It's Not a Children's Story

Rating: 10/10 (10 October 2005)

An interesting treatment of the human unconscious can be found in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz directed by Victor Fleming and featuring Judy Garland, Margaret Hamilton, Billie Burke and Frank Morgan. A young adolescent girl, Dorothy, living with her aunt and uncle on a farm in Kansas, is threatened with the loss of her dog, Toto, who is not only her pet but her best friend, confidante and closest companion. Powerless to prevent Toto from being removed from the home (Toto had bitten Ms. Gulch, the town sour puss), Dorothy runs away from home, taking Toto with her. On the road she encounters a kindly traveling salesman who through clever trickery convinces the highly suggestible girl that she must return home at once. Now alarmed, Dorothy rushes back to her home but on the way a tornado is fast approaching the farm. When she finally arrives home, the family has taken refuge in the cellar and cannot hear Dorothy's frantic banging on the cellar door. Now terrified, Dorothy and Toto rush into the house which is shaking violently from the tornado which is now directly over the house. Dorothy is struck on the head by flying debris and is knocked unconscious. She awakes to find herself in a strange new land called Oz where she meets many interesting characters and experiences many adventures as she struggles to find her way back home. She is told by the good witch of the north that she has to follow the yellow brick road. While traveling on the yellow brick road Dorothy's fortitude is repeatedly tested as she fends herself, Toto and her friends against the wicked witch of the west, a violent and malevolent figure who blames Dorothy for the death of her sister, the wicked witch of the east, and has vowed revenge. Finally, after finding the Wizard of Oz, who is revealed to be a fraud, Dorothy is preparing to leave the land of Oz by floating back to Kansas in a balloon. But her plan goes awry when Toto jumps from the balloon and Dorothy follows leaving her stranded as the balloon floats away; at this point she awakes and is disoriented, adamantly insisting to her family and farm hands, who are standing around her, that her dream was real. Dorothy however has changed. At the start of the movie, she is behaving like a frightened little girl, whining and cranky, but after she awakes she has matured and is now aware of the power and strength that was buried deep inside her unconscious and which surfaced in the dream and is now part of her consciousness. Besides presenting a unique and provocative story, what makes this movie particularly effective as a work of art is the strong acting, especially that of Margaret Hamilton whose portrayal of the wicked witch of the west, with her loud, cackling laugh, ugly, distorted sneer, and greenish skin, is the epitome of evil. Far from being campy, this movie explores several psychological themes, including consciousness vs. unconsciousness, developmental issues, inter-familial dynamics, the nature of dreams, and behavioral issues, and highlights virtues such as courage, fortitude and loyalty, delves into the nature of conflict, the nature of terror, provides a credible portrayal of separation anxiety, and explores gender roles and death. Further, a particularly intriguing feature of this movie is that both the protagonist (Dorothy) and antagonist (the wicked witch of the west) are strong female figures locked in a life or death struggle in a hostile, unfamiliar environment. Indeed, the wicked witch of the west directly commands an army while Dorothy directly commands three male figures, including a lion and later the wizard of oz himself. The male characters are portrayed as being dependent, indecisive, vulnerable and subordinate to the females who dominate all facets of the story. And what makes this movie even more impressive is that it was produced not by mental health experts but by a Hollywood studio wanting to create a commercial product based on a book for children written by a journalist. The movie also features several songs that have become iconic fixtures in contemporary western culture and still attracts a large audience, seventy one years after its initial release. The Wizard of Oz may be the most-watched movie in history.
Don't let the title fool you. It's not a children's story. Rather it's a complex tale involving a confused and rebellious teenage girl who runs away from home, is knocked unconscious in a storm and has a dream that is essentially one long nightmare, as the terrified girl desperately seeks a way to return home, a home that she had forsaken. In her nightmare/dream she meets many bizarre characters, all of whom are caricatures of people she knows in her real life, and these characters are strange and scary, especially the wicked witch who absolutely loathes the girl, who has no one to protect her except three companions whose inadequacies are a central feature of the story. In fact, the girl would have done better to have avoided these characters -the lion who is a coward, the rusty tin man with no heart, and the scarecrow with nothing but hay inside him - but then there would not have been a movie. The music is catchy, and Judy Garland's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is truly classic, and the color cinematography is great, so I definitely recommend it. But this movie could frighten young children who do not understand the complexities of the story and characters, and could frighten adults as well, especially those adults who are afraid of screaming green skinned women who fly around on broom sticks and melt when they are doused by a bucket of water.