You cannot have a discussion about either the craft or the business of Hollywood filmmaking without talking about Gone With the Wind.  Based on a hugely popular novel, the film version lived up to the spectacle of the novel, romanticizing the ‘fighting spirit of the South.’

Uh huh.  You probably see why I picked this one.  Tale of the tape time…

Relevance:  One of the longest running gripes of black actors and audiences is when we do appear in mainstream TV shows and films, we’re often confined to the part of ‘one-dimensional sidekick’ to the main (white) character and their story arc.  Well, whether you believe that is paranoia by black audiences or consider it a valid point, I dare you to find a more prime example of this theory at work than in Gone With the Wind.  The beautiful (but shallow) Scarlett O’Hara and her main (full of common sense) slave, Mammy damn near set the standard for every interracial partnership seen on screen since.  I’m willing to hear counterarguments…

Legacy:  While Jaws set the standard for the modern day blockbuster, it pales to comparison of what Gone With the Wind was in its day.  Not quite 100 years after the Civil War, the film premiere in Atlanta was nothing short of a state holiday (look it up).  Many of the city’s black clergy decided to boycott the festivities as a sign of their displeasure with the film, but among those who went to the ‘afterparty’ (or whatever they were called in those days) was Rev. Martin Luther King.  And he took his son along.  You may have heard of him.

Craft:  Over 50 years old, the film is undeniably one of the most grand and beautiful shot for the big screen.  The story of the spectacle itself has had books dedicated to it; no need for me to rehash the numerous rewrites and casting decisions and other mini-dramas that went into getting this film made.

Crossover:  Hattie McDaniel (who I just learned is a native Kansan like myself) is the first African-American to win an Academy Award. For playing Mammy.   That’s in the record books forever.

Apollo:  “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies!”  My teeth clenched up just typing that; like many other black folk, that line was symbolic of the constant ‘guarded appreciation’ we have for great American works that don’t paint us in the best of lights.  Gone With the Wind wasn’t the first; I know good and well it won’t be the last…

The film countdown continues later with a film from the era that tried to correct the black stereotypes…