NFR Project: 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939)

 

NFR Project: ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Dir: Richard Thorpe, Victor Fleming, George Cukor, King Vidor

Scr: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf

Pho: Harold Rosson

Ed: Blanche Sewell

Premiere: Aug, 25, 1939

102 min.

It’s one of the most popular films in history. Due to its being played yearly on network television for decades, it’s become ingrained in our collective cultural memory. What makes it such a touchstone?

First of all, it’s an easily understandable fantasy. A young girl, Dorothy (Judy Garland), living in the boring confines of sepia-toned rural Kansas, dreams of a more interesting life “somewhere over the rainbow.” A tornado hits her farm, and she’s transported to a magical (and Technicolor) land where she is hailed as a heroine, due to the fact that her falling house has crushed to death the Wicked Witch of the East.

Unfortunately, this makes her a target of the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), who yearns for the magical ruby slippers that have been placed upon her feet by Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Seeking a way home, serenaded by the little people of Munchkinland, Dorothy sets along down the path of the Yellow Brick Road, which will take her to the all-powerful Wizard of Oz.

Along the way, she meets up and befriends the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), who wants a brain; the Tin Woodsman (Jack Haley), who wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), who wants courage. They band together and journey to the Emerald City, where the Wizard (a large disembodied head) commands them to bring to him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch before granting their wishes – which means the Witch’s death.

The four set out for the Witch’s domain. Dorothy is captured, and her friends try to rescue her. After an exciting chase, Dorothy accidently drenches the Witch with a bucket of water, melting her. They return to the Wizard with the broomstick, but the Wizard puts them off. Dorothy’s faithful dog Toto exposes the real wizard (Frank Morgan), who is a bit of a charlatan. Nonetheless, he gives the friends what they desire, and promises to take Dorothy back to Kansas in his balloon.

The balloon escapes prematurely, and Dorothy bewails her fate. Glinda steps in and tells her she can wish her way back by clicking her heels together and chanting, “There’s no place like home.” This she does, and she awakens in her own bed at home. The adventure was all a dream.

Everyone can identify with Dorothy, and she is the perfect innocent protagonist. The action is intense, and does not shy away from disturbing imagery (the tornado, the dead witch’s shrinking feet, grotesque flying monkeys, the forbidding Wizard’s head, and the perfectly horrible Witch), which oddly gives the movie much more heft than a run-of-the-mill fantasy film. There are real, life-and-death issues at stake – questions of identity, belonging, merit, right and wrong. It teaches compassion and bravery. It tells us that indeed there’s no place like home.

Second of all, movie magic makes this a perfect realization of L. Frank Baum’s original story. The production values are magnificent, detailed and convincing in all their extravagant splendor. The casting is perfect, and the script spins us merrily through the action with wit and surprising depth. The musical numbers interspersed, courtesy of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, are instantly memorable. “Over the Rainbow” won the Oscar for Best Song, and remains the most widely known of all movie tunes.

The film has provided food for thought for decades, spurring several critics to lay out various theories as to the allegorical meaning of the film. It’s inspired a disturbing sequel, and a hugely popular alternative interpretation, Gregory Macguire’s Wicked.

Most of all, it’s entered our collective consciousness. “If I only had a brain,” “SURRENDER DOROTHY,” “Toto, too?”, all these phrases and more have entered our daily lives. The resonance of The Wizard of Oz still reverberates in our minds.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Women.