Not Really a Friend of Dorothy

Rating: 6/10 (13 January 2012)

During the British general election of 1983, the centrist Social Democratic Party mocked their political rivals by depicting Margaret Thatcher as the Tin Man and Labour leader Michael Foot as the Scarecrow from "The Wizard of Oz". The accompanying caption read "One hasn't got a heart; the other hasn't got a brain". Unfortunately, they appear to have forgotten that Dorothy had three companions, not two, and it was quickly suggested by both Conservative and Labour supporters that the SDP leader Roy Jenkins- a politician often accused by his opponents of lacking any convictions to have the courage of- must therefore be the Cowardly Lion.
I mention this story because it shows how deeply this film has become a part of popular culture, so much so that a reference to it was readily understood by voters at an election more than forty years after it was made. If anything, the story is even more familiar today than it was in 1983, following repeated television showings (normally during the Christmas holidays) and the opening of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on it. In Britain at least, its fame has eclipsed that of the novel on which it is based. The story is so well-known that I won't try to summarise it here, except to say that, like "Alice in Wonderland", it deals with the adventures of a young girl in a bizarre fantasy world.
The film is not only well-known, it is also highly regarded; it frequently features in lists of the "100 Greatest Movies Ever Made". (Sometimes even the "10 Greatest Movies Ever Made"). Certainly, it has its good points. Ray Bolger's Scarecrow, Jack Haley's Tin Man and Bert Lahr's camp Lion are all inspired comic creations, as is Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West, although several of her scenes were cut because the studio thought that they would frighten young children. There is some imaginative use of colour- the bright, vivid colours during the Oz scenes would doubtless seem unbearably hectic and strident in any realistic film, but in a film set in a fantasy world they fit in with the strange, dreamlike mood. The use of monochrome for the real world and colour for imaginary ones became something of a cliché in fantasy movies after this, although Michael Powell was to reverse this convention to brilliant effect in "A Matter of Life and Death".
The casting of the teenaged Judy Garland as Dorothy (supposedly a nine-year-old) made sense from a musical point of view, as she copes far better with the demands of the film's numerous songs than any child actress could have done, but children in the audience might have found it easier to identify with the character had she been played by someone closer to their own age. (Shirley Temple, six years younger than Garland, was at one time considered for the part). As an actor, as opposed to a singer, Garland's performance in this film is nothing special, but that may have more to do with the way her character is written. Dorothy is essentially a passive character who acts as straight woman to a series of comic ones. Some of the other acting contributions are not very good, particularly Billie Burke's rather wooden Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Given that Glinda is supposed to be young and beautiful, it seemed rather odd to cast an actress in her fifties in this particular role.
The film was originally intended as a children's movie, although I don't think it works very well as one. This may have been the reason why it was a box office failure in 1939; its subsequent fame has been due to repeated broadcasts on television and its taking on the status of an adult cult. When we were taken to see it as children, my younger sister was terrified by the witch and I was bored, especially during those sepia-and-white scenes in Kansas. Some of the songs, such as "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" and "We're Off to See the Wizard" are jolly enough to appeal to children, but "Over the Rainbow", sentimental corn-syrup in its purest form, has always struck me, both as a child and as an adult, as one of the most over-rated songs ever written.
Most children's films from this period had to have an improving moral, and "The Wizard of Oz" has two. The first- that one must look inside oneself for qualities such as intelligence, kindliness and courage- is unexceptionable, but the other, "There's no place like home", seems rather parochial, even un-American, given that America is a country of immigrants, most of whom moved to the New World precisely because they couldn't, for one reason or another, find their heart's desire in their original homelands.
I must confess that I am not really a Friend of Dorothy. It is not that I hate the film, or even seriously dislike it. It is simply that, like another reviewer, I cannot understand why it is so often mentioned in the same breath as genuinely great films like "Gone with the Wind", "Casablanca" or "Citizen Kane". I am prepared to accept "The Wizard of Oz" as a colourful, imaginative and at times enjoyable piece of fantasy. I just can't see it as one of the Greatest Movies of All Time. 6/10