The Wizard of Oz

I have a theory that this movie has probably been seen by more people than any other movie. The fact that it comes to us as children is probably the reason why. Other films like 'Gone With the Wind', 'Citizen Kane', 'The Godfather', 'Star Wars', have been seen by a lot of people but in each case I can imagine people that might not have seen them. In the case of 'The Wizard of Oz' it's hard to imagine anyone who might not have seen it at some point in their lives. Almost everyone you talk to has a memory of their first experience. The reason this movie remains the most beloved of Hollywood films even after six decades is because 'The Wizard of Oz' is unique among motion pictures in that it mirrors our longings and imaginations as children.

The movie, in front of and behind the scenes, has become movie folklore. We love the legends about the rotating directors, from George Cukor to King Vidor to Victor Fleming. We know the legend of Buddy Ebsen who had to drop out due to an allergic reaction to the Tin Man makeup and Margaret Hamilton whose dress caught fire and nearly had her face burned off because of the copper-based make-up. We love stories about the problems on the set between personal feuds, sweltering costumes, partying munchkins and the costume designer who had to keep up with Judy Garland's developing bust line. There's even a spurious legend of a ghost on the set. All of these elements make 'The Wizard of Oz' a much bigger legend than it already it, but that's okay because this is the one movie that deserves to be over-hyped. It occupies such a large part of our memories that we want to make it more than it is, to just have one more reason to make it more than a movie, we want it to be a life experience.

That experience is brought to us because we are intimately familiar with its story elements. The dreams that Dorothy sings about and the adventure that follows seem to mirror our yearnings as children. She imagines a bigger place where her problems don't linger and she is free to explore them. She imagines a place where there isn't any trouble and people actually listen to what she has to say. She sees the rainbow as her golden gate to a better place because in her drab Kansas world, the rainbow is the only source of color that she knows. She dreams of a bigger place and imagines a world where troubles melt like lemondrops. We can relate. How many of us as kids sat in our room or in our yards and played, imagining a place to go and characters to interact with, a colorful world bigger than our small, confined worlds.

Oz is meant to represent the colorful palette of our imagination but for Dorothy it is also a place where she does some growing up. The three friends that she meets along the way, The Scarecrow, The Tin Man and The Lion are emblematic of the lessons of bravery, love and devotion and the ability to think for ourselves. The Wicked Witch of the West certainly represents the real dangers along the way. For Dorothy there is a matronly figure, Glinda the Good Witch who intends for Dorothy to discover for herself how to solve her problems, she knows that Dorothy must grow up along the way. In a way, she seems to represent the parent that Dorothy doesn't have back in Kansas. Her aunt and uncle love her but this was a movie made during the depression and we imagine the climate that they live in, where work means keeping the farm. No work = no farm = no home.

For 1939, Dorothy was the perfect character for young girls. She echoes many of the small town country girls who, in the midst of the depression, packed their suitcases and ran to Hollywood seeking fame and fortune in the movies. For them this film is a cautionary tale that they'd be better off if they just stayed home. Judy Garland was perfect in the role, 17 at the time, but with wide-eyes and a beautiful, open face she carries that sense of wonderment of a child. Like most of us as children, her only true companion is a dog named Toto and the most frightening moment in the film is when she is nearly robbed of her best friend. When she sings 'Over the Rainbow' we know that it's to escape an unhappy childhood (she has apparently lost her parents) and for Garland we identify. She began in show business as a kiddie act with her sisters and began her long movie career when she was only 13. She was already a familiar face from 'Love Finds Andy Hardy' and by the time of 'Oz' she was already under contract to MGM. That she was familiar to audiences helped her in the role. That familiarity works well with her ability to project the vulnerability and melancholy that the character has to have. We have to believe that she will become frightened and that her life will be in danger because if she doesn't that we sense that the character can work her way out of the situation herself and our interest wanes.

If movies are a time capsule than 'The Wizard of Oz' wonderfully captures a brief moment of happiness in Garland's life. We know of her problems with studio execs that put her through an exhausting schedule and used drugs to get her going in the morning then put her to sleep at night. We know the legends of her mental and physical problems that dogged her most of her life but 'The Wizard of Oz' sees her at a moment in her life when it all seemed perfect, just as her star was rising and before her problems really began. There's poignancy in that, and that's why I think that the casting of Shirley Temple in the role would have been a mistake. By 1939, Temple was the biggest star in the world her presence in the film would have been too much, she would have stood out and we would only seen Shirley Temple, not Dorothy Gale.

Garland's presence allows the story a certain credibility. I have tried to imagine that famous dance down the Yellow Brick Road with a 4 foot child and it just doesn't fit.

If Garland gives the film its center than I think the production design, awe-inspiring in 1939, is the perfect backdrop. In these early musicals filmed on a soundstage it isn't hard to spot where the soundstage ends. Some have seen that as a flaw but I think it adds to the dreamlike quality of the film. The matte paintings behind the sets add to the storybook quality. The fact that we're in a dream makes it okay that the special effects look a little hasty. That was the genius of the screenplay, that and to establish the Oz characters as characters that Dorothy meets in Kansas. In our dreams we often see people and events that have recently occurred in our lives, but this is the first time I've ever seen it expressed in a movie. In particular is the notion that Professor Marvel keeps showing up as various characters in the dream.

What generosity the filmmakers had. What ingenuity to create this entire world that is colorful and beautiful and scary. What depth of character they created. What messages they send. This is a movie constructed with loving care. We're told that those who worked on the film just thought of this as just another movie, but when I watch the film I find that hard to believe. Certainly from the screenwriters. I wonder if they saw how brilliantly they were tapping our frustrations and our excitement, our dreams, our need and our sense of wonderment. I wonder if they knew the impact of what they were working on, that the lovely sentiments that they created would still resonate 60 years later. I wonder if they knew that their heart's desires weren't that far from our own.

The NBC Peacock began unfolding its wings. "The following program is brought to you in living color--with portions in black & white--on NBC." That exclusive intro began my exposure to color television at Grandma's in 1968. When Dorothy stepped out into Technicolor, I'll bet my eyes just popped.

This is the Movie of All Time, folks--a status achieved during its long run as a huge annual TV event during that classic era whose programs now show up on TV Land network. In the 1970s, Peter Marshall once read the answer on Hollywood Squares as to the program seen more times by more people than anything else ever shown on television. It was "Oz." Likewise, no movie has the hold on popular culture that this one does. What lion character ever since (i.e., Snagglepuss) hasn't been an impersonation of Bert Lahr going, "Put 'em up, put 'em uuuuup!"

Few musicals offer an equal combination of lovable music and engaging story. Perhaps "The Sound of Music." Hard to think of many Hollywood musicals where the story gets as serious as it does here when the Witch informs Dorothy that, "The last to go will see the first three go before her...and her mangy little dog too!" Yikes! In contrast, even the best of other Hollywood musicals seem to serve up fluffy, forgettable story lines that are mere backdrop to the song numbers that typically put the plot on hold.

I can't say that "Oz" doesn't have technical flaws or story element inconsistencies. It's just that the astonishing production values all around so overwhelm the shortcomings. The tornado sequence is a 1939 special effects tour de force--incredible. And the Nutcracker-quality musical score offers songs tastefully interwoven with the action. Certain numbers like "Merry Old Land of Oz," I never get tired off, though I like each of the songs.

Oz should be viewed in the lightness of spirit that it deserves. I mean look, we have Frank Morgan as the Emerald City gatekeeper, then seconds later as the cabbie with the Horse of a Different Color, then the Wizard's palace guard, and then the voice of fire-and-smoke Wizard of Oz who bellows, "Step forward, Tin Man!" What other film could put an actor go through 4 quick-changes within 10 minutes to such an endearing result? "Oz" is as magic as those sparkling ruby shoes.

The early Technicolor process utilized triple nitrate negative strips--separately recording each primary color in light. This was done due to the lack of a suitable "color film" in 1939. That would quickly change--but films from years following suffered from hues that faded with the years, even original negatives. Because "Oz" was actually filmed on a black-and-white base film, the negatives never faded. So now we have home videos/DVDs of breathtaking color quality. Now, the tinted filters in the cameras that separated the colors onto the negative strips meant that intense illumination was required, rendering the filming experience miserably hot for the actors involved, especially Lahr. But they all hold up amazingly well.

"Oz" has a valuable message. As the pop group America once said, "No, Oz never did give nothin' to the Tin Man....that he didn't, didn't already have." If we have truly search, we can find within us--or create through trial, like the Lion's courage--what we think we most lack. The Wizard (like the Lord) helps those who find help within themselves.

I feel sorry for the Almira Gulches who can't treasure this film experience. They need to visit the Emerald City to get their own ticking Testimonials and find their hearts.

Didn't bring your broomsticks with you? Well, I'm afraid you'll have to walk.

This film predates my birth by 19 years, so I've seen it as a child when it was an annual event on network TV, stretched out to hours in length, believably due to commercials and maybe not so believably today due to the network hosting and talking about the film a little during breaks.

Today at age 55, when it shows up on Turner Classic Movies, even though I have in my possession the deluxe "Wizard of Oz DVD Set and Museum in a Box", I'll still stop and watch it from whatever point I catch it to the end. Having the advantage of having seen it at all ages I can truly say that it has enough fantasy and whimsy and spectacle to keep the interest of children without being inane so that adults cannot appreciate it too. I think in all of filmdom only Walt Disney in Walt's time with his animated features and Pixar in modern times have been able to strike that balance. Even "Star Wars" has lost a step or two in the 36 years since its release.

Wizard of Oz has the universal themes of the value of friendship and family, of how many of us have strengths and virtues inside of us we'll never believe we have until tested, and how many powerful people are literally all hot air. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" is practically a slogan of American politics as I am writing this in the year 2013. Then there is beautiful Judy Garland when her exterior still matched her voice, before the studio system chewed her up and literally spit her out. She was never more lovely than she is right here. You'd never believe Billie Burke as the good witch Glenda is 55 years old. You'd never believe that Margaret Hamilton as The Bad Witch is only 37. I remember seeing her on a daytime commercial in the 1960's as a child and thinking "Isn't she dead yet?" There is maybe one aspect of this film that is uniquely pre-WWII. The theme of the film - "Never look for anything if you can't find it in your own backyard" is a motto for the isolationist years between the wars that would be left behind in only a couple of years when it became apparent that the U.S. would have to confront the evil expansionist powers growing on both sides of the globe. It is perhaps a unique snapshot in time in that regard only. It also shows the best the studio system could produce in that fabled year of 1939 when it was at the height of its power.

Forgive me for yammering on about a film that has been reviewed hundreds of times, but this one will always have a special place in my heart and my memory.

In the fall of 2006, my husband and I saw a screening "The Wizard of Oz" that had a full orchestra providing the soundtrack. Never in my life had I seen a more eclectic audience: there were families with little children, adults who came alone (one woman was dressed as Glinda), teens and college students, even couples who had to have been in their '90s. Not to gush, but it's really a testimonial to "Oz"'s legacy that it can appeal to every generation, to every age. Like hot chocolate or Mickey Mouse T-shirts, "The Wizard of Oz" is something you never have to worry about being too old for. There is something so comforting about the familiar story of farm girl Dorothy's journey through the strange but wonderful land of Oz, and yet it remains a wonder to behold. I still get excited when Dorothy steps out her sepia-toned world of Kansas into the Technicolor Munchkinland, even though I learned ages ago how the trick was done. I'm still overjoyed when Dorothy makes another odd yet loyal friend along her journey (hmmm, a nice message of tolerance, too!). I still cry when Dorothy bids her friends farewell (Jack Haley in particular breaks my heart). I just want to yell at the screen, "no! Forget boring old Kansas, stay in Oz!"

Not only is "The Wizard of Oz" a charming, addictive classic, but it's one of the best-cast films ever. Putty-limbed Ray Bolger ("Some people without brains do and AWFUL lot of talking, don't they?"), over-the-top Bert Lahr (I haven't any courage at all, I even scare myself!"), and boyishly charming Jack Haley ("Now I know I have a heart, 'cause it's breaking.") are pitch-perfect in their respective roles as the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man. All three were vaudeville vets, and they infuse their roles with both theatrical shtick and warmth. Billie Burke is memorably twittery yet poised as Glinda the Good Witch, and who can possibly forget Margaret Hamilton's cackling, gleefully evil performance as the Wicked Witch of the West? Hamiltion's iconic, villainous image is so emblazoned in our minds, that it's easy to forget she was a former kindergarten teacher and future animal rights activist! As superb as the cast is, however, "The Wizard of Oz" belongs to the young Judy Garland. Garland makes Dorothy a very real character that we can all relate too, whereas any other actress would have made her one-note and whiny. She believably plays an ordinary girl in an extraordinary place, her lovely brown eyes wide with awe and wonder. And that singing voice! Long before Garland's voice became tinged with tremulous desperation due to age and hard living, the true beauty and purity of her voice comes through in "Oz". Garland sings "Over the Rainbow" so simply, without a trace of theatrics, and you're swept away just the same. It's spellbinding, seeing someone so young have the presence and talent to hold a movie in the palm of her hand. "The Wizard of Oz" will remain the ultimate escapist classic for generations to come, and it will always be one of my favorites. It's comforting, familiar, why... it's just like home.

I was born the same year the movie came out, but only caught up with it the other night, mainly because musicals are not my usual movie fare. So what's left to say after 500+ reviews. I was most impressed by the art and set direction. Too bad they didn't win Oscars. The sets were so imaginative and well done, from poppy fields to enchanted woods to yellow brick road.

For once, MGM's habit of over-producing what's on screen really paid off with an appropriately lavish scale. The effects are simply breathtaking, but I can also detect the nightmarish visuals that go beyond the demonic Witch of the West. So I can see why kids would be both mesmerized and unsettled by the fantastic adventures.

I also have to say that Garland was wonderful as Dorothy, though I've never been a particular fan. Plus, her captivating rendition of Rainbow deserves to top the all-time movie charts. All in all, I'm sorry it took me so long to catch up. It's really hard to believe that so many cooks (writers & directors) didn't spoil the outcome. Somehow, the sumptuous production with its sturdy moral all came together, and remains aptly a movie for the ages.