The Wizard of Oz is 72 years old.
Today, if Dorothy were to encounter men with no brains, no hearts, and no balls,
she wouldn’t be in Oz.
She’d be in Congress!
The women aren’t much better. Has Congress ever had such a low approval rating? Thanks to Bear for our Sunday Birthday wish to the Wizard of Oz.
More importantly, the wizard was just a little man behind a curtain, not the all-powerful. Who really is behind the curtain and who is really running things? I think we all should be scared. Whoever is running things is rich and powerful and the rest of us are just peons.
My eyes are on the jesters. They gain confidence and always know where the skeletons are buried. Meanwhile, watch out for the flying monkeys and the witches. The witches aren’t what they seem to be. We aren’t in Kansas any more.
Before the days of DVD’s and VCR’s, remember waiting anxiously for all of the holiday specials to come on television? I seem to remember “Wizard of Oz” came on in the spring. And no one wanted to show up at school and say they didn’t see the Grinch or all of the Charlie Brown specials the night before. It was an annual event. Now you can just get it all at Costco, along with your milk, cheese and tires, anytime you want.
No rights of passage? Or is that rites of passage?
1939 was one hell of a year for hollywood, yes?
I’ve always thought that the “Good Witch” and the Wizard were evil. Yes, I know that Dorothy had to want to go home…but the Good witch and the Wiz made sure that their enemy had been vanquished BEFORE telling her. Furthermore, the Wiz sent a 12 year old girl on a mission to steal the Wicked Witch’s broom, knowing full well that the WW was an evil monster and that Dorothy would either perish or have to kill the witch.
That’s dreadful. The “good” witch withheld the knowledge of how to get home from her and the wiz sent a 12 year old to either die or kill.
And is it possible that the “good witch” didn’t know that the wizard was a con man? She didn’t look to surprised when he was revealed.
Other than that…..I think its one of the greatest movies ever made and I watch it every time it comes on.
As a nation, we send 18 year olds to do the same thing. Not so sure that is all that different.
All of fiction is fraught with children being sent on adult missions.
You make “The Wizard of Oz” sound like 1939’s “Hunger Games.”
@Cargosquid
Sorry, but while watching it one year as a kid, I realized that an adult was sending a child to steal the broom from the witch, even though that “wizard” knew that was a useless thing. Ever since, I’ve really not liked the wizard. And even as a small kid, I thought that the Glenda the Good Witch should have told Dorothy about the power of the shoes.
Can you tell that I’ve never read the books……
I once spent a fun-filled summer playing the Tin Man. I was in a mixed amateur/professional theater group in California and we had a ball doing this play.
@George S. Harris
I can truly believe that was a good summer.
It was a lot of fun. It was great fun to watch the reaction of the kids who would come to the show. It was all very real to them–particularly when we come out into the audience on our way to the Emerald City.
Did Tin Man have a name or did he just go by Tin Man?