‘Gone With the Wind’ at 75: Masterpiece or historical mess?

As its 75th anniversary approaches, “Gone With the Wind” is again being celebrated as a timeless movie classic. But now, even the film’s distributor acknowledges the Civil War epic’s portrayal of slavery is dated and inaccurate. 

“Gone With the Wind” will be screened in 650 theaters nationwide (locally, at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday at Cinemark and most AMC theaters), broadcast at 9 p.m. Monday by Turner Classic Movies and reissued Tuesday in a lavish home-video box set, including a music box, an embroidered handkerchief and more than eight hours of bonus features. 

To produce something new for yet another “GWTW” box set, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment brought in filmmaker and historian Gary Leva. “There’s been a ton of stuff about the making of the film,” Leva recalls the studio telling him. “Can you give us a deeper look at how the movie portrays the Civil War?”