THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Adventure / Fantasy / Musical

Director: Victor Fleming

Cast: Judy Garland / Ray Bolger / Frank Morgan

Plot

A tornado whisks Kansas farm girl Dorothy away to a strange fantasy land populated by all sorts of unusual characters and one very wicked witch.

What I Liked

1001 movies.  That’s how many films that the editors of the book I am using for my source designate as “must see.”  The films selected are either historically important, visually stunning, marvelously produced, unusually moving, or culturally iconic.  The best among them fall into multiple categories.  Then there are the elite among the elite, those films that surpass every single benchmark in those categories.  Films like “The Wizard of Oz.”

Is there a more iconic film?  Before I wrote this post, I took some time to think about that, not wanting to be guilty of hyperbole.  “Star Wars,” “Casablanca,” “Gone with the Wind,” “The Sound of Music,” “King Kong,” the Universal horror movies, the Disney classics, some films starring Charlie Chaplin or John Wayne, they’re all heavy hitters in the arena of of American popular culture.  But I don’t believe any one of them tops “Wizard” for a combination of classic look, sound, script, and action.  From the sepia-toned opening credits straight through to the “And you were there, and you were there” end, every second of this film is permanently engraved in the psyche of movie-goers everywhere.  Certainly no movie in history has more instantly familiar music.  I would not be surprised at all to find it out is the world’s most recognizable film.  And I don’t think that’s because we’re over inundated with the film in our culture.  It’s just because the film is quite simply unforgettable.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; speaking generally, I am not a fan of musicals.  “Wizard of Oz” isn’t just an exception to my loathing; I outright love this film.  It’s been a good twenty years since I’ve seen it, but it was regular viewing during my childhood.  I haven’t gone back to it for the simple fact that I’d seen it so many times I wasn’t sure that I would get anything new out of it by going back as I got older.  How wrong I was.  I might have been less swept away this time by the movie’s wonderful music and stirring sentimentality as I had been as a kid, but that was replaced by my admiration for the production values.  The scenery, effects, and costumes are rendered with such a dumbfounding pursuit of perfection that I was surprised to learn that this film wasn’t very popular when it first came out.  I can’t imagine any other film from the 1930s or before looking this good.  Not many movies in the over 70 years since have looked better.

What I Disliked

So what the hell happened with Toto?  Did Miss Gulch have him destroyed, or what?

Most Memorable Scene

Every shot.  Every lyric.  Every note.  Every line.  Every moment.

My Rating: 5 out of 5