at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Memphis, theater officials announced Friday.
“As an organization whose stated mission is to ‘entertain, educate and enlighten the communities it serves,’ the Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of its local population,” Brett Batterson, president of the Orpheum Theatre Group, said in a statement.
GONE WITH THE WIND: Taking stock of a controversial classic
In other words, this year's Aug. 11 screening of "Gone with the Wind" at the Orpheum may have been the movie's last appearance at the historic Downtown theater.
The ouster marks the end of what was essentially a 34-year tradition at the Orpheum.
For many of those years, "Gone with the Wind" was presented as a highlight of the theater's popular movie series, dedicated to recent favorites and Hollywood classics.
The MGM release was sometimes shown more than once a year, and was often accompanied by hoopla and displays of memorabilia. In 1999, for example, the Orpheum screened "Gone with the Wind" four times during a single week in June, accompanied by appearances by actor Fred Crane, who played one of the Tarleton twins in the film.
A sensation at the time of its release, the 238-minute Technicolor "Gone with the Wind" set production budget, ticket-sale and Academy Award records (its eight Oscars included a Best Supporting Actress honor for Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African-American Academy Award-winner). With ticket prices adjusted for inflation, the movie remains the all-time box-office champion, above "Star Wars."
Long accepted as a Hollywood classic and much admired for the performances of Vivien Leigh as Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable as the roguish Rhett Butler, the film has attracted increasing skepticism in recent years for its contributions to "Lost Cause" mythmaking and its stereotypical depiction of happy and often comical "darkie" slaves (most notably, Butterfly McQueen's "Prissy"). At one point, the supposedly noble Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), witnessing the cruel treatment of some unpaid prison-farm workers, says of his plantation's slaves: "We didn't treat them that way."
Even in 1939, producers were aware that the racial content of the film — adapted from Margaret Mitchell's best-seller — might offend some viewers. Producer David O. Selznick was in correspondence with NAACP officials, and made some attempts to soften the racial imagery. (For example, in the novel the stranger who attempts to assault Scarlett is black.)
In an interview, Batterson said the decision to discontinue screening "Gone with the Wind" was made “before Charlottesville” and the ensuing debate over Confederate symbols and monuments.
“This is something that’s been questioned every year, but the social media storm this year really brought it home,” said Batterson, referring to online complaints about “Gone With the Wind,” which sparked much “feedback” about the film, pro and con.
According to the statement released by the theater, the Aug. 11 screening “generated numerous comments. The Orpheum carefully reviewed all of them.”
“This is about the Orpheum wanting to be inclusive and welcoming to all of Memphis,” Batterson said.
He said "Gone with the Wind" attracted about 1,300 patrons, a "good" showing but far from the turnout that accompanied the film in the past. The film's popularity "has leveled off," he said.
