The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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

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she has to ôgrow upö and return to the real world. The make-up men clothed the young Judy Garland in a corset-like dress to make sure that her filling-out figure was not revealed: the look of an eleven-year old is preserved. The film ends with the moral that ôthere is no place like home,ö no matter how exotic and fantastic. In her book The Classic American Novel and the Movies, Janet Juhnke has an entire theory about the ôhappyö ending of the film that transports Dorothy back to Kansas: ôThe end is a total anticlimax. It states that this was all a dream, that fantasy is unreal and can only get you in trouble, and boring status quo existence is the right way to live. I hate the ending because fantasy is real, necessary, and because home is not always the best place to beö (Juhnke 127). This comment is pragmatic, but it seems to miss the point of the film. For children watching The Wizard of Oz, it would be difficult to leave them in the make-believe land at the end. They have to be rooted in some form of reality. Also, the Kansas setting serves to offer a contrast to the Emerald City: without its appearance there would he no way to gauge the extent of the land over the rainbow. Since most of the children watching the film
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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