Anger over 'racially insensitive' Gone With The Wind screening axe in Memphis

A movie theatre in Memphis has axed an annual screening of ‘Gone With The Wind’, after complaints that it is racially insensitive, given recent events in the US.

However, its decision has already been slammed by some, who are branding the move ‘artistic suppression’.

The Orpheum Theatre has aired the movie as part of its summer season every year for the past 34, but reps for the cinema said that this year, following the unrest at a far-right rally in Charlottesville on August 12 which hit headlines around the world, it has received complaints over its screening.

As a result, the Orpheum has said it won’t show the movie next year.

“The recent screening of ‘Gone With the Wind’ at the Orpheum on Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, generated numerous comments,” said Brett Batterson, president of the Orpheum Theater Group, in a statement released to the New York Times.

“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.”

Some agree with the axe…

But it’s not gone down well with others, who have slated the proposal.

And while Hattie McDaniel did indeed win Best Supporting actress for her role, many critics have taken the 1939 film to task in retrospect, for its romanticised portrayal of America in the time of slavery and plantations.

However, it remains the highest-grossing movie of all time, when adjusted for inflation.

In today’s money, it would have made $3.4 billion at the box office.

Read more
Matt LeBlanc wants to retire
Scorsese for Joker origin story
Some Like It Hot names best comedy of all time