Critiquing a Film: The Wizard of Oz - Movie Review Example

Critiquing a Film: The Wizard of Oz and Number Submitted Critiquing a Film: The Wizard of Oz When consideringsome of the greatest movies of all time, for many, The Wizard of Oz comes to mind (Warner Bros. Family Entertainment, 1939). As it was released in 1939 as a cinematic feature that contained both black and white and color features, it is still a classic all-time favorite with several present that made it a film that was well beyond its time as far as creating a movie was concerned. This analysis will describe some of the aspects of its production that created a worldwide phenomenon that is still popular to this day. This is an attempt to look at why The Wizard of Oz is still so popular and what elements of cinematography were used in that film that have built upon in other films. After celebrating a special digital film honor of the 70 year anniversary, the storytelling and fantasy of the movie is considered as one of the greatest films of all time. When examining the storytelling in this film, one must consider that it was a film that was produced based on a book by L. Frank Baum beginning with the first of a total of 14 books about the Land of Oz in 1900. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz instantly became one of the first best-selling fairytales in America. After that, the book was created into a musical in 1903 that ran for over seven years. In 1910, the first production of this movie came to the screen in 1910 as a silent film on one reel and was produced by Col. William Selig. Baum began the production of some of his own films about the Land of Oz and the books he had written (Turner Entertainment Company, 2009). Upon Baum’s death in 1919, several authors continued to write stories based on the adventures of a lost Kansas girl and her dog and her companions, the lion, the scarecrow and the tinman. Eventually in 1925, Baum’s oldest son and Larry Semon produced a full length feature movie that was still silent. A man by the name of Samuel Goldwyn announced that he would be creating a Technicolor production complete with songs in 1933 but the project did not evolve immediately. It was not until 1939 that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced The Wizard of Oz which brought in a record-breaking number of people in attendance. This movie then won five Academy nominations including a nomination for Best Picture in 1940. That same year, lead actress, Judy Garland, who played the lead role of Dorothy, a displaced farm girl from Kansas who is trying to find her way back home after a magical journey through Oz, was also recognized with special awards. The movie also won two Oscar awards (Turner Entertainment Company, 2009). When it comes to the element of storytelling in this classic movie, the story of a girl from Kansas evolves while in black and white picturing, which was actually sepia toned. This shows her life as a farm girl that lives with her aunt and uncle and is terrorized by a mean neighbor lady that wishes to destroy her dog. The farmhands play a small role in the beginning of the black and white film at this point. Dorothy plans a getaway to run away from home after her dog escapes from the neighbor’s bicycle basket and makes it home. Dorothy takes a visit upon Dr. Marvel, a man who encourages her to travel home because it appeared that Auntie Em was falling sick and had a broken heart. Dorothy immediately rushes to the family farm when a tornado strikes. When she is in her room and everyone else is hiding in a storm cellar, she is struck upon the head with a window and as she is knocked out, she is transported to a place full of magic and is in full Technicolor. This is where Dorothy’s adventures begin as she seeks a way home with the help of her newly acquired friends: the scarecrow, the tinman and the cowardly lion all while trying to escape the grip of the evil Wicked Witch of the West as Dorothy’s house had landed upon her sister. When the house landed upon the witch’s sister, Dorothy was granted magical ruby slippers and she wore them on her way to find the magical Wizard to help her get home to Kansas. When it comes to good elements of storytelling, one must look at the setting, the character, the plot and the backstory (Appelcline, 2012). In The Wizard of Oz, the setting is both in Kansas and in Oz, including Munckinland, the witch’s castle and various locations that are on the yellow brick road that she must follow to find Oz. It is always evident where Dorothy is as her time spent in Kansas was filmed in black and white and her time traveling through Oz is in color. The main characters differ in each setting. In Kansas, Dorothy, her family, the farmhands, and the wretched neighbor all contribute to various aspects of the story particularly in the beginning and then come back into the picture at the end of the film after Dorothy has returned back from her adventure. The main characters while Dorothy has landed in her dream world are herself and the various people she meets along the way whom are significantly the scarecrow, the tinman, the lion, the Wicked Witch of the West and Glenda, the good witch. Another significant character who the story also plays a large role around is the actual Wizard who is not unveiled until later. As far as Dorothy knows, she is on a journey to meet someone who can supposedly help her and is a magical person whom the people of Oz deeply respect. According to Appelcline, good story telling is a novel idea that makes a person want to know more and draws a person in (Appelcline, 2012). The adventurous fairytale throughout the Land of Oz is just that. The plot that includes dialogue with many people throughout the film also add to help build on the character development, letting viewers know just what it is that Dorothy is looking for. The setting obviously changes and is most obvious when the appearance of the movie changes from black and white viewing to color to display that a new world has been uncovered. When looking at the acting in this movie, it comes down to the fact that the storyline is the largest part of the movie. Judy Garland played a major role in being an innocent Kansas farm girl merely looking to get home. The Wicked Witch of the West could be considered one of the most intriguing characters due to her hatefulness, vengeance and methods to try to destroy Dorothy and her friends in order to get the magical ruby slippers back. The witch appears in various locations and the acting done by the witch makes her appear evil and terrifying, often causing a viewer to wonder if Dorothy will ever survive the wicked powers of the witch. The acting done by the other characters, including the lion, tinman and scarecrow is also believable that they are true and honest people that want to help Dorothy and all the while are on their own missions to see if the Wizard will help them find courage, a heart and a brain, respectively. They play friendly characters and though they are merely strangers, strive to help Dorothy though it could be at the risk of their own lives in the battle against the witch. When examining the cinematography from a shot by shot analysis, there are several ways that the director and producer established what was going on in the movie. For example, toward the end of the film when Dorothy is ready to leave in a hot air balloon to go with the Wizard to find a way back to Kansas, the first cinematic shot establishes a scene of Emerald City. It shows that the bands are playing and the crowds are cheering as the man known as the Wizard is saving someone again. The shot is short but lets people know where Dorothy still is. There is a medium shot of the Wizard talking to the crowd and the camera zooms in closely to watch him. The shots are all short with low key music playing in the background, showing that the crowd is in an excited uproar and that they truly respect the kind deeds of the great Wizard. There is a close up of Toto, Dorothy’s dog growling and a quick medium shot shows a woman’s cat meowing at Toto. The camera pans back to the dog as it jumps out of the balloon and a quick close up shot showing Dorothy hopping out of the balloon so she will not leave the dog behind only to the point where the hot air balloon starts to fly in the air. The camera tilts upward to show that the hot air balloon and the Wizard have left Dorothy behind. A cut back to Dorothy shows that she is still stuck in Emerald City with her friends. Soft music plays and the image of a pink bubble carrying the Good Witch of the North, Glenda, comes with soft lighting showing that help is on the way. The lighting is bright so to depict to viewers that the Good Witch is still there and may be able to offer a solution. This is just an example of some of the usage of establishing shots used to show where Dorothy is. These types of camera shots are used throughout the movie to show that Dorothy has embarked on a new place. Dorothy is leaving Munchkinland, the film fades to dark and then the movie jump cuts to a place where Dorothy is beside a field and has met the scarecrow. Many times, the camera fades to dark throughout the film and then jumps to a new location so to establish that she is in a new location but without telling the details of how she made her journey there. Viewers are left to fill in the pieces of the puzzle that she has long traveled the yellow brick road to get to the point where she is. At each new point, she meets an additional person to go with her on her journey. Using these types of shots helps to establish the setting. When evaluating the way that the director had to plan out the shot list for such an epic movie, Fleming knew that he would still be able to grasp the viewer’s attention but still leave out any irrelevant details of Dorothy’s journey. This does not leave out any major parts of the movie. However, at any time where Dorothy or her friends elicit any intense moments of emotion, the director uses longer than normal shots to give viewers the feeling that the characters feel. Everything is in chronological order so that all events that take place in the movie make sense (Outlaw, 2006). The use of the score of music also helps to establish how viewers should feel. When there is conflict, the music is dark. The sound effects of owls in the scary forest are aimed to show that the area is a deep dark and strange place which mimics Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tinman’s fear before encountering the Cowardly Lion. When the setting transforms to the poppies, the music changes and is light hearted, giving viewers the sense that since the Emerald City is in view, that all should be happy as she has made it. With the numerous songs in this film, not only is this movie a fictional fairytale but is also could be categorized as a musical. The movie score is thought to somewhat mimic that of Pink Floyd and there have been many researchers that have tried to make a correlation to the band’s album “Dark Side of the Moon.” (Mignolo, A., 2012). When taking a look at the impact that The Wizard of Oz has made on society, this fairytale was designed to be a children’s movie but there are people of all ages that still watch the movie as it periodically runs on television and has been re-released in several special editions including the most recent 70 year anniversary edition. Numerous collectors have a wealth of different products that can be found all over the website and it has quite a cult following of all ages. The songs and quotes are still sang and repeated by members of society that have grown to love the film. It has even been named to the National Film Registry and was one of the first. It is considered a film that will forever remain one of that is a part of America’s film heritage (ReelClassics, 2010). Many film critics consider this to be one of the greatest films to impact cultural society ever. L. Frank Baum had a vivid imagination and the producers and directors were able to carry that out in a land where magic was nothing short of true. Many film critics even go as far to say that this movie was symbolic in some of the meaning of the society of that time as the Wicked Witch represented financial interests of that time and that because she was from the East, represented business of eastern society. (Mignolo, 2012). References Appelcline, K. (2012). The elements of good storytelling. Retrieved from http://www.skotos.net/articles/GoodStorytelling.html Fleming, V., Langley, N., Ryerson, F., Woolf, E. A., Rosson, H., LeRoy, M., Garland, J., ... Warner Bros. Family Entertainment (Firm). (1939). The Wizard of Oz. Mignolo, A. (2012). Transmedia project: The Wizard of Oz: Analysis and findings. Retrieved from http://al285transmedia.wordpress.com/analysis-findings/ Outlaw, T. (2006, Feb. 2). Shot analysis in cinema and film: Examples of shot-by-shot analysis and terminology associated with it. Yahoo! Voices. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/shot-analysis-cinema-film-16153.html?cat=4 Reel Classics (2010, June 21). Wizard of Oz: 1939. Reel Classics, LLC. Retrieved from http://www.reelclassics.com/Musicals/Wizoz/wizoz.htm Turner Entertainment Company, Warner Bros. Entertainment Company (2009). History, The Wizard of Oz. Retrieved from http://thewizardofoz.warnerbros.com/ Read More