The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
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The Wizard of Oz Movie Review
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 family fantasy musical film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Judy Garland. It’s an undisputed classic that has stood the test of time gloriously.
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“There’s no place like home“
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Based on the famous, classic children’s novel, this adaptation remains the greatest of all time and the quintessential. That is because they poured so much technical wizardry into this picture (more on that later) while also imbuing it with a lot of heart and some great changes from the source material, including that powerful ending.
Yes, of the many iconic scenes here, the finale is my favorite. It was a great choice to have Dorothy project all her true life friends into a dream and that revelation was incredibly moving. The message here is that no matter where you end up in life, home will always be home. It’s a beautiful message that rings true after all these years and is probably the main reason why this movie is still revered as an absolute classic.
Of course the beginning is also superb. It was a glorious idea to have the real life scenes be filmed in sepia colors while the rest was done in Technicolor. Thus, we clearly see the difference, but the sepia parts are still beautiful and inviting in their own way, just less magical. The artistic decisions here truly drive the entire storyline forward in a spectacular fashion.
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The Munchkinland is probably my least favorite scene of the movie as the musical numbers were overly extended there, but still super entertaining and wonderfully childlike, so I did not mind them ultimately. The adventures on the Yellow Brick Road are uniformly stupendous and this is the most purely adventurous part of this wonderful story. The fact that she got to meet all of her friends singularly and still that did not lead to an episodic feel to this part only goes to show how perfect the direction and the pacing are here.
The Emerald City was stunning to behold and those scenes are truly majestic, but the scenes leading up to the Witch’s castle and especially in the castle itself were amazing as this is where the movie suitably enough turned darker both in palette and in action. That was crucial to add as the movie would have been too fluffy otherwise. All of the action scenes are fantastic and genuinely entertaining.
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Let’s talk about these iconic characters. Judy Garland truly is Dorothy Gale. Yes, it was horrendous how they treated her on the set, but setting aside the troublesome production of the movie and the fact that she was 17 while filming it, Garland is still fabulous. She imbued a lot of charisma, charm and genuine heart to the role and made it her own. Dorothy truly is a great role model for all the young girls watching this classic.
Not only is the lead great, but so are all the other characters as well as the actors playing them. Clearly Haley, but especially Lahr and Bloger were really over-the-top in their roles, but it worked at the end of the day as this is a children’s film and the characters were written that way. Some of the scenes with The Cowardly Lion were overly extended, but still super sweet, and both The Tin Man and The Scarecrow are also wonderful. This trio together with Dorothy was just a great representation of a genuine friendship.
Glinda was highly memorable in the little screen time that she got and the Wicked Witch of the West remains an iconic villain. It was hilarious how the movie stated that only ugly witches are bad, but that simplistic approach worked for this simple, yet effective story. The Witch steals the show whenever she is on screen. She is delightfully over-the-top and truly memorable in her every line and action.
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I liked her Winged Monkeys a lot and all of the creatures in the movie are superbly realized. Frank Morgan is excellent as the titular wizard and a genuinely smart, kind man, but a bad wizard as he says it. He truly wanted to help out everyone, which was wonderful to witness. And of course you can’t go out by not mentioning Toto himself. Played marvelously by Terry the dog doing all of her own stunts, this cairn terrier looks incredibly cute and is an essential, even badass part of the group as Toto helped Dorothy many times. And to see such a genuine affection between the two was really touching.
The Wizard of Oz succeeds wildly as a children’s film as it teaches kids some valuable life lessons while also being super entertaining and magical throughout. It succeeds of course as an epic fantasy for all ages given its arresting technical aspects. But it is also genuinely accomplished as a musical with most of the songs being splendid, and many grew on me upon subsequent viewings.
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First off, words cannot describe my love for Over the Rainbow. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest songs in the history of cinema. Garland sang it beautifully, the entire sequence is absolutely magical and full of emotion, serving as a perfect catalyst for the story to unfold. The lyrics are gorgeous with great descriptions and it just remains this breathtaking ode to dreams and the power of dreaming while also being wildly applicable to anyone wishing to be somewhere better.
All the others pale in comparison, but are all serviceable and very good with the exception of If I Were the King of the Forest which was super long, annoying and unnecessary given that Lion had already gotten a song for himself. But Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead is highly amusing are all of the Munchkins’ songs, If I only Had a Brain/Heart/Nerve is a great trio of songs that develops this trip effortlessly and my favorite of this bunch has to be We’re Off to See the Wizard. This is such a classic, catchy number that was repeated throughout and was always a joy to behold.
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The Wizard of Oz is not only extremely well directed by the great Victor Fleming, but also superbly paced and structured. The score is fantastic with the musical number beats being so well accentuated in the emotional scenes. The emotional investment is strong, the dialogue is terrific and the humor is very good. But the highlight is its Technicolor cinematography. Rarely has there been a better Technicolor movie than this one. The colors just pop radiantly, their use was truly impressive, especially of the red and the green, and everything looks so polished and gorgeous with the effects also being excellent for its time. The costumes are phenomenal and the sets and props are uniformly arresting in quality. They made the movie incredibly charming and endearing.
