Movie, The Wizard of Oz

Review by Doug Nickerson

 

I thought Wizard of Oz was really just a marvelous story, in which a girl leaves home, really she gets involved in a storm which sweeps her away, her house too, and I think, a small dog.

 

This obvious metaphor for the inner struggles that are nascent to many people growing up on a farm, does not distract us from the enchantment

as she quickly ends up in a very "other-worldly" other world, populated by a Kindly Lion, and all sorts of interesting creatures -- though some are short.

 

What leads to this involvement, this nexus between girl and misguided storm-metaphor, this blatant Yin and Yang? This appealing "retro" Jennifer Willbanks hasn't a wedding imminent, nor

seemingly even a proposal, and no outward struggles; she seems, happy in her simple life, not a modern day Paris Hilton feeling the strain of getting her water from

a well whilst engaging in poorly executed Have and Have not humor. No, Natalie ( I think that is the young lady's name ), if anything, seems content, surrounded by family, friendly farm workmen and other hangers on, who are lovingly portrayed by a cast of characters.

 

Well didn't she have me in stitches when she gave the ki-bosh to an evil witch ( whom a house falls on I think ), and sets out on a road whose luminescent goldness is nearly

upstaged  by the cast of short men and Pre- Michael Jackson boys dressed in magical clothing!

 

Et tu Brute ! I wanted to shout as she meets a man made of steel, a kindly Lion, and another gentleman who though very intelligent, thinks he doesn't have a brain; kind of an

early foreshadowing of the the self-esteem slash no child left behind debate that exists in all of us today.

 

What will become of this lively bunch ! , I asked myself as I visited the men's room, and went to get a pop-corn refill. As I came back I *was* a bit confused, as a  bunch of sort-of latter -day

I-ROBOT style flying monkies flocked and ran in a rude and, to this writer, scary manner across some hills and vales.

 

Well ! I was sorely premature to worry about the tenacity, nay prescience! , of young Natalie as she meets the Wizard, the wizard of the title I presume though this wasn't

made clear, has a charming conversation, and negotiates a passage home in a balloon. This part is foggier, but I remember a horse, a carriage, a large group of people, a balloon, and some scrolls.

In fact this denouement put me in mind of the last act of Austin Powers, where that man is over the hill and shouting to the audience as the credits roll about having

a broken leg, or the outtakes at the end of The Anchorman, in which Mr. Farrell, et al put their interpretation to a machismo-inflected News team.

 

I won’t spoil the ending as the young lady returns home, finds what she is looking for in some sense, and comes to an acclimation with the ‘rightness’ nay the prescience, of everyday life.

I couldn’t help wonder what becomes of this person in the future, which idea more widely circulated, if it were taken heed of, could lead to a quite successful sequel.