Four misfits creep forward in an illumined chamber. Fire shoots from the altar in front of them. They cower, waiting for the Great Oz to reveal himself and relieve their problems. One, a scarecrow, needs a brain. Another, a tin man, a heart. And a confused lion looks for the closest escape, in desperate need of some courage.Sounds like a fairy tale.
It is, one of the most beloved of the cinema generation. Victory Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz brought Technicolor roaring to the front of film in 1939, inspiring decades of innovation in design, special effects and even story.
But the tale’s punch lies in the familiar arc of its characters, the satisfaction of our expectations after a long and perilous journey.
Everyone has that one thing they would change about themselves. Maybe they’d be a little funnier or more self-confident. Maybe they’d sprout a couple extra inches. Or shed a few extra pounds.
In Oz, though, you wear your flaws right on your sleeve. Even Dorothy, and her little dog Toto, bear an obvious need: to find a way home and atone for past wrongs, for taking the little things for granted like a family’s love. As an audience, it’s easy to find a little bit of ourselves in each of the characters and we’re pulled along for the ride.
We’ve all felt a little helpless at all we find in the world, wishing for a bigger brain like Scarecrow. Or felt at a loss to understand the pain of another, praying for a bigger heart like the Tin Man. Or trembled in the face of danger, real or imagined, and searched for courage like the Cowardly Lion.
And we’ve all yearned for that trip home like Dorothy, back to the comforts of life not complicated by the worries of the world or wicked witches, flying monkeys and misguided charlatans.
Sometimes, I guess it takes extraordinary circumstances.
Fleming interpreted L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel as a dream, a break from the original writer’s vision. So Oz becomes a series of tests and trials as Dorothy confronts the fears and uncertainties waiting back home in a bright world full of wonder and danger.
She picks up three companions along the way, and their inadequacies allow Dorothy to find a strength she didn’t know she had. She guides the unlikely quartet with an increasing confidence after they brave the Wicked Witch’s castle and return triumphantly to Oz with her broomstick in hand, mirroring the wretched old woman who drove Dorothy away from her home in Kansas in the first place.
By the film’s end, Dorothy feels strong enough to even stand up to the Wonderful Wizard himself. She scolds and scorns the man behind the curtain as he continues to twist and mold his lies to the changing circumstances. She’ll no longer stand aside passively, waiting for deliverance, but takes action to get what she wants.
She discovers, and so do we, that she had the power all along. All she had to do was close her eyes and will it to be so. The power of choice, an age-old fable for a reimagined fairy tale.
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