123. Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Directed By Victor Fleming



Synopsis

You know it, "We're not in Kansas anymore", Munchkins, Lions Tiger and Bears, Oh My... back in fucking Kansas.


Review


This is probably one of the most important films on the list pop-culture wise, even if you have never sat through it you are bound to know all the songs and even most of the dialogue, I know I did and I hadn't actually watched it... I know it's a shame but I haven't watched Sound Of Music as well, which seems to shock people. I was busier watching Star Wars, The Great Escape , Flash Gordon and Dune as a kid than musicals.

The film is a great achievement in technical terms, there was nothing like it before in the history of cinema, but unfortunately there have been enough things like it since to make it a bit deja vu. It's not the fault of the film, this is the original. The music here is also great, but sometimes a bit repetitive and even gratuitous, like when Dorothy first sings Somewhere Over The Rainbow, coming absolutely from nowhere. You can't help but admire the film's campiness however and it is that which makes it great. This is the masterpiece of kitsch, like a bad LSD trip by someone with incredibly poor taste. It is this "poor taste" that has made the film as immortal as it is however, and it is all the better for it.

There isn't much of a plot here and the "it was all a dream" ending is always a disappointing cop-out, but it is still worth watching all the same. Get it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

Some Pop-culture references form Wikipedia, in no way extensive:

Early

One of the earliest references to this film can be found in the movie The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (released in England in 1943), in which one of the characters sings a bit of "We're Off To See The Wizard."

Genera

l In Class of 3000, Cheddar Man was making a film similar to this one. He says "What a hood" and "There ain't no place like my crib."

The lyrics to the song "Home" by alternative metal band Breaking Benjamin are almost entirely influenced by The Wizard of Oz. I

n the television series Stargate SG-1 involves countless references to The Wizard of Oz throughout its ten year run. This culminated in the 200th episode, which featured an extended sequence of Stargate characters reenacting the movie.

Movies where the characters are seen watching The Wizard of Oz include One Fine Day, Shoot the Moon, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

The 100th episode of the television series Scrubs, entitled My Way Home, is an homage to the Wizard of Oz.

In the show Futurama, from the episode "Anthology of Interest II", there is a sequence in which the main female character Leela gets knocked out by a lever being pulled down, and dreams that she herself enters the land of Oz. She eventually deserts the friends she meets on the way (who are of course in likeness of her friends from her real life), and chooses to become a witch by the Wicked Witch of the West's granted wish.

In the Disney Channel TV show That's So Raven there is an episode where Raven dreams that she is in the Wizard of Oz. Corey is the Tin Man, Chelsea the scarecrow, and Eddie the lion. Raven's teacher Dr. Stuckerman comes as the Wicked Witch who throws water at Raven, who reverses the scene and says "Water on weave!? I'm melting!" Afterward Victor comes out as the Wizard. In South Park an episode is modeled after the Wizard of Oz while Kyle and his friends attempt to get back his adopted brother Ike, from his biological parents in Canada.

"Violent J", of horrorcore musical group ICP, recorded a solo project, "Wizard of the Hood; a retelling which strongly features drugs, sex, and violence.

Witch's Castle/Guards' Chant

The scene in which the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man approach the Wicked Witch's castle has been paid homage to in David Lynch's Wild at Heart, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spaceballs , and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Peter Jackson is on record in interviews as confirming that the scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in which Frodo, Sam and Gollum first approach the Black Gate of Mordor from overlooking mountain crags is a deliberate homage to the scene in The Wizard of Oz where the three friends arrive at the Witch's castle. The reference is driven home when a group of Southrons march in from the right, voicing an impressive but unintelligible chant.

The castle guards' chant has been interpolated into several songs, including LL Cool J's "I'm That Type of Guy," Metallica's "The Frayed Ends of Sanity," Prince's "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night", and Kid Rock's "Trucker Anthem".

Miscellaneous

In the earlier days of the show Ally McBeal, the perceived ill-tempered and hard-nosed character of Ling Woo (Lucy Liu) was emphasized by having her frequently stormy entrances to episodes underscored by the Miss Gulch/Wicked Witch musical motif.

The ZAZ comedy team have made references to Oz in all of their movies both as a team and in their individual careers.

The witch's dying cry, "I'm melting! Melting!" has been referenced or spoofed in films such as Field of Dreams, Spaceballs, Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The song, "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" was a (indeed, the only) hit song for The Fifth Estate, a 1960s pop group whose version interpelated the bourée from Michael Praetorius's The Dances of Terpsichore.

The English band America produced a song called "Tin Man", which included the line "Oz didn't give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn't already have."

In the sitcom ALF a friction is made between ALF and Kate's mother Dorothy causing him to refer to her as "The Wicked Witch Of The West". Both are deliberate homages to The Wizard Of Oz.

In the popular video game World Of Warcraft the Karazhan instance contains the opera event, players get to face 1 of 3 encounters. This is the Wizard of Oz, the big bad wolf or Romeo and Juliet. Also in this instance you can obtain the Ruby Slippers as treasure from the Wizard of Oz encounter.

The HBO Series Oz, refers to the main cell block 'Em City', named after Emerald City in the story.

The band Demons and Wizards released the song Wicked Witch on their 2005 album Touched by the Crimson King. The song was an interperatation of The Wizard of Oz by the song's writer Hansi Kürsch.

Wizard of Oz Futurama style: