Ambrose Bierce Will Find the Devil in the Details

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2009)

While this is my favorite movie of all time primarily because I saw it on TV every year growing up (and could scare my little sister by humming the Witch's Theme any time it was cloudy outside), Ambrose will be seeing it for the first time with adult vision (as he was 97 years old when it premiered), so he will like OZ for reasons different from my initial reactions. L. Frank Baum's original OZ title was the last book Bierce read aloud to his grandchildren, prior to his ill-fated tie-in with Pancho Villa. I presume Baum's fantasy (primarily an anti-gold standard screed) will be fresh in Bierce's mind when he's fully thawed out. The author of THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY will no doubt agree with me that this is a case where the movie is actually BETTER than the book (along the lines of Peter O'Toole's LORD JIM or William Hurt's recent TUCK EVERLASTING, which barely topped its outstanding youth novel). What he'll notice his first time through OZ (which did not dawn on me until college) is all the dark undertones of Emerald City. Even if unaware of Judy Garland's off-set torture by her foster dad Louie Mayer and his henchmen, Ambrose will be perceptive enough to see how the innocent children's tale is totally sexualized by shoe-horning a young woman with a duct-taped bosom into a role (Dorothy Gale) more appropriate for Shirley Temple. This subliminal perversity is what makes OZ the quintessential American film experience for any age--particularly Bierce's robust 207. He'll also get a special kick out of MGM's crass substitution of in-heat ruby red slippers for Baum's original silver footwear (which no doubt caused L.Frank to turn over in his grave, seeing as how this totally castrated his main purpose for writing OZ in the first place!).
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: The body of noted American author (An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge) Ambrose Bierce, born June 24, 1842, recently was discovered in total cryogenic hibernation at the back of a Central American warehouse. Bierce is expected to be fully defrosted by late 2049 or early 2050. Based on my 85 previously posted IMDb comments and background in Bierce studies, the author's guardians have commissioned me to review a periodically updated list of films to help guide his future leisure pursuits, with the provision that my comments also be made available to the general public.