The Wizard of Oz

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Revision as of 21:03, 17 December 2007

“I'll get you, my pretty! And your little dog, too!”

~ The Wicked Witch of the West

The Wizard of Oz refers to a novel by L(yman) Frank Baum and a number of its film adaptations, especially the one made in 1939.

Basic story

It's pretty damn archetypical[1]. Girl sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Gets whisked off in a tornado to magical land of technicolor. Meets munchkins and Good Witch. Then meets Bad Witch. Walks down the Yellow Brick Road. Encounters friends like the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. Enters the Emerald City of Oz. Finds out that nobody gets to see the Wizard, not nobody, not no how. Goes and splashes some water on the witch. Snaps her heels together and goes home.

Cast

• Judy Garland as Dorothy
• Billie Burke as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North
• Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West
• Billy Barty as one of the munchkins
• Frank Morgan as the Wizard (along with 3 or 4 other roles)

Quotes

The 1939 film is an especially good source of memorable quotes that have since infiltrated pop culture like parasitic worms:

• "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
• "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"
• "Ding-dong, the witch is dead..."
• "Follow the yellow brick, follow the yellow brick, follow the yellow brick road."
• "If I only had a brain..."
• "That's a horse of a different color!"
• "Who dares to come before the great and powerful Oz?"
• "I'm melting! I'm melting!"
• "You liquidated her!"
• "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
• "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home..."
• "And you were there, and you were there, and you were there..."

Things that stick in little kids' brains

See? You'd be scarred, too, if you were 6 years old.

The Wizard of Oz has pretty universal appeal and is probably one of the most popular old movies- or movies in general- in the world today. Lots of little kids see it. And here's what stick in those kids' brains: first, the flying monkeys. What's more disturbing than flying monkeys? Especially with their human faces. Maybe some uncanny valley at work? Disturbingly human-like, and yet, with those wings and monkey features, just plain disturbing. For me, it was the receding striped stockings of the Wicked Witch of the East, the WWOTW's sister, after she's crushed under Dorothy's house. It's also possible that the face of the Wizard could be disturbing, or those anthropomorphic trees, or the guards of the Witch's castle who march back and forth going, "Oh wee oh, wee oh oh," or whatever it is they're chanting. That's pretty freaky as well. It's a borderline trippy movie as it is.

Notes

• So damn archetypical, in fact, that Star Wars was based on it.
• A common, and also disturbing, urban legend claims that a munchkin hung himself on the set and that footage of it ended up in the final cut. This is not true. It's a bird.
• Gay men sometimes call themselves "Friends of Dorothy." I guess it's because this movie has a particular campy resonance among members of the gay community.
• Man, did you know that if you play them at the same time, The Wizard of Oz totally synchs up with Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon? No, seriously! I heard it from this guy...