After seeing this year a couple of sequels, I have some thoughts on the Wizard of Oz, which our man David reviewed 6 years ago:
https://discuss.avscience.com/index.php?topic=2270.msg14495#msg14495 I first saw the movie on our Black and White TV and like it. It was the cut-up, time shrunk movie version that CBS ran once a year. I was MUCH older and astonished when we got or 17 inch color Zenith TV. I thought this was a black and white movie. And it started in black and white, not sepia. But when Dorothy opens the door to OZ, it’s technicolor!!!!!! Oh my.
I have gone from thinking this was a good movie, to a great movie, to an outstanding movie. Maybe one of the best ever made. None of the sequels have stayed in my heart like the original. None has made me think about them as mcuh and none have givem me the courage to see them again.
I actually read the book recently, to my niece, and saw that the movie took what was best from the book and then added movie elements that are unforgettable. For example, the book could not “visualize” the dual roles of the stars, as farmhands and inhabitants of Oz. And Dorothy was “as tall as a Muchkin” in ther book.
In 1985 there was “Return to Oz.” This was a terrible movie, not worthy discussing.
More recently, “Wicked.” This movie as just okay, but, for me did not capture the magic of the book. In gthis overlong (and soon to be longer movie) the “good” witch is bad and the “bad” witch is good.
1978, “The Wiz.” Well, I just saw this on Turner Classic Movies. When it first came out, it was considered a flop and I think it deserves that. Having a 34 year old woman play Dorothy doesn’t make it. I did like Michael Jackson “easing down the road” but the main elements of the story are so diminished by the writing and the casting. Of course, the announcers on TCM thought this movie was not just good, but great.
“David wrote: “The beloved classic hits 4K and delivers in spades. Warner has taken great care with this masterpiece over the years and will be sure to entertain audiences for another 80 years. Highly recommended.”Damn right, Dave!
You can, years later, sit back and relax, enjoy and relate to so many elements of it. Maybe a movie and a heart should be measured not just by box office, but “by how much others love you.”
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