The Wizard of Oz

Rating

Director

Victor Fleming

Screenplay

Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf (Book: L. Frank Baum)

Length

1h 42m

Starring

Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, Pat Walshe, Clara Blandick

MPAA Rating

G (formerly: Passed (National Board of Review))

Review

What child hasn’t been exposed at some point in their lives to this MGM Technicolor classic? The Wizard of Oz has become a foundational part of young psyches over the generations since its 1939 release, but it is so much more than just a movie for kids.

As a staple in the cinematic diet of young children, The Wizard of Oz adapted the weird, but popular children’s novel by L. Frank Baum about a young girl from Kansas (Judy Garland)dropped in the magical land of Oz by a nasty cyclone. As she journeys through the strange fantasy world, she discovers that the only way she can get home is to go see the great and powerful wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan). Along the way she makes friends with a scarecrow (Ray Bolger), a woodsman made of tin (Jack Haley), and a cowardly lion (Bert Lahr). They are asked to kill the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) and bring peace to the country.

Although there are some deviations from the novel itself, the general gist of the story is in line with Baum’s odd little world. All of the changes made, however, make for a much more engaging film. Directed by Victor Fleming, the film employs a number of unique and compelling techniques to deposit audiences into this unusual new world. The opening scenes in Kansas are filmed in black-and-white, crisply focused and beautifully realized with Garland as Dorothy, Clara Bandick as Aunt Em, Charley Grapewin as Uncle Henry, and Bolger, Haley, and Lahr as farmworkers Hunk, Hickory, and Zeke respectively. In these scenes, she meets a traveling salesman (Morgan) and a nasty local woman, Miss Almira Gulch (Hamilton).

Once she opens the door of her house into the magical land of Oz, she and the audience are transported into a vibrant and amazing world of color. This creative decision has become one of the film’s defining characteristics, engendering awe and amazement in the viewer (at least those who saw it on the big screen or after television was first broadcast in color). With nearly every film today released in color, the magic and wonderment caused by this particular innovation may be lost on young children, but for countless others it was a fantastic little detail with a huge impact.

The rest of the film is filled with iconic scenes and characters who have become more entrenched in popular culture than nearly any other film of the period in spite of 1939 often being cited as one of the greatest in cinema history. Every gorgeously crafted scene in the film is seared into the viewer’s memory with the meandering yellow brick road leading from the creatively designed Munchkinland setting to the verdant majesty of the Emerald City. Afterwards, we’re treated to the gloomy interior of the Wicked Witch’s castle and the eye-popping field of bright red poppies. Designers Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning were nominated for Oscars for their art direction while A. Arnold Gillespie and Douglas Shearer were nominated for their special effects. Neither pair of artists won, though it only seems appropriate that the film lost art direction to the large and stellar sets of Gone With the Wind, but the effects loss will always remain a mystery.

Apart from these two Oscar nominations, the film did win its only other two citations for Original Score and Original Song for the instantly memorable “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Although this was Garland’s seventh feature film, its success launched her into the stratosphere of young Hollywood talents. She even won an honorary juvenile Oscar for her performance herein. She does deliver a fine performance, but it was Hamilton’s dual performance as Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West that truly sticks in the memory. One of the most legendary villains in cinema, Hamilton was so convincing that some who met her on the street thereafter treated her as if she was her character rather than just an actor playing a part.

Fleming’s film remains a crucial part of adolescent development not just because it’s a fantastical story that will please young children, but because of its moral valuation of intelligence, empathy, and bravery. It told kids that sometimes we may not see in ourselves the ideas we want projected in the world, but if we remain true to our core being and have faith and compassion in others, we too can find that which we struggle to discover deep inside.

The Wizard of Oz is a film that has been talked about for more than eighty years and there’s little that will change our perceptions of the film. Perhaps now is an even better time for re-watching the film, even without kids in tow. Our world today could really use the kind of moral guidance this film endeavors to instill in its audience, especially when evoking the notion that only when working together can we accomplish our goals.

Review Written

September 14, 2021