It seems like for my first Requested Review of the Day, I will be reviewing a Hollywood classic, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. Based on the children's novel by L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz is about a girl from a farm on Kansas named Dorothy (Judy Garland) who after a tornado storm is whisked away with her dog Toto to a magical land. Once she gets there, her house smashes the Wicked Witch of the East to death as she is praised as a hero by the Munchkins who reside in OZ. The Good Witch Glinda (Billie Burke) tells Dorothy that she must follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City where the great and powerful Wizard of OZ resides who has the power to return Dorothy home. On her magical journey to the Emerald City she meets new and charming friends including the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), The Tin Man (Jack Haley), and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr). She also meets the evil and terrifying Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) who wants to capture Dorothy and spread fear over the magical and whimsical land of OZ. With the help of her new friends Dorothy must stop the Wicked Witch and convince the great and powerful Wizard of OZ to help her get back home. Now The Wizard of OZ of course has always for over more than seventy years been considered a masterpiece gem in all of cinema, and it would be hard for anyone to disagree with that, even myself. But what is in this simple yet memorable wildly and worldly loved film? Shall we dig deeper?
First let us look at our characters. Just a heads up I need to say something about what all these characters share in common before I tend to repeat myself and that is that they are very simple characters. They are not too developed or fleshed out like in many modern films today, but yet there is something about most of these characters that have such a sense of charm in them that you immediately care about them, sympathize with them, and even get emotionally involved with them.We have our main character Dorothy Gale, played by Judy Garland of course, who again is just a standard nice farm girl. She is basically in the same vein as some of the early Disney Princesses like Snow White, Cinderella, or Sleeping Beauty. But to their credit the niceness and innocence of the character does not come off as obnoxious or grating at all. It actually starts to grow on you one way or another. I think just due to Garland's performance alone made this character very easy to sit through. She just delivers the right tone and expressions in order for us to actually love this character and make her seem almost real to us, though maybe her personality is not all that real. But despite that it is highly forgivable and I praise both Garland and director Victor Fleming for making this character so lovable and practically real to us. I would have to say that all three characters The Scarecrow, The Tin Man, and The Cowardly Lion are pretty much on the same track of worth. I know they may have different personalities, different backgrounds, and different goals but they end up giving the same amount of friendship and impact on our main character Dorothy. I would even go to say that these three are pretty similar, but maybe The Cowardly Lion is a little bit of the exception which is probably why he is my most favorite out of the three. I think Bert Lahr did a great job of making this one of the most adorable and lovable cowardly characters ever to put to film. One thing he shares with Dorothy's other two friends is that they are all almost childlike in a way, which I think adds to their charm. The Lion is no exception to this making the scenes in which he is scared to do something seem adorable and the scenes in which he is in trouble actually start to make you feel sorry for the guy, even though he is played by a grown man in a costume and make-up! Comparing these three is like comparing the Seven Dwarves from Snow White, they may have different personalities or ways to show off their charm, but they are just as equally important and leave the same amount and same emotion of impact. The we have our villainous Wicked Witch of the West. Though nowadays she would considered a stereotypical witch and kind of over the top, I think her unbelievable and sometimes even "so goofy it's scary" villainy is what makes her so memorable and it also adds to the emotional weight of the film. Her villainous ways and habits are so goofy and over the top that it actually comes across as pretty creepy once in a while. Her personality is an extreme exaggeration of how evil a villain can be that surprisingly it works to the film's advantage. Heck, even her real world counterpart from where Dorothy is from is pretty unbelievably and disgustingly evil, she actually wants to take Toto away from Dorothy and kill him simply because he is a "nuisance". Geez, does she give cancer to newborn babies too for being too cute? Again this is one of those "Mr. Potter" villains who you can easily hate the character with the passion but at the same time can be impressed with and praise the film for letting you actually get emotionally involved with the character. Then we have Glinda, the Good Witch, who I am just going to say I cannot stand this character. I think pretty much a lot of people feel the same way about her, especially the fact that she hid from Dorothy that she could have skipped this whole adventure and just go home by clicking the heels of her ruby slipper. But it's not the fact that she hid that information from Dorothy is not what makes me dislike her, it's the fact that she seems so full of herself and so self-indulgent. She seems like the kind of person who doesn't care if she does not properly help somebody or actually hurt somebody's feelings by saying something wrong with not hesitation or reluctance, and probably won't even apologize for it. She just smiles, looks pretty, and acts so pitch perfect, it makes me gag. Okay so after botching which was probably suppose to be an innocent and lovable character, she is definitely not enough to ruin this film for me.
Though the majority if not the entire film was shot in a studio, the production design is pretty impressive for the time as a lot of the backgrounds and sets completely help the audience feel like they are in the Land of OZ and there is not too little but yet not too much in order for it to succeed. I would also like to give credit to director Victor Fleming as he was the last go to guy to sit in the directors' chair after probably three others left during production. But Fleming pulled it through and triumphed to bring us this classic in his vision, which is very impressive as he also brought another cinematic classic to the screens the same exact year. It's a little film that goes by the title, Gone With The Wind. The music I need to mention before I forget to is also very memorable and is almost recognized by every human being on the face of the Earth. Each song is successful in bringing out every emotion that is present throughout the film whether it would be light-hearted cheer or the hope or dreams of something that one cannot fathom or believe in a million years.
Like many of our characters the story is also simple yet memorable, lovable, and unbelievably timeless. It is funny seeing how the original book by L. Frank Baum was meant to be a satire of United States politics during pre-World War I, yet even though this adapts the book to film, it's main goal was not supposed to be political satire but instead, at least what most of us might think of it, wants to be a fairy tale. And that's exactly like what this film accomplishes in doing being a fairy tale. Though some may like the satire presented in the original novel, the film does not seem like it wants to go in that route. Instead it wants to be timeless, colorful, cheerful, emotional, wholesome, and fresh which is what everybody wants in their family film. The film again works in the same as some of the Disney films like Snow White or Pinocchio, and even though this was not made by Disney it carries the same amount of charm and wonder as the other previous mentioned films. And though the book was published over 35 years before this film's release, the film still succeeds in giving us a fresh take if not a fresh and new story or fairy tale that can keep us, children, and the most effectively the child within us enchanted. The Wizard of Oz is simply a classic not because everybody loves it, but because it is hard to hate it.
GRADE: AE
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