Gone With the Wind -1940 Oscars' worst year

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 Gone With the Wind (1939 US) Its #WTFWednesday and todays entry is this oh so troubled film. 1940 was a very difficult year for the Academy. Its like a bad gift that they cant get rid of no matter how hard they try. Was this epic David O Selznick production so well done? Sure. Was Vivian Leigh delicious as a Plantation Princess caught in the civil war? Sure. Does it all go away the minute you think just a little bit about the racial problems? Absolutely! Once you do you can't unsee it. I could go on for days about how problematic it was. Not only was this picture in the mix but so was Wizard of Oz. With some of the allegations about the treatment of the young Judy Garland both of these films are now almost completely unwatchable. Context is King-Lorca on Star Trek Discovery. That context just paints these films with a poopoo encrusted brush. To make it worse Hattie McDaniel, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Mammie, had to get special permission to attend the awards because it was "Whites Only". She got it but had to enter through a back door and was seated way in the back. She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and then left through the back door again. I really don't think the Academy can truly put the 12th Academy Awards behind them until....Well I will leave that to experts to say what they need to do. I will say though they haven't moved past that epically bad awards show. BTW the award that McDaniel won. which was a plaque back then, is missing. She donated it to a college but they lost it. HBO has this film but with a context blurb. I do encourage my audience to watch it but with the proper context in mind especially if you haven't seen it or its been awhile. 

Here is an interesting article on the on set struggle of depicting slavery https://people.com/movies/original-gone-with-the-wind-shooting-script-depiction-of-slavery/


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