Okay, who's watching 'The Wizard of Oz' on TBS right now?

[StellaBlue]

And, ikhor, if you are reading this, I think the kava/Wizard combination could lead to real space/time continuum breakthroughs... :)

Anyway, 'The Wizard of Oz' is a great, great film! This is obviously some kind of new-fangled, digitally remastered version, and it looks GREAT!




I find it fascinating from the political allegory standpoint, as well, something that had not occurred to me myself, but was pointed out by a very enthusiastic US history professor my freshman year:


(snip)

Many of the events and characters of the book can be seen to stand for political events and ideas. Even the title has been interpreted as alluding to a political reality: oz. is an abbreviation for ounce, a unit familiar to those who fought for a 16 to 1 ounce ratio of silver to gold in the name of bimetallism.

The Kansas of the book depicts the hardship of rural life in America at the turn of the 20th century, right after the Panic of 1893. Dorothy is swept away to a fantasy version of America that represents the country's potential. Dorothy's powerful silver slippers (they were changed to ruby only in the film) and their superiority to the golden yellow brick road, perhaps the most dangerous route in American literature, reflect the intense political rhetoric of the era. Following the road of gold leads eventually only to the Emerald City, the fraudulent world of greenback paper money, which only pretends to have value. Other allegorical aspects of the book include:

Dorothy, naïve, young and simple, represents the American people. She is Eevryman, led astray and who seeks the way back home.
It has been suggested that Toto, a play on the word teetotalers, represents the Prohibitionists of the era, who were aligned with William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 and 1900 elections. But nothing in the story supports this strained interpretation.

The cyclone may possibly reflect a political revolution that will transform the drab country into a land of color and unlimited prosperity. The cyclone was used by editorial cartoonists of the 1890s to represent political upheaval.

The Wicked Witch of the East represents Eastern industrial power, the bankers and factories of the East; her oppression of the Munchkins stands for the oppression of the little people, the average Americans, at the hands of these financial forces. The little people celebrate their liberation as a political event. Her silver slippers reflect the way the bankers of the East had suppressed the secret of prosperity, namely, the free coinage of silver.

The good witches represent the northern and southern electoral votes, which a political coalition needs to win. The kiss represents the mandate of the voters.

The Tin Woodman is the industrialized worker, dehumanized by industrialization, just as the Tin Woodman little by little lost his natural body and had it replaced by metal; so he has lost his heart and cannot move without the help of farmers (Scarecrow); in reality he has a strong sense of cooperation and love, which needs only an infusion of self-confidence to be awakened. To secure a political revolution a coalition of Farmers and Workers was needed. The tin man was a common cartoon theme of the late 19th century, and often used in nonpolitical advertisements.

The evil Wicked Witch of the West is much disputed by scholars. The biggest evil in 1900 were the Trusts, that were sezing control of little businesses -- just as the Witch was doing. The most popular solution in 1900 was to Dissolve the Trusts, which is what Dorothy does. Others see the Witch as representing Western political influence, particularly the power exerted by the growing railroad industries. Others view the Wicked Witch of the West as representing nature. For Americans living in the West, especially the Great Plains where Populism had its political base, Nature was a destructive force, something to struggle against. In particular, she represents the harsh dustbowl weather the plagued the American everyman farmer from time to time. This is why it is water that defeats the Wicked Witch of the West and heat in the form of fire is her weapon of choice. Rain in the West, ending drought, would mean that Nature is no longer a malign force. Most controversial is the view that the Wicked Witch of the West represented graduates of the hated University of Michigan, the so called "Champions of the West". Her land is yellow, the color of gold; the Wizard, the apostle of paper money, wants her destroyed; she probably represents the bankers and financial interests who wished to maintain the gold standard and opposed the free coinage pof silver.

Uncle Henry was the archtypical farmer. In 1900 by far the most famous farmer in America was Henry Wallace, editor of the leading farm magazine (and grandfather of Franklin Roosevelt's second vice president, Henry A. Wallace.) Everyone called him "Uncle Henry."
Aunt Em is a matter of some dispute. Baum did have an Aunt M-- Matilda Joslyn Gage, who was a leader of the woman suffrage movement, but nothing about the book's character suggests suffrage interests.

The Emerald City represents a greenback version of the national capital, and is modeled after the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, officially named World Columbian Exposition, which dazzled millions as "The Great White City.". It is "emerald" only because those in it wear green glasses and hence think it is made of a green jewel; just as paper greenbacks have value only because people pretend that it has value.

The Scarecrow represents the American farmer—although he has been persuaded that he is only a dumb hick, he possesses a strong common sense that needs only to be reinforced by self-confidence.
The Cowardly Lion in some views represents politicians, possibly William Jennings Bryan, who were often accused of political cowardice. However, a more plausible interpretation is that the Lion--who has lost his nerve to exercise his role as the King of Beasts--represents the American people, who are the "King" of the USA, but who have lost their courage to take charge and exercise their true role.
The Winged Monkeys - playing on racist imagery common at the time - are said to represent African-Americans, oppressed by an overbearing force and who are relieved to be free of that bondage when the force is terminated. Others see them as hired Pinkerton Agents who worked for the Trusts and hounded labor unions.

The Wizard of Oz represenst the apostles of paper money, which pretends to be of value but is really worthless. A less plausible theory would have it that he is the president, thought to be all-powerful, but in the end exposed as a clever charlatan.
The poppy fields possibly represent Americans' fear of opium, linked to China and "the Orient". The poppy fields are also often viewed as representing America's foray into imperialism in Asia. Populists railed against imperialism because it distracted the United States (as the poppy fields distracted Dorothy from her goal of reaching the Emerald City) from dealing with the domestic troubles after the Depression of 1893. (Sure, the nation was slowly recovering, but this is still politics).

In addition, a number of developments in later books in the Oz series are sometimes given as further evidence. The primary example of this is in the sixth book in the series, The Emerald City of Oz. In this story, Dorothy's aunt and uncle, who have never financially recovered from the tornado, lose their farm to the bank. Dorothy takes them to live in Oz where, it is explained, there are no poor people because there is no money. All property is effectively owned by the Queen of Oz and distributed fairly, and everyone works autonomously (without "cruel overseers") for the good of the community and in turn the community provides everyone with what they desire.

Many of these interpretations are strained. What is clear is that Dorothy is Everyman, the Scarecrow is the farmer, the Tin Woodman is labor, the Cowardly Lion is the American electorate, the Yellow Brick Road is the path of gold money, the Emerald City is the fantasy of paper money, and the saving silver slippers are the free coinage of silver.

(/snip)

see even more, including links at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

[tjdee]

1. Watched it last night.

Love that movie--when I was a little kid it seemed like it lasted FOREVER, now it seems so short!

The only thing about it that bugs me is that "King of the Forest" should have been cut. Some of it is cute, but it doesn't add anything to the plot at all and it kind of bugs me. I'd prefer to see the Tin Man sing another song. :P He's my favorite.

[StellaBlue]

2. one correction

In my understanding, the winged monkeys represent the Chinese workers in the West, especially on the railroads (hence their 'Chinese' costumes).

[bikebloke]

3. A confession

I've never seen it in colour. As a kid, every year it came on, I watched it. By the time we got a colour telly, I was no longer interested. And that is the root of my evil. :evilgrin:

[StellaBlue]

4. haha

I remember watching it in B&W, too - and I am only 26, so... hrm... maybe I was totally color-blind for the first eight years of my life or something... ?

It's the first color feature... but Gone with the Wind is the first fully color feature, as WOZ has those artistically important B&W bookends. Well, they're more sepia..

1939 is my all-time favorite year for movies:

GWTW
WOZ
Goodbye, Mr Chips
Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Of Mice and Men
Only Angels Have Wings
Stagecoach
The Women (this version, with Joan Crawford is one of my favorites!)
Wuthering Heights

Oh, yeah - that wiki article also doesn't say anything about the fields of poppies and Dorothy's sudden sleepiness... hmmmm

[AlienGirl]

5. The first year we got a color TV, it was to watch it!

I remember how excited I was that our new TV had color. This must have been the late 70's, and we'd always had black and white TVs (except when we lived with relatives)--when we'd *had* TVs, or electricity, for that matter.

It always came on in February, and was one of the signs that winter would be over in a few months, along with the arrival of seed catalogues and the chickadees' mating call.

Tucker

[Lethe]

6. watching it right now...

waiting for the space/time continuum breakthroughs to begin :)

that wizard is a cranky guy. i keep waiting for him to say "Get off my lawn!" :P

[SW FL Dem]

7. It's been my favorite movie since I was a kid

So much so that I now have 3 Totos (cairn terriers). I didn't know it was on, so I am watching Desperate Housewives, but I will watch our DVD sometime before Thanksgiving. I always associate the movie with Thanksgiving because when I was growing up it always aired sometime in November.

[alarimer]

8. Now I picture George W. Bush singing If I only had a brain

fits him perfectly I think.