Original ‘Gone With The Wind’ script reveals secret ‘war’ over slavery, cut scenes

nypost.com:

HBO Max noting in a new disclaimer it “denies the horrors of slavery, as well as its legacies of racial inequality.”However, historian David Vincent Kimel is now revealing that several writers pushed for a more realistic depiction of race relations — only for their dark, disturbing and violent scenes to be cut from the finished product.

The Oscar-winning film is adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel, which follows the strong-willed Georgia belle Scarlett O’Hara.

Though it has sold more than 28 million copies, the tome has come under fire as “evil” for “perverting our national vision of slavery.”In 2020, Kimel paid $15,000 for an incredibly rare shooting script originally belonging to the movie’s casting director, Fred Schuessler.

Poring over its 301 pages, the Yale University PhD student discovered several scenes that didn’t make the film’s final cut. Through notes and revisions, he also uncovered the fierce debate between writers about how to portray race relations on screen. “I discovered that Schuessler’s Rainbow Script was a mosaic that actually represented the perspectives of numerous screenwriters,” Kimel wrote in an essay published by The Ankler on Tuesday. “Much of the excised material was a harsh portrayal of the mistreatment of the enslaved workers on [character] Scarlett’s plantation, including references to beatings, threats to throw [the black maid] ‘Mammy’ out of the plantation for not working hard enough, and other depictions of physical and emotional violence.”According to Kimel, powerhouse producer David O.