That quote was part of a few memes I saw on “Fakebook” a while back that showed actor Jackie Gleason on the beach without a care in the world asking America that question given how not a day goes by it seems that people in this country are not pissed off about something.
It also brought to mind a comment a friend and former supervisor for a helpdesk I worked for over ten years ago said about the night shift I worked.
“This night shift sure does have a college major in bitching,” he said one night in complete disgust. Some of us on that night shift held a Masters Degree in bitching. For a country where we should be happy we are allowed to express our opinions about EVERYTHING, we sure are an angry, unhappy bunch of Negative Nancys.
I thought about those Jackie Gleason memes in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a police officer, whose name I will not mention, May 25, that turned the country upside down with violent protests against law enforcement and the removal of historical statues from Christopher Columbus to Frederick Douglass. These dregs and thugs of society know less than zero about the historical statues they vandalize and are clueless as to what will happen if police departments across the country are defunded, but that’s a subject for another blog in the coming weeks, if time allows.Then there’s how the entertainment industry stupidly caved into the pressure brought on by the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The country music group, Lady Antebellum, was so disheartened by the way their name referenced slavery since the band’s founding in 2006 that they decided to change their name to “Lady A” out of respect to the black community.
Episodes of long-standing comedies from "The Golden Girls" (1985-1992) and "Scrubs" (2001-2010) to "The Office" (2005-2013) and "30 Rock" (2006-2020) that featured characters in blackface were pulled from Amazon and Netflix’s streaming services. The reality police show "Cops" (1989-2020) and "Live PD" (2016-2020) were immediately canceled.
Even the LEGO company stuck their nose in the unnecessary controversy where it didn’t belong suspending their marketing of any plastic brick sets that included law enforcement figures along with the latest architecture set of the White House. I suppose the marketing decision makes sense given every socialist, anti-law enforcement, God---- America-hating liberal thinks the person leading the country in the oval office right now is also a racist, right? I suppose the fact I bought that new LEGO architecture set overseas on eBay since there is no telling when or if the set will ever be available here in the states also makes me a racist as well?
Then there was HBO Max’s decision to temporarily pull the 1939 Oscar winning Civil War epic, "Gone with the Wind", in early June from its streaming service, again, due to the film’s “racist” overtones concerning slavery as a means of political correctness. Just when I thought the film would never return to HBO Max in the future causing the price to buy the film on Blu-ray and DVD to skyrocket on Amazon and eBay, the picture was back on HBO Max’s streaming service before the end of June. This time, however, with a disclaimer and additional context at the beginning of the film.
"Watching "Gone with the Wind" can be uncomfortable, even painful. Still, it's important that classic Hollywood films are available to us in their original form for viewing and discussion,” said TCM host and University of Chicago cinema and media studies professor Jacqueline Stewart in a video preceding the film according to an article on CNN. “Watching such films can prompt viewers to reflect on their values, Hollywood history and what pop culture says about a previous era.”
Spare me your rhetoric BS telling me, “Uh...Joe…the 1970s was a different time. This is 2020!” I don’t have the time to listen to it and don't want to hear it! Would this blog of mine have become a reality if Floyd’s murder had not happened? F—k no! The only thing the country would be worried about is wondering if things will return to normal should the COVID-19 pandemic end. "Cops" and "Live PD" would still be on the air. Lady Antebellum would still be called Lady Antebellum.
LEGO sets featuring plastic figures of law enforcement would be stocked on store shelves. I would have been able to get that LEGO White House architecture set in early June, several episodes of long-running television series featuring characters in blackface would still be available to download and moreover, "Gone with the Wind" would not air on HBO Max with commentary warning viewers about the film’s depiction of slavery in the south during the Civil War.
Such rushes to judgment brought to mind a line William Hurt’s cynical drug dealing character, Nick, in "The Big Chill" (1983) annoyingly said to his college buddy, Sam (Tom Berenger), as they watched a late-night movie.The scenes I vaguely remember seeing besides the opening credits and the ending with that famous line Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler says that wound up in the annals of memorable movie quotes is where Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) throws a glass at the wall that wakes Butler up from a sound sleep on the couch. The other is following what I assume is the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War, O’Hara arrives at the remains of her southern plantation and kills an intruder shooting him the face. When O’Hara asks one of her “hired help” to help her remove the body, there is a shot showing a gob of blood on the floor. If I’m correct in that scene’s description I would think that clip would have been far more shocking to audiences who lined up outside theaters in 1939 to see the film than they were worried about how the south would be depicted when it came to slavery.
“You're so analytical. Sometimes you just have to let art flow over you.”
I did not once think about the film’s slavery issue watching a combined 30 minutes of "Gone with the Wind" back in the late 70s when it aired on network television. I just wanted to see the burning of Atlanta my 7th grade teacher spoke about in history class.
When I briefly watched the movie over thirty years ago though not in its four-hour entirety over the course of two nights, there was no such place as Blockbuster Video. Independent video store chains were still in their infancy. The Civil War epic didn’t even arrive on VHS on a double cassette until the late 80s when Blockbuster took over as the be-all, end-all “Roman Empire” of the video rental industry that sent the “little guy independent video store chains” packing.
Like those independent video store chains that, unlike Blockbuster, were not on the block of every corner, cable television stations that showed first-run movies, were also in their infancy and not all the suburbs had the service. If you had cable or owned a Beta or VHS video cassette recorder or a laserdisc player, you were considered in the eyes of your friends that you came from rich parents.
The airing of "Gone with the Wind" on network television was considered an event movie night for families and fell in that category of other “event” movies my parents allowed me to watch on a school night that included such classics as "The Alamo" (1960), "Airport" (1970), "Earthquake" (1974), "The Godfather" (1972), "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (1966), "The Hindenburg" (1975), "It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963), "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), "The Towering Inferno" (1974) and "West Side Story" (1961). Other than the dreaded three words shown at the bottom of a few of these titles that said, “edited for television”, the network that aired "Gone with the Wind" didn’t post the warning you see at the beginning of the film today on HBO Max. What the hell did viewers care about the sensitive subject matter? They just wanted to be entertained, damnit! So did I!There is no arguing that movies based on historically controversial sensitive issues like "Gone with the Wind" make for great starting points if you want to learn about the subject matter, but they are not the “gospels.” Complain all you want about how watching the Civil War epic makes you so uncomfortable that you are compelled to apologize to every African American you see on the street for how your white descendants treated them back in the 17 and 1800s before President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 that freed the slaves beginning in 1863.
The bottom line is the romantic drama, based on author Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel, is still just that; a four-hour “chick-flick” based on a work of fiction that just happens to incorporate history into the story which is still the author’s version of it, even if she did her research. If I want to read about slavery in the 1800s, I’ll buy a damn book!
So pardon me, on second thought, no I won’t! I’m not going to display a sudden change of heart and stand behind the “Black Lives Matter” and “Defund the Police” movements. For the record, it’s not “Black Lives Matter” it’s ALL LIVES MATTER INCLUDING THE LIVES OF POLICE OFFICERS! NOT EVERY POLICE OFFICER IS EVIL DESPITE WHAT EVERY ONE OF YOU THINKS!Such is the reason why I have semi-retired from reviewing movies. I was so transfixed worrying about meeting deadlines and what I was going to write about a film in a review that I forgot what it was like to actually ENJOY a movie. Those days are “history” now. These days I won’t even write a review of a film I hated and wasted three hours of my life on. If I did, you’d be reading my negative reviews of "The Hunt" (2019), Netflix’s "The Last Days of American Crime" (2020) and "The Osterman Weekend" (1983) on my blog.
When it comes to entertainment, people, myself especially, do not want to see politics incorporated into movies, music and sporting events. They don’t want to see overpaid athletes take a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner. They sure as hell don’t want to be lectured about slavery or any other controversial “hot bed” when watching a movie.
My attitude about "Gone with the Wind" today is the same attitude I got about everything else people can’t stop bitching about since Floyd’s death. I still laugh at the “blackface” episodes on "30 Rock" and don’t find them offensive. I still got Lady Antebellum’s songs, “I Run to You” (2009) and “Bartender” (2014) on my iTunes and still call them Lady Antebellum and not “Lady A.”
So if or when the time comes and my significant other, whoever that may be, if that even happens, asks me to choose some “chick-flick” for date night on a streaming service as we wait for the chicken wings to finish grilling while guzzling down pitchers of watermelon margaritas, and my five choices are either "Gone with the Wind", "Top Gun" (1986), "Ghost" (1990), "Titanic" (1997), or "Pearl Harbor" (2001) I’m going to choose "Gone with the Wind."
Not because of my hoping she and I can engage in an hour-long pissing contest about the “racist” overtones that lasts twice as long as the rage going in the country right now to pull episodes of long-standing comedies, and members of the “Hollyweird” elite like Tina Fey apologizing to African Americans in how she’s depicted them in episodes of "30 Rock."
The reason for my choosing "Gone with the Wind" that night, assuming my significant other hasn’t seen the movie, is in hopes we’ll both enjoy it and be entertained and as William Hurt’s character said in "The Big Chill", allow “art to flow” through us.
I hope, and hope she does as well, could care less about the controversial subject matter because unlike everyone else in this country who’s pissed off about everything and feels the need to show their displeasure on “Fakebook” as a means to make the rest of us miserable because they are so miserable themselves, I follow the words Rhett Butler said at the end of "Gone with the Wind."
“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!”
©7/8/20
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