The Wizard of Oz, which made at MGM in 1939, is still on of the worldÆs favorite films. It has remained special because it visualizes its own unique world. It inspired many films that followed, from Star Wars to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, because it constructed its own universe: one that could be enjoyed by adults and children alike.
Others films have borrowed more noticeably and directly from The Wizard of Oz. The opening sequence of Martin ScorseseÆs Alice DoesnÆt Live Here Anymore shows the young Alice in a setting very much like Dorothy in the Kansas opener of Oz. The sci-fi epic Zardoz, directed by John Boorman, also borrows from the classic, starting with its title and the play on words.
Popular culture in general has attempted to use some of the Oz magic in various mediums. ôDing Dong! The Witch Is Deadö was a pop tune of the 1960s, while rock groups of the 1970s called themselves Toto, and Elton John labeled one of his best selling albums ôGoodbye, Yellow Brick Road.ö Clearly any film that generates such imitation-as-flattery has deeply ingrained itself on the consciousness of the general public. The Wizard of Oz is one film that bears up especially well under repeated viewing.
L. Frank BaumÆs book was adapted by a team of MGM screenwriters for Victor Fleming to direct. Fleming was a journeyman filmmaker who had directed classic literature like Treasure Island (1934) and Captains Courageous (1937). In 1939 he also directed another hit picture: Gone With the Wind. Auteur critic Andrew Sarris summed up FlemingÆs talent in this way: ôThis mysterious figure probably expressed more of HollywoodÆs contradictions than did most of his colleagues. Yet, aside from George Cukor, he as the only Metro director who could occasionally make the lion roar (Sarris 259).
The film starred a 17-year old Judy Garland, who had started her feature film career three years earlier in Pigskin Parade. Her re...