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Status:
"“If a thing loves, it is infinite.”"
(set 2 days ago)
Location: Great Britain
27,175 posts, read 13,455,286 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by d4g4m
The board at the Orpheum Theater Memphis TN that selects what classic movies to show has decided to cancel a showing of 'Gone with the wind'. A spokesperson stated that 'the movie is insensitive to a large segment of the community'.
A 78 year old movie, viewed by hundreds of millions of people, that has become a super classic of the movie industry is now being judged by a few people as being insensitive to some viewers. The PC crowd has gone totally stupid.
Honestly, this is a tough one for me. I've read the book, more than once, and there were things I enjoyed about it. Some of the characters and relationships are very well-developed, and the attention to detail is amazing. I'm also horrified by it, because the black characters are incredibly one-dimensional, all portrayed either as faithful, loving slaves, happy with their role in society, or as vicious outlaws who are simply panting for an opportunity to rape white women. It doesn't treat poor white people very well, either, and overall, it romanticizes a horrible chapter in our history. Let's just say that I have kind of a love/hate relationship with the book.
Now, the movie. Yeah, it's visually striking, but that's about it. It's shallow, compared to the book, and its treatment of black characters is possibly even worse.
I don't think it should be censored, but then again, that theater is a private enterprise, and if they decided it was unwise to show it, that is their decision. I don't believe in suppressing art, even art that may shock or offend, but I can also understand why they may have decided that this movie, at this moment, may not have gone over very well.
*Note: since I have already admitted to having read this book, Rhett was never in the Klan. He considered it foolish and counterproductive.
This is my take on it exactly. You summed it up nicely.
I think the book is very well written and the movie is visually striking (and the lead characters seem perfectly cast). But I find it pretty damn racist, and I'm a white southerner.
About 1998 a place near me canceled Westside Story because it might have offended somebody. Tickets were already sold too.
I was disgusted and glad to be moving away. This nonsense is nothing new and I am a liberal (not FAR left) Democrat. These things are done by crazy people censoring things, self appointed "experts" telling us what we can say and do, thinking they need to make our decisions for us. It's got to stop--but this is not anything new.
But the problem is most of us Independents, and also republicans don't distinguish this as NOT being the policy of the democrat party because your leaders never stand up to or speak out about the political correctness idiocy their constituents (and by association the D leaders) constantly put us through.
Maybe in the future an algorithm will decide what's acceptable viewing or reading vs. what contains dangerous ideas modern devolved humans can't handle. Maybe AI can be put to work rewriting certain literature. Perhaps one day even moving pictures can be sanitized by sophisticated deep-learning systems.
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This reminds me a little of conversations I had when I was doing stage crew for a summer production of Oklahoma! (1993 -- its fiftieth anniversary). My girlfriend (whom I met there), even though she was working on the show too, pointed out all the offensive, outdated stuff in the script / songs, and argued it should never have been chosen and shouldn't be shown. I don't really remember if she advocated gov't force in doing so or not (in some respects that's irrelevant).
But I remember pointing out that people could enjoy it as Americana even with these parts -- give them credit, if you figured it out so would they, right? No. She thought most of the potential audience was simply too dumb to apprehend the nuances, therefore people like her should be empowered to decide what the hoi polloi could be exposed to.
It was pretty elitist, but she had nice eyes and nicer thighs.
Maybe in the future an algorithm will decide what's acceptable viewing or reading vs. what contains dangerous ideas modern devolved humans can't handle. Maybe AI can be put to work rewriting certain literature. Perhaps one day even moving pictures can be sanitized by sophisticated deep-learning systems.
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This reminds me a little of conversations I had when I was doing stage crew for a summer production of Oklahoma! (1993 -- its fiftieth anniversary). My girlfriend (whom I met there), even though she was working on the show too, pointed out all the offensive, outdated stuff in the script / songs, and argued it should never have been chosen and shouldn't be shown. I don't really remember if she advocated gov't force in doing so or not (in some respects that's irrelevant).
But I remember pointing out that people could enjoy it as Americana even with the these parts -- give them credit, if you figured it out so would they, right? No. She thought most of the potential audience was simply too dumb to apprehend the nuances, therefore people like her should be empowered to decide what the hoi polloi could be exposed to.
It was pretty elitist, but she had nice eyes and nicer thighs.
What a lovely story.
Nonetheless, the Orpheum Theater in Memphis gets to decide which movies will appeal to their audience and apparently they've decided to nix Gone With the Wind.
Who cares, and if someone wants to see it, it is very easy to get. Sure it was made in 1939 and things were not as politically correct then as today. In that era blacks could not get a major leading role.
Nonetheless, the Orpheum Theater in Memphis gets to decide which movies will appeal to their audience and apparently they've decided to nix Gone With the Wind.
Yes, because the audience wouldn't be able to handle it. At some point they chose the movie, and then at a later point "the audience is too ______ so we can't show the movie." I understand the facts. I understand "private company." We're allowed to criticize the action nonetheless, and to consider it against a backdrop of other experiences or current worrisome trends.
I was never a big fan of that movie. Scarlet was sociopathic and if she were around today would no doubt be head of the DNC. Butler was ruthless and he'd be one of the Hollywood elite with his misogyny.
The ONLY person in that entire movie that wasn't self centered and conniving or an idiot was Mammy. How a woman of her character got stuck with those losers was the real tragedy.
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