THE WIZARD OF OZ RETROSPECTIVE:
AN INTRODUCTION
If there is an American mythology, the L. Frank Baum book series about a magical land populated with wise scarecrows and wicked witches would be a strong contender. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the first of an eventual fourteen books that Baum would write, with the series continuing with other writers in the same vein. I think most Americans are familiar with at least the story in the first book, that of little Dorothy Gale from Kansas, swept into the world of Oz where she meets curious friends and foes in a quest to get back home.
Oz could be the American equivalent to J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth The Lord of the Rings and its ensuing books. Both reflect their writers' world: the bucolic shires for Tolkien, the flat Midwest expanse for Baum. Both have fantastical worlds and figures drawing from earlier legends such as wizards and witches. Oz is so engrained into the American psyche that it feels almost as our collected heritage. For a nation that did not have myths and legends except for those of Native Americans, Baum's Oz series is something that unites us as Americans.
The power of Oz is probably best captured in the 1939 MGM musical film. The Wizard of Oz is one of the crown jewels of that magical year in film, one whose legend has grown more ever since it became a tradition to broadcast The Wizard of Oz once a year. Lines of dialogue and sequences are fully ingrained in the American vernacular. If you say anything from "It's a twister! It's a twister!" to "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!", or talk about flying monkeys or start shouting, "Ding-dong, the witch is dead!" it is almost certain that you know where all that originates from.
Yet, The Wizard of Oz is not the first or the only film or television adaptation of the Baum book series. There was at least one silent film made in 1925. There are also variations of the Oz stories, sequels, prequels and stage musicals. Wicked, a successful prequel that tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West, may now rule the Great White Way, but is not the first time there is an Oz-based Broadway show. There was a 1902 musical as well as The Wiz, a black-centric version, shifting the story from Kansas to Harlem.
There are so many variations on Baum's stories that it would take days to go over them. However, with the upcoming film adaptation of the musical Wicked, I thought it would be a good time to explore some projects connected to L. Frank Baum's masterful vision of this fantasy world. As such, I start on my Wizard of Oz Retrospective. I will look over various versions of the Oz stories set to film, along with a television biopic of Oz's creator, L. Frank Baum. There is also a documentary that connects The Wizard of Oz with avant-garde film director David Lynch.
We're off to see the Wizard in various film and television incarnations. I hope everyone enjoys our stroll down the Yellow Brick Road with this Wizard of Oz Retrospective.
I have previously reviewed Oz the Great and Powerful and The Wiz. The other Oz-related reviews are for this retrospective.
The Wizard of Oz Retrospective: The Conclusions
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