This film is based on a book written by L. Frank Baum. When a tornado rips through Kansas, Dorothy and her dog Toto are whisked away in their house to the magical land of Oz. They follow the Yellow Brick Road leading to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard. En route they meet a Scarecrow that needs a brain, a Tin Man missing a heart and a Cowardly Lion wanting courage. The wizard asks the group to bring him the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West to earn his help. “The Wizard of Oz” powerfully filled a void that exists inside many children. For kids of a certain age, home is everything and the center of the world. But over the rainbow, dimly guessed at, is the wide earth, fascinating and terrifying. There is a deep fundamental fear that events might conspire to transport the child from the safety of home and strand him far away in a strange land. And what would he hope to find there? He would find new friends to advise and protect him. And Toto is included because children have such a strong symbiotic relationship with their pets and they assume they would get lost together.
This DVD had not been previously available on 4K Blu Ray and the transfer is from the original 1939 movie. The opening scenes are in sepia tones. The characters seem lifelike even in the sepia tones. It’s possible to discover new things in the film because of the high definition. As soon as the travelers arrive in the kingdom of the wizard, the tones change to glorious technicolor. There are many stand out scenes that come to life in color. The faces are in vivid detail and there are many vivid colors. 5* (I really liked this movie)
102 min, Adventure directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, written by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf with judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, Pat Walshe, Clara Blandick, Terry, The Singer Midgets.
Note: Imdb 8* out of 10* with 373,497 reviews, Roger Ebert 4*, Rotten Tomatoes 98% with 121 critic reviews 89% with 250,000 audience scores, Common Sense Media 5*, age 6+, Metacritic 92 out of 100 with 30 critic reviews 8.5* out of 10* with 451 user scores, Amazon 5* 27049 reviews.
Special Note: Throughout the rest of his career, Jack Haley denounced the idea that the making of this film was enjoyable? "People question me and say 'Must've been fun making "The Wizard of Oz".' It was not fun. It was like hell it was fun!! It was a lot of hard work!! It was not fun at all!! Many of The Wicked Witch of the West's scenes were either trimmed or deleted entirely. This was because Margaret Hamilton’s performance was thought to be too frightening for audiences? Margaret was a lifelong fan of the "Oz" books and she was ecstatic when she learned the producers were considering her for a part in the film. When she phoned her agent to find out what role she was up for, her agent simply replied, "The witch, who else?” Judy Garland found it difficult to be afraid of Margaret because she was such a nice lady off-camera.
Mistakes: When Dorothy uses the knocker on the door to the Emerald City, four knocks are heard although she only hits the door three times. The first is heard as she is drawing the knocker back. After saying "Well, my little pretty, I can cause accidents too," the Witch says something else which we do not hear. The script backs up this claim. The additional dialog was: "And this is how I do it!” The real wizard makes the fake wizard's voice by talking directly into the microphone but when the fake wizard says "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" the real wizard is pulling back the curtain, pointed away from the microphone and not talking at all.
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