The Wizard of Oz

Rating:
Summary: I know I have a heart, 'cause it's breaking...
Review: Americans have had a love affair with this movie for decades. It is a sentimental favorite of adults and an exciting fantasy for children. One never tires of this movie...Dorothy's search for happiness over the rainbow, the beautiful good witch, the terrifying bad witch...and who could forget the flying monkeys? Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: This film is a classic and one that i'm glad i started watching as i was a kid. it definitely sparked my imagination and creativity.

Plus, for any of you who havent heard, you can watch The Wizard of Oz while playing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album. try it out some time, it's TRIPPY! (there are plenty of websites that can help you in starting the two at the correct times.)

and you dont have to be on drugs to experience something that trippy! :)

Rating:
Summary: i hate this movie
Review: If you live in a country where they have TV, and have never seen this movie, then you're probably either 2 years old, or you have some phobia of sound or something. Either way, you're not missing much. Obviously, there are a lot of people who really enjoy this movie. But since Amazon.com decided to "recommend" it to me for no good reason, I have decided to say how much I hate this movie, and why.
I hate this movie a whole lot.
I hate this movie because it really isn't all that good. I'll accept the fact that it was revolutionary for its time. I'll even acknowledge that it has a special place in many people's hearts, because they remember watching it as a kid, when their lives weren't so miserable. However, my life is NOT miserable, and I don't have to watch bad movies from my childhood (rather, my parents' childhood) to feel good about myself. If your life is joyless, then perhaps this movie is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Characterization seen to be other than oz-vious. . .
Review: Fantastic.

Judy Garland goes to Munchkinland to sell a bunch of people, even shorter than she is, her own dissociation with environment. Surprisingly, they can relate. The alternative of Yellow Bricks as a guide may be further disorienting, especially because of the swirling effect.

With the Good Witch as a travel agent, Judy/Dorothy sets off on her way. All is not smooth sailing, however, as she encounters extrusions from her consciousness in the form of people who work on her parent's farm. They are, however, disguised. They appear, in succession, to be made of straw, tin, and mammalian flesh and blood. Curiously, the animal (lion) extrusion manifests himself as threatening and rude. This is disconcerting to Dorothy. She has an unconscious/manipulative reaction/interlude with the lion. Rather than make sure she retains her doggy in the face of such bemaned danger, Dorothy lets the dog be pursued by the Lion character. She hits the lion in the nose, ostensibly because the lion would attack pet dog Toto. Master psychologists as we are, we recognise Garland's upset with the lion, angry and confused as it emerges from the disorienting woods (where it may have been lost and wandering for some hours.) So is Dorothy lost. She takes out her upset at her double-recognition of condition on the lion's nose. Lion-as-mirror does not work well for Dorothy in this film, initially.

The lion, it will be seen, repays such vile projection on the part of Dorothy. He retaliates by behaving cowardly and good-natured/recalcitrant. We shall see the Lion is in control, but he controls and so leads his acquaintances by feigning a helpless, cowardly persona and behavior at every turn. Some of these turns are dangerous ones to be cowardly in. Playing on fear, the Lion has mastered his peers. He becomes their Invisible Leader.

Still, other theorists disagree. Witness his self-defenestration, they say, down the long, green hall from the Wizard's "office." However, what such theoreticians fail to acknowledge is the common trick of the manipulative to go to great lengths to control their peers and surroundings, subsequent fates, etc.

The upshot of this speculation is: does the Lion here wish to get to the Wizard himself? Is he, perhaps, the Wizard's agent?
I postulate further. Whether the Lion requires the Wizard's assistance or not, he does get involved in the Witch's annihilation.

It is at this point in this condsideration that it dawns on me: the Lion had it in for the Bad Witch. This presupposes some earlier difference with her, one not featured in the film -- perhaps not in the L. Frank Baulm-authored tome, itself.

Question: is there perhaps a missing chapter? Did the editor insist that the Lion/Witch controversy was unsavory, and so necessitated it's removal? How tolerant ought we to be of such lacunae? The questions can continue...

... but are perhaps better reserved for a future time.
It is hoped that enough here has been offered in speculation to offer the new scholar of Oz to begin his/her researches.

Rating:
Summary: Maltin: "Just as good the fifteenth time as it is the first"
Review: Irony high and irony low.

Low irony: the soporific singing, combined with a pure-schmaltz storyline, guaranteed box office failure for every theater release and re-release of this film. "Just as good the fifteenth time as it is the first." Of course, the film has had outstanding success on television. Television success: Bravo!

High irony: the didactic and gold-plated Message that "there's no place like home" takes more time to deliver on the bonus material of the DVD edition than the movie itself. Some bonus! Of course this message, like all "Messages to Wayward Children," is beyond any child's care or understanding.

This is not a film for children but, rather, a film for the "child inside every one of us." One might as well subject that inner-child to serial viewings ("Just as good the fifteenth time as it is the first") in a vain attempt to hammer home the Message. No actual child would willingly submit to such torture.

Rating:
Summary: Worth buying even if you have it on tape
Review: This dvd is worth owning even if you own the Collector's edition vhs tape that was released a few years ago. Some of the bonus materials overlap with that release, but here there are many, many more, the best of which is the documentary hosted by Lansbury. It does give a solid overview of the history of the making of the movie, which is quite fascinating and improved my understanding of the studio system of the day. Also, it shows some brief snippets of the movie, as dubbed for other countries (think the Wicked Witch is terrifying? Try hearing her snap out her lines in German!)

The only thing lacking from this release is a commentary track. The makers could have gotten Roger Ebert or a panel of people who've been inspired by the film to give a really interesting audio supplement.

Anyway, it's a classic, and the studio did a great job with this dvd. You will want to replace your vhs tapes with dvds for the classics, eventually, the same as you did for your audio cassettes when cd players became popular, so why fight the inevitable?

Rating:
Summary: What is REALLY behind the curtain?
Review: That this is one of the greatest family-friendly movies ever made is without question. What I find curiuos about it is how it has endured as such an overwhelmingly beloved film for over 60 years. This, despite the fact that it is a rather obvious allegory of atheism.

Now, my point is not whether atheism is good or bad. Rather (and I don't think too many people would argue with me on this topic), it is and has been a rather unpopular philosophy, at least in the United States. That THE WIZARD OF OZ has gone un-noticed by religious groups as a champion of atheism all these years is something I find intriguing.

Of course, one of the primary reasons for this lies in the fact that it is, at heart, a movie for children. Most parents merely think of OZ as a neat story and don't give the philosophical implications of the movie a second thought. And, of course, children are generally too naive and inexperienced in life to see much of anything beyond the tale itself.

For many of us, like myself, who do see how the allegory operates, life is string of questions where we ask what (or who?) is REALLY behind the curtain? If anything? Is there a "yellow brick road" of pre-destination that we're supposed to follow? Or does everything that happens to us in life come about by chance? Does God exist? Or is he nothing but a phantasm that is generated by a priest working behind the curtain?

These are interesting questions. But, if nothing else, one thing I believe that all of us can agree on is that a successful life is one where, at the end of it, we can like Dorothy look back over it and say that "Some of it wasn't very nice, but most of it was beautiful."

Enjoy the Wizard of Oz.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT MOVIE
Review: This is a charming movie about a girl and an adventure. It is a must see. It is worth seeing and definetly a have to see. If you have kids that haven't seen this movie buy it or rent it. Its the kind of movie you can see over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST
Review: I loved this technicolor movie. Hey parents if your kids have not seen this one I reccomend you to take them to it. It would fun to watch with your kids. It is magical and would make you watch it over and over again. Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr and awesome in this wonderful. Although it is old it is still magical for everybody who watches. Most people would watch over and over and over again and some don't. But when you see it, it wants you to watch it over and over again. This film is G so buy the DVD Or VHS and make it a movie night with your kids or friends. I would reccomend it because I liked it so much. Also buy the soundtrack because your kids would want to dance or sing along. I would. ...

Rating:
Summary: Archetypal review of Oz
Review: In Caroline Myss' latest book Sacred Contracts, she spends an unrelenting and utterly enthralling 6 and a half pages on the Wizard of Oz, combining both book and film and viewing it from the perspective of myths and archetypes. Worth the price of admission, or a trip to the bookstore for a read. Pages 134 to 140.