The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Written by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, & Edgar Allan Woolf

Directed by Victor Fleming

1998 List Ranking: 6

2007 List Ranking: 10

Me and my husband as 2/3 of the Lollipop Guild at the Irvine Lake Mud Run of 2015

I can’t remember a time without The Wizard of Oz. I am part of what is, most likely, the last generation that grew up with the film being aired annually on CBS, and it being a somewhat big deal (at least, in my house). Sometime around 1995 or 1996, I also appeared in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz, playing the Mayor of Munchkin City. Even just a few years ago, I completed a mud run in which our team’s theme was The Wizard of Ooze (and in which I was, again, a munchkin). In short, The Wizard of Oz has always been sort of there in my life, and it’s the first film on this list that I’ve seen before.

Now, if you think that I’m not gonna come in here and start criticizing this movie just because it holds a strange nostalgia for me, well…you’re absolutely right. What can I say? It’s not a perfect film, but how can you criticize it? It’s become a treasure of American cinema, so its inclusion on this list was all but guaranteed. As I said, however, it isn’t perfect, so let’s discuss, shall we?

The Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), The Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), Dorothy (Judy Garland) and The Tin Man (Jack Haley)

In case you’ve been living under a rock, The Wizard of Oz focuses on Dorothy Gale, a Kansas girl who, as the result of a twister, ends up being transported to the land of Oz, or, at least, she dreams that she does. Along the way to meet the Wizard, who allegedly has the power to send her home, she makes new friends (the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion) and enemies (the Wicked Witch of the West). The film is chock full of memorable songs and dazzling design and effects that have helped secure its place in the pantheon of cinema.

Dorothy’s entry into Oz

Perhaps the most memorable of those effects is the transition from sepia to bright, brilliant color. The choice to stage the Kansas scenes in black-and-white/sepia tone is rather brilliant: I read the original book back in elementary school, and I seem to recall that Kansas was described as being a bleached, almost black-and-white place, so (if my memory is serving me correctly) this is a great reference to that description but also is a great way to delineate the brilliant dream world that Dorothy travels to. It’s a scene like this that makes me wish I could travel back in time to see how an audience reacts to something like this; I can only imagine gasps of surprise and delight, as well as thunderous applause.

Dorothy and Glinda (Billie Burke). Also, can we talk about how hard it is to find HD quality pictures of one of the most popular movies of all time??

On a side note, I’m on the fence about the decision to make Oz a dream, rather than the actual place as described in the book. It’s a strong creative choice, but not one that I feel is inherently necessary. I do enjoy the choice to have the Kansas residents portray the inhabitants of Oz, but then I’m left wondering why Uncle Henry and Auntie Em don’t have an Ozian persona, or why Glinda doesn’t have the same in Kansas. In fact, as I think about it, there could be a very interesting parallel if Auntie Em was Glinda. Also, Frank Morgan plays like four characters in the Emerald City, so why couldn’t Charlie Grapewin, who played Uncle Henry, have played a couple of them?

Ray Bolger’s Scarecrow is an utter delight

The performances, across the board, are great. As Dorothy, Judy Garland overacts a bit, but the style of the film is heightened anyway, so it all kind of works out. Margaret Hamilton as the Witch is deliciously fun (when she isn’t getting burned half to death due to errant fire effects), but the real standout is Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow. He has always been my favorite, being sweet, smart (despite not having a brain), and incredibly talented. It’s no surprise that Dorothy says that she’ll miss him most of all as she prepares to return home, because I’d venture that many of us feel the same way.

An example of the real vs. fake set pieces…see the change in the Yellow Brick Road?

From a design perspective, the film looks stunning, although the various matte paintings used look pretty awful in terms of their realism. As a place, Oz has lots of fantastical locations, and the physical sets have a nice balance between reality and a fantastic, storybook-style quality. The matte paintings (meaning, the pieces of set that are essentially painted backdrops or additions made for the camera to enhance the set’s appearance) look excessively cartoon-like, and in many cases the transition between a physical set and a matte painting is glaringly obvious. It’s probably the biggest issue I have with the film, and even then, it’s somewhat minor in the grand design of the film.

Funny, thrilling, imaginative, and timeless, The Wizard of Oz continues to be beloved to this day. It’s a film that the whole family can truly enjoy together, and it continues to impact how movies are made and has become a high bar against which to measure both commercial success (even though it was only moderately successful on its initial release) and artistic achievement.

FINAL GRADE: A