• Release year: 1939
• Director: Victor Fleming and King Vidor.
• Producer: Mervyn LeRoy.
• Screenplay by: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf.
• Cinematography by: Harold Rosson.
• Music by: Harold Arlen and Herbert Stothart.

Shotgun Commentary: brilliant adventure film for children.

Review

The Wizard of Oz is a musical film based on the homonymous book by L. Frank Baum. The story is very much like a reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll thirty-five years prior. A young girl doesn’t appreciate what she has until a freak accident gets her into a whimsical parallel world, where she learns a life-changing lesson before getting back.

Wonderland vs Oz

In both cases, the strange characters from the other dimension bear a strong resemblance with people they know in their reality, making it hard to determine whether any of the events actually happened. And in both cases, the life-changing lesson is “there’s no place like home”.

The main difference between the two stories is the structure of their adventure, as well as the country of origin and circumstances that bring the girls into the secondary reality. Where Alice is a British girl who falls asleep during a governess’ lesson, Dorothy travels to Oz from her Kansas farm on a hurricane.

As for the story, Dorothy’s is significantly more straight-forward than Alice’s. The former always has a clear goal and a very obvious, very yellow path she needs to take to achieve it, whereas the latter tries to survive as best as she can in a chaotic world with no rules or logic.

Substance and talent

The simplicity of the story has thankfully not hindered the story’s ageing. It is as good a child’s story as it was when it first came out. The vintage, theatre-like aesthetic only adding to its charm. All the sets are beautifully constructed, from the smallest props to the background paintings. The last ones being so incredibly detailed that even Emerald City looks like a resplendent green gem even though it’s painted with matte paint.

Of course, a great part of the attraction of Oz is the colour. The Wizard of Oz came out at a time when colour was a fairly new development. The use of a three-strip Technicolour technique made it possible for Oz to have the saturated, bold colours we enjoy it with to this day.

Besides, with colour being such a fascinating innovation, it was also used to clearly differentiate one reality from the other, creating a great contrast between the dusty, boring Kansas filled with sepia hues, and the bright, fanciful Oz. Still, that is not the only influence that this colour-craze prompted. Dorothy’s iconic ruby slippers would’ve been their original silver tone hadn’t the producers demanded a change to make them pop out more in the yellow brick road and Emerald City.

Lessons for the youth

The story itself is not the most shocking nowadays, but the importance of its message is still applicable to today’s youth. It’s easy to lose perspective of the important role that your home plays in your life. You risk taking it for granted many times, especially during your teenage years, but it is (or should be) a safe space you can always rely on and, as such, you will likely have a special connection to it.

In addition to this message, there is always the whole “it was always within you” narrative that promotes to never underestimate one’s self. A very important message in a world where the constant bombarding of the media makes young people feel inadequate almost from birth.

Heroes and sass

As for the characters themselves, Judy Garland is fantastic as Dorothy. Despite the hardships she had to endure as a child-actress in the 30s, she is a superb artist and professional, which is why it comes as no surprise that both her acting and her singing are still internationally famous today, almost a century later.

As for her companions, they will resonate differently with each spectator as they channel different insecurities. Nevertheless, Scarecrow’s (Ray Bolger) line “some people without brains do an awful lot of talking” is still one of the sickest burns in classic cinema for children. An especially delightful attitude that Gene Wilder would channel exponentially for his Willy Wonka role a few decades later (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 1971).

What a witch!

As for the witches, Glinda (Billie Burke) definitely hits different before and after you watch Wicked (2024). You might have thought that she’s wise and kind before, but after viewing her origin story, you start to second-guess whether she’s just a manipulative witch who likes toying with people rather than a conscience-like figure.

After all, the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) is bad because they say so, but really she just wants to have some nice slippers and Glinda decides that she can’t for no apparent reason. So, how bad is she exactly? Sure, she doesn’t help her case by trying to burn Scarecrow, but the way we all assumed that blond with a pink dress means good and green with a black outfit means bad is kinda worrying if you think about it…

All in all, The Wizard of Oz is a fantastic adventure film with enough colours and strange events to keep the most distractable of kids focused on it. It teaches a valuable life lesson, and its visual aspect is still gorgeous to this day. The songs are catchy as glitter at a pride parade, and the prosthetics and makeup are, lion aside, shockingly good for the 30s.

Advice to take from this movie:

• Beware of poppies.
• Don’t take anything for granted.
• Life is better with a fluffy dog.

What’s your take? Have you watched The Wizard of Oz? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀