As a time-old classic I'm expecting that everyone has heard of it, let alone seen it a million times when they were a child (no? Just me? Alrighty then, moving on!) For those of you who were clearly raised in the wilderness by either solitary religious monks and/or a family of slightly confused beavers, The Wizard of Oz follows Dorothy Gale (played by the magnificent Judy Garland), a young farm girl from Kansas as she, her little dog Toto and the family house get swept up by a tornado and deposited in the wonderful land of Oz, where witches exist, both good and bad, villages are dominated by tiny, singing, rosy cheeked "children" and nearly every inanimate object can talk. Yes, the author of the book that the movie is based on, Mr. Frank L. Baum, must have been smoking some seriously serious stuff when he sat down to write this.
And I'm glad that he did because without a doubt The Wizard of Oz is one of those movies that no matter how many times I watch it, I will still love it. Even after seeing, for the first time, the trapdoor that the wicked witch of the west climbs into when she's supposed to be transported away by her magic cloud of red, sulphur-smelling smoke, I'm still having trouble finding any faults. I guess that at times Dorothy's naivety and innocence that she portrays through countless exclamations of shock, awe and/or surprise does become a little annoying, but that just falls back to being a part of the acting of the time period.
The Wizard of Oz is a great film for portraying hidden symbolism. Hidden in the sense that children, the targeted audience of the film, are very unlikely to pick up on them. And that comes down to the overall tone of the movie being one of innocence. Occasions where a more adult theme shines through to be understood by adults are greatly ignored by a child audience. I'm talking about a scene like the one in the poppy field. Some might say that this was a reference to the use of opium or other drugs, but to a child it's merely the work of the wicked witch and her evil spell. It's really the basic themes that are the strong and most obvious ones. Good vs evil, dark vs light and of course, the main moral, "there's no place like home".
With the release next year of a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, titled Oz: The Great and Powerful starring James Franco as Oz, now is a good time to go out and grab a copy of the original film that started it all, to catch up or refresh your memory about the storyline and its characters.
A good film for children and those who are still a child at heart, The Wizard of Oz guarantees plenty of learning and fun times. Not to mention singing midgets, a cowardly lion who makes all sorts of bad 'dad' jokes, the most elaborate cotton-candy costumes, and I can't quite guarantee this, but there might even be some sexual innuendoes thrown in for all you really perverse people. Although, if you are going to see this solely because of that last reason, might I suggest you go watch a film called "Please see a therapist, I think you need some help".
Probably more your style.
Image available: http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-occult-roots-of-the-wizard-of-oz/
No comments:
Post a Comment