‘Gone With The Wind’ Removed From HBO Max After Black Lives Matter Protests

HBO Max recently removed Gone With the Wind from its streaming library. It appears the movie removal is temporary and that it will return to the streaming service at some point in the future.

Gone With the Wind came out in 1936 and won eight Academy Awards. The plot of the movie takes place during the American Civil War in the South and features portrayals of slavery.

A spokesperson from HBO Max said that the movie “is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have unfortunately, been commonplace in American society. These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.” 

The spokesperson continued and noted that the film will return to HBO Max “with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions.” 

John Ridley, the 12 Years a Slave screenwriter, has been involved in the conversation about moving Gone With the Wind off of HBO Max for a “respectful amount of time.”

“Let me be real clear: I don’t believe in censorship,” Ridley said. “I would just ask, after a respectful amount of time has passed, that the film be re-introduced to the HBO Max platform along with other films that give a more broad-based and complete picture of slavery and the Confederacy truly were.”