A 'Gone with the Wind' anecdote -- Discuss with Steph and Toby

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Date Posted: 17:23:41 02/29/04 Sun
Author: Toby
Subject: A 'Gone with the Wind' anecdote
In reply to: Steph 's message, "Damn" on 16:06:04 02/29/04 Sun

When 'Gone with the Wind' the [re-adjusted for inflation] largest grossing film of all time was released in 1939, it caused an extraordinary stir because of the line by Rhett Butler, to Scarlett O'Hara, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn'. In fact, the censors made the company re-film the scene, with the emphasis on the 'give' rather than the 'damn', so that the offending word would be less clear.

Of course, there were no ratings at that time, so it was a bit of a cultural taboo, and afterwards 'damn' entirely lost its power to shock.

I imagine it vaguely along the lines of if Shrek 2 suddenly had Donkey calling someone a fucking cunt, and then it got a PG rating or something. The words would start to become less socially shocking, just as some gentler swaer words used to be considered unspeakable by anyone, and are now generally accepted even for children.

This somewhat off the wall history lesson brought to you by MGM.

TCH

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