Credit: Everett Collection/Rex Feature

The controversial classic has been temporarily delisted from HBO Max.

1939’s Gone with the Wind is often regarded as a cinematic classic, or at least it is by those who can sit through all four hours of it. It’s a story of whirlwind romance set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, and it has found many a place on “Greatest Films of All Time” lists. It is also, however, a deeply controversial film due to its depictions of slavery and African Americans. In the current social climate caused by the police brutality protests, HBO Max decided it would be best to temporarily pull the film from its catalog.

A spokesperson from the streaming service said that Gone with the Wind is “a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society.” They went on to say that “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 clarified that the removal is only temporary, but when the film returns, it “will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions,” and will be presented “as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”

HBO Max’s actions come on the heels of a fiery op-ed by 12 Days a Slave screenwriter John Ridley in the Los Angeles Times calling for exactly this. “It is a film that glorifies the antebellum south. It is a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color,” Ridley wrote. “The movie had the very best talents in Hollywood at that time working together to sentimentalize a history that never was.”

Some Hollywood personalities have decried the removal as an act of censorship. Megyn Kelly wrote on her Twitter, “Are we going to pull all of the movies in which women are treated as sex objects too? Guess how many films we’ll have left? Where does this end?”

Ok @hbomax – let’s do this – every episode of “Friends” needs to go right now. If not, you hate women (& LGBTQ ppl,
who also don’t fare well on “Friends”). Obviously Game of Thrones has to go right now. Anything by John Hughes … Woody Allen… could go on & on… & on…& on… https://t.co/dVXWssnFKF

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) June 10, 2020

HBO Max has not yet given a date for the film’s return.