In 1939 David O Selznick produced a film of Margaret Mitchell s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gone with the Wind The movie proved to be among the most important in the history of world cinema To this day in fact it remains the American box office champion

While the reading passage emphasizes the idea that racism in “Gone With the Wind” has tarnished the film’s reputation, the lecture suggests that this trend is unfair, and the film is actually being misrepresented by many critics. According to the lecturer, although “Gone With the Wind” is from the perspective of white Southerners, the South is never overly romanticized in the film. In fact, they are criticized for going to war. Their civilization is also critiqued for its treatment of women, who actually gain opportunities after the Civil War. This stands in contrast to the emphasis in the reading passage on the idea that “Gone With the Wind”glorified the South, portraying the days of slavery as a golden age. In the reading passage, the character of Mammy is used as an example of the screenwriters’ lack of development of black characters. After all, she does not even have a first name in the script. The lecturer, however, points out that the character is actually among the wisest and most complex in the entire film. Hattie McDaniel portrayed a character who was unafraid to speak her mind. She won an Academy Award for her role, making history as the first African American to win that honor. Finally, the author of the reading passage and the lecturer also disagree about the role of Prissy. According to the passage, Prissy is a dimwitted personality whose presence on screen embarrassed certain viewers. The lecturer, however, suggests that the character is actually rebellious. She is disobedient toward her owner. He suggests that some critics might have been misled by the character’s comedic high pitched voice into overlooking her complexity.