A true classic, if ever I saw one

Rating: 7/10 (28 December 2013)

The Wizard of Oz is a story of a woman who discovers that there is no place like home. Granted, it is a musical, and I am not a big fan of musicals, but this film is a classic if there ever was one, and it truly is a film for all the family.
Dorothy is a teenager whose best friend is her dog Toto and she lives in Kansas during the dust bowl. To say that life was hard is an understatement, and Dorothy dreams of a better place. It is not helped that a neighbour hates her dog and wants to put it down, so she runs away from home, only to be convinced by a magician that her auntie wants her to come back. However she never gets there as she is caught up in a tornado and taken 'over the rainbow'.
Granted, this is all a dream, but to her the dream is real. Each of the characters that she meets in Oz is a reflection of one of the characters back home, and further the wicked witch is the horrid neighbour. Back home, she was told to use her brains and to have courage, two of the qualities that her travelling companions are seeking.
The Wizard of Oz is a story about a girl growing up and becoming an adult. Learning that there is truly no place like home, and that those whom she lives with love her dearly and are worried about her. Of course Toto, her faithful companion, is by her side all the time. Further, in Oz she is a hero, but this pales in comparison to her desire to return home, and that is the purpose of the quest.
True, the Wizard turns out to be a fraud, and it is interesting that Toto jumps out of the balloon that the wizard is using to get home, but it turns out that it is much easier to get home than travelling in a balloon, and we all know how she does it.
As for the music, or more so, the singing. Many movies these days have music, but it is rare indeed for the characters to burst out into song, unless the song is a part of the film. However, songs play an important role in this film, and in a way bring out the character's emotions in a way that dialogue is unable to do. Long gone are the plays with lengthy discourses, however these seem to be replaced by songs in the musicals, though the discourses are nowhere near as deep or as thought provoking as they are in Shakespeare. Still, they add much to the characters that, as I have said previously, simply cannot be done with dialogue.