Film Form in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Wizard of Oz is probably one of the most popular fantasy films among the children. The main reason for that is the magical plot, beautiful costumes, fascinating characters and catchy soundtrack that will not leave any person indifferent. Such notions as Emerald City, roads made of yellow bricks, the monkeys that can fly became a ground for plenty of allusions.
The main motifs of the film may easily be defined as:
Self-development and self-improvement
The true nature and significance of friendship
The boundaries between good and evil.
A simple plot tells us about a girl Dorothy, who returns to her house from the confrontation with her neighbor who snatch her puppy Toto. Dorothy decides to run away to save her little pet and friend, but they find themselves caught in the middle of the hurricane which bring their house to some mysterious land where the adventure of Dorothy and Toto just starts (The Wizard Of Oz).
An amusing fact is that all the events in the real world are filmed in the black and white color. The director uses sepiatone color to show the attitude of Dorothy to the real world of adults where everyone treats her bad and she can hardly find any pleasure in that colorless world. As opposed to the real world, the fictional world of Oz is filmed and described in a Technicolor, so it is bright and colorful.
Anyway, her house lands near two witches: the good and the bad. Apparently one of them tries to help Dorothy to return back to Kansas while the other one comes up with a devilish plan for vengeance (The Wizard Of Oz).
Keeping on her adventure Dorothy meets three characters that are well-known for all viewers and readers. These characters are a Scarecrow that seeks the brain, a Tin Man that seeks the heart and a Lion that seeks the bravery (The Wizard Of Oz).
Some of the people believe that it is just a simple fairy tale the main purpose of which is to entertain the children, but with the implementation of a Technicolor camera some of the symbols of the film such as the yellow brick road or the ruby slippers reflects some cultural, economical and social issues of American history. In most cases color is used for reflecting a social class of a character or his racial characteristics and features.
When Dorothy meets the witches, we may notice that Wicked Witch has green skin, which indicates her bed intentions and evil nature, while the other people have an ordinary color of a skin. Probably the author wanted to show that the problem of segregated culture still exists and some people have issues and difficulties with living in the society because of their race and color of skin (Griswold).
Watching the movie we may notice the changing of the character of the Dorothy. From the little girl her character moves to a woman who practically becomes a mother for three adventurers as she is the one who makes the right decisions and know how to act.
When we first watched the film, during the scene of the introducing of a Lion we thought that he is just a bully-lion who likes to pick on the weaker creatures, but it turns out that he is just a coward (The Wizard Of Oz).
Another fascinating symbol that reflects the true realia of a real world is an Emerald City. The road that leads to this green city is made of yellow bricks which symbolize the hard work and labor, but the city itself is very fancy, solemn and beautiful. Everything is green, which in some cases may embody the image of money. It means that all of the habitants of the Emerald city as well as the Wizard of Oz are very selfish, hypocritical and they can not be trusted with anything.
The framing of sepia colors at the beginning and the end of the film in the scenes of the real world may be explained by the desire of the director to reflect and emphasize the political situation of the country when the whole country were in some sort of a depression.
The fullness of color in the magical world symbolizes brighter and better future, the hope of coming over all of the problems and obstacles. But in the end, we see that Dorothy returns to the grey reality with the same routine (The Wizard Of Oz).
As for my own experience concerned with the film Wizard of Oz, I must say that it influenced me positively. Seeing the film for the first time forced me to read the book. In addition this film developed my imagination and showed me the difference between good and bad, courage and cowardness, smartness and dullness, sincerity and dishonesty. That is why I strongly recommend all my friends to watch this movie.
Anyway, despite of all the political, historical, cultural, social and economical references, the film Wizard of Oz allows us to forget about all our problems and get ourselves involved into a magical world of mysteries, witches, good friends and terrifying creatures.
Works Cited
The Wizard Of Oz. United States: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939. DVD.
Griswold, Jerry. "There's No Place But Home: The Wizard Of Oz". The Antioch Review 45.4 (1987): 462. Web.
