Nostalgia...The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of

Rating: 10/10 (23 July 2014)

I have come across this film during the various stages of my life with the interpretation of Dorothy's travels changing each time. Maturity is a sobering catalyst of realism which often extinguishes the merriment of candy coated mountain tops and melting lemon drops. Nostalgia, however, is the last hope one has that connects them to that place somewhere over the rainbow. Watching this film as an adult sometimes creates a feeling of confounding dismay. Why can't I? Is the question I ask as I sit in the unemployment line or spit shine my useless, but nicely framed college degree. As I sit here broke, burdened and depressed by the tribulations of my adulthood, nostalgia finds its way into my gloomy existence offering a map to emerald city. How dare Dorothy lie to me, by igniting my ambitions as a child only to let me down in my adulthood. Is this the fault of Dorothy and her fellow conspirators or has the interpretation of her experience changed? I guess I will go with the latter since I know now that the place somewhere over the rainbow is still attainable, however, this place has a refurbished sense of meaning to me. This place exemplifies a spiritual paradise that can only be attained by faith. Here on earth, the daily grinds of life will always find a way to kill what little hope I have left, but money, credit cards, and SallieMae can never purchase the true feeling of spiritual freedom otherwise known to me as that place somewhere over the rainbow. I guess nostalgia has won me over yet again.