Classic Elmer Fudd

Have you heard?  Elmer Fudd has turned in his gun.  Now he’s going to carry a scythe when he hunts down that pesky wabbit, Bugs Bunny.

Never mind that a scythe is a lot scarier with its Grim Reaper connotations that Elmer’s old shotgun ever was.  Or, so it seems to me.  And, we are reassured, Yosemite Sam is being stripped of his gun, as well.  It’s all in the name of  a new stance on gun violence by Warner Bros.

The All New Elmer Fudd

But it is also pointed out that “cartoon violence” is still alive and well in the relaunch of the old classics.  There will be plenty of dynamite and explosives.  Even though the characters have been stripped of their wight to bear arms, I guess we can still be vewy vewy afraid!

And then there’s “Gone With The Wind.”  It’s being pulled from HBO Max “for a time” because, in its portrayal of the antebellum South and the Reconstruction Period, “the film romanticizes slavery as a benign and benevolent institution,” according to Jacqueline Stewart.  She is a University of Chicago professor of cinema studies and director of the nonprofit arts organization, Black Cinema House, and in September 2019, she became the first African-American host of Turner Classic Movies.

Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in Gone With The Wind

Stewart’s commentary, “Why we can’t turn away from Gone with the Wind” is well worth reading. Her thoughtful discussion of historical context, censorship, Black Performance,  and trenchant racism goes far beyond the film industry’s knee-jerk reaction and band aid approach to “fixing” issues rife in our culture.  Before forming your own opinion, I urge you to read hers: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/12/opinions/gone-with-the-wind-illuminates-white-supremacy-stewart/index.html. Then,  see “Gone With the Wind” one more time.