Oz - Information For Tourists. (The Wizard of Oz (DVD))

Member Name: Rumblefish

Product:	The Wizard of Oz (DVD)
Date:	12/04/01 (712 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty to see and do.

Disadvantages: Beware of witches, jitterbugs, guns, and suicidal munchkins.

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Whether or not you like THE WIZARD OF OZ, or even acknowledge its greatness, you have almost certainly seen it at least once at some point in your life, or at the very least know the story. It is embedded in the consciousness and culture of not just America, but the whole world. It has been referenced in music by figures as diverse as Elton John and Captain Beefheart, in television by everything from THE SIMPSONS to THE SOPRANOS. Salman Rushdie wrote a critical appreciation of it. Its dialogue and plot devices are acknowledged more than ever in films of today; such as when Joe Pantoliano warns Keanu Reeves in THE MATRIX to “buckle your seat, Dorothy, ‘cause Kansas is going bye-bye”, or when Michael Douglas in THE GAME talks of “pulling back the curtain. I want to meet the wizard.”

Its magic and wonder seemingly grow with every passing year, so much so that the film is now blessed/burdened with more myths and legends than almost every other Hollywood film put together. Yet this is a film over sixty years old, and one that only just recovered its budget on its original theatrical release.

If by some miracle you don’t know the premise, which is based on L.Frank Baum’s classic story, it is this. A young girl named Dorothy Gayle is swept up from her Kansas homestead by a tornado (or “twister”), which carries her (and her dog Toto) to the magical land of Oz. There she must seek out The Wizard of Oz, who can show her the way home, and also help the friends she makes in Oz - The Scarecrow, The Tin Man, and The Lion - who are in need of a brain, a heart, and courage respectively. However Dorothy and her friends are being pursued every step of the way by a malicious and strangely familiar individual known as The Wicked Witch of the West.

THE WIZARD OF OZ is stylistically unusual in sandwiching the glorious colou
r body of the film with black-and-white sequences. In fact the black-and-white portions were filmed by King Vidor, simply because Victor Fleming, who filmed the colour scenes, had hurried off to film GONE WITH THE WIND. But the technique works extraordinarily well, simply because the bland Kansas plains (which are sepia-toned in all modern versions of the film) contrast so sharply with the florid, psychedelic landscapes of Oz, where even the horses are lurid colours.

Although not thought of primarily as a musical, THE WIZARD OF OZ also contains many memorable songs. Most notable of these is probably ‘Over The Rainbow’, one of the most famous songs in cinematic history. It is also unusually miserable for a musical, with an air of faint desperation to it that for me makes it more interesting. In a similar way, ‘Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead!’ is a merry little number, but slightly alarming in its blissful callousness, and it is hard to imagine a family film of today featuring a song rejoicing in someone else’s unpleasant death, even a mortal enemy. THE WIZARD OF OZ also features music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Mussorgsky, and Herbert Stothart’s scoring (like ‘Over The Rainbow’) won an Oscar.

It is hard to imagine that THE WIZARD OF OZ would have quite the emotional impact it does were it not for the casting of Judy Garland as Dorothy, and the actress’s largely unhappy life and ultimately tragic death adds an extra dimension to Dorothy’s journey home. Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow), Jack Haley (the Tin Man), and Bert Lahr (the Lion) were all veterans of Vaudeville, and it is doubtful that their roles could have been filled any better. Frank Morgan makes a tremendous Wizard of Oz (even though the producers wanted W C Fields for the part!) and the silver screen has seen few nastier villains than Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West.

Aside from the wonderful sets, songs, an
d performances, THE WIZARD OF OZ is worthy of its classic status for the disarming simplicity of its underlying message. “There’s no place like home” is the truism at the heart of the film, and is emphasized with no pretence or irony whatsoever. Unlike most cinematic adventurers, who are hell-bent on nosing about everywhere they go, however dangerous, Dorothy has no sooner arrived in Oz than she wants to get back to her dull but familiar existence on a Kansas farm, and in fact the film’s emotional centre is not the Wizard and the land of Oz but Auntie Em and her Kansas farm. THE WIZARD OF OZ, superficially at least, is about nothing more complicated than wanting to go home to your loved ones.

Then again, it is easy to understand Dorothy’s desperation when, as some astute observers have pointed out, Oz is a truly terrifying place. For me, THE WIZARD OF OZ is half sentimental family film, half horror movie. The Wicked Witch of The West is not just wicked in a fairytale sense, but psychopathically evil, at one point threatening to drown Toto, then puzzling over the most enjoyable way to kill Dorothy. The Witch’s minions meanwhile, such as the flying blue monkeys and the chanting guards, exude an unpleasantly occult aura that sets them apart from the comic or inept sidekicks one might expect. Furthermore, the presence of a ‘Haunted Forest’ and Dorothy & co.’s drugged-up experience in the poppy field suggest that the land itself can be just as perilous to visitors as its inhabitants. Even the benign forces of Oz are less than reassuring, and any lengthy exposure to the extreme officiousness of the Munchkins or manic laughter of the residents of the Emerald City would quickly threaten the average individual’s sanity. It is a shame as far as I am concerned that the film does not fully convey one of the most gruesome parts of Baum’s book - the detailing of the Tin Man’s tale (the Wicked Witch p
ut a spell on him that made him gradually dismember himself, forcing him to then replace each body part, except his heart, with tin) - which again underlines what a candescently nightmarish land Oz really is.

Even if one’s interest in THE WIZARD OF OZ as a film is only slight, it will have a special place in the heart of many film buffs such as myself because of the vast amount of legend, rumour and mythology surrounding its background and production. Some of it is fact, much of it is dubious, and a lot of it is bizarre or macabre, but most of it is fascinating for fans of the film. The best and most famous of these are as follows:

* A reprise rendition of ‘Over The Rainbow’ was filmed, in which Dorothy, imprisoned in the Wicked Witch’s castle, dreams of being home in Kansas. Judy Garland and the crew all began crying in sadness, but the scene was cut.

* There was a ‘Jitter Bug’ scene shot in which Dorothy and her friends are attacked by a giant furry mosquito-like creature that gives its victims “the jitters” as it buzzes around (the Witch refers to the bug or “little insect” in the final film, sent ahead to “take the fight out of them”). This turned into a huge, costly production number…that was cut. Home movie footage of the scene and the ‘Jitter Bug’ song survive.

* Pink Floyd’s seminal album DARK SIDE OF THE MOON is alleged to work as a soundtrack when played parallel to the film. And it does…kind of. If you’re really interested in the details, look for an opinion on this in Dooyoo’s DSOTM category.

*The Munchkins are rumoured to have plagued the production and the other actors and actresses with drunken orgies and rude behaviour. Though this is probably untrue, you could understand them being fed up when Toto was getting over double their wages.

* Not unrelated to the above is the notorious an
d disturbing legend that one of the Munchkins committed suicide onscreen, and that the suicide (a hanging) is visible in the film today (which would of course make the greatest family film ever made technically also a snuff movie). For those not familiar with this bizarre piece of Hollywood mythology, the scene to watch for is soon after Dorothy and the Scarecrow have been joined by the Tin Man, and the three are dancing arm-in-arm up the Yellow Brick Road, singing ‘We’re off to see the Wizard…” Something strange is happening in the trees in the distance, visible in roughly the centre of the screen, and it does look eerily like a small man jumping off a branch with a rope around his neck and then swinging back and forth. However the chances of such an event making it to the theatrical print are, you would think, very slim indeed. On the other hand the lack of consistency or plausibility to the alternative explanations I’ve read (which include a giant bird, an animal handler, and an understudy scarecrow) makes me wonder…

* My own personal favourite is the question as to eventual destination of the Red Brick Road (which runs initially parallel to the Yellow Brick Road then goes off elsewhere). I’ve done some research into this, and apparently it leads to ‘Quadling Country’, which is referred to in Baum’s book, but never explored in the film (‘Follow the Red Brick Road’ possibly doesn’t have quite the same ring to it).

There are countless others curios concerning the film, such as the unknown meaning of the mysterious chant uttered by the Witch’s guards, the mathematical inaccuracy of the formula recited by the Scarecrow upon receiving his diploma from the Wizard, or (yet again rather disturbingly) the fact that at one point the Scarecrow is clearly seen to be armed with a pistol. And incidentally, if you see any pairs of Ruby Slippers used in the film (there were at
least five) going at a car boot sale, you might want to snap them up – the Slippers are the ‘Holy Grail’ of movie memorabilia and worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

THE WIZARD OF OZ is a timeless and enchanting film for kids and adults alike. But more than that it is strange and provocative and thoroughly unique. Even though the film is flawed, and much of its content quite troubling, it remains thoroughly entertaining however many times I watch it. I certainly wouldn’t want to live in Oz, but it’s a great place to visit.

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