Anyone who would like to explain the difference between this and burning books, go ahead. Take it seriously. Don't give me, "One is a movie, there are no flames, etc." No. Take it seriously. If it's horrible for conservatives to burn books thought to be subversive because of left-wing themes or whatever, how is it any different that theaters are afraid to show Gone With the Wind:
The Orpheum Theatre Group has decided not to include Gone With the Wind in its 2018 Summer Movie Series.
While title selections for the series are typically made in the spring of each year, the Orpheum has made this determination early in response to specific inquiries from patrons.
The Orpheum appreciates feedback on its programming from all members of the Mid-South community. The recent screening of Gone With the Wind at the Orpheum on Friday, August 11, 2017 generated numerous comments. The Orpheum carefully reviewed all of them.
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.
The Orpheum looks forward to announcing an exciting movie series in the spring of 2018 that will, as always, contain both classic films and more recent blockbusters.
Gone With the Wind is historical fiction that reflects the period in which the story takes place
The sentence in bold is more astonishing to me every time I read it. Raise your hand if you've ever been told that the best art should challenge you, and at times make you uncomfortable. OK, you can all put your hands down. Either we no longer believe that, or we're admitting that what we meant all along was that only certain people should be challenged or made uncomfortable by quality art - while others need to be pandered to in every conceivable way.
Gone With the Wind is historical fiction that reflects the period in which the story takes place. That includes a heaping helping of race-focused atrocity, because that's the way things were, not only in the United States, but on Earth at the time. People often look back on the late 19th century as a time of moral degradation because of the fight over slavery, but it you really know your history you know that slavery in one form or another was a feature of human history almost since the dawn of time.
What the Civil War period and the year leading up to it really represented was the end of the era in which the world would still accept this. There was a hell of a final battle waged by the people determined to preserve the peculiar institution, but their defeat was inevitable.
Cinematically, Gone With the Wind is much more than a movie about this. But in addition to everything else it is, it is very much that, and it depicts the reality of the issue in all its ugliness. That's exactly what good art is supposed to do. If it makes you uncomfortable, good. It should. It's not all that happy a story, but it's one that needs to be told.
Support Canada Free Press
The radical left now seems determined to erase every vestige of history that it doesn't like
The radical left now seems determined to erase every vestige of history that it doesn't like. Statues have to come down. Classic movies must be banned. If any historical evidence survives of the attitudes of the past, the left apparently fears there is a chance they will rise to life again.
Or maybe it's not really all that deep. Maybe they're just trying to ban things because they've got the cultural upper hand at the moment, and so they can, so why not? This has always been about power for them, and the most efficient use of power is when you can scare everyone into doing things your way, rather than actually having to use the type of force available to you. If theaters are afraid to show Gone With the Wind because they fear the usual boycotts, protests, media denounciations and whatever else, then the left has won the battle without firing a shot - so to speak.
Fascists usually shoot a few people and control everyone else by fear.
Someone needs to stand up to these people, even if it means sitting through a four-hour movie.
