I'm over the rainbow...

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2000)

All things aside, this is still one of the greatest movies ever made. The story is one of the most treasured and well known in the world, its morals are true, its idealisms simple but realistic. And everything combined, undisputed it is one of the immortal classics of 1939, one of the golden years of Hollywood, which is only rivaled by 1941.
"Oz" is all a fantasy, but a good one at that. Simple story telling, yes incredibly clever, but makes some of the most effective entertainment ever. Some of my high school friends still remained crushed at the fact that after attempting to imitate Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow" they did not find themselves in Oz.
I admit it, I only first saw the movie when I was twelve. So I missed out on the terrible losses of being afraid of the Wicked Witch of the West at age five. By the time I was thirteen and completely off what I perceived as the sugary, forgotten movies which lacked realism and failed to address proper issues, I disliked anything that was made before the 1990s. After "The Sound of Music", the movie which I previously loathed above any other, I began to rediscover some of the cinematic treasures.
And this is one of them. "Oz" was Dorothy's utopia. Her world literally had been whipped up in that cyclone with Miss Gulch on her heels. Most of us have our own "Oz", a place we think that is better as our own, but further in, are we supposed to discover that there simply is "No place like home?"
This movie introduced many a new thing to the world. It proved that the public like fantasies. For one, I discovered exactly why everyone rambled on about munchkins or uttered other phrases such as "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" or "We're off to see the Wizard".
Bert Lahr unfortunately found it difficult getting other castings afterwards other than lions, and it established Judy as one of the forces in history, this performance alone. For in her peak performance, none of her others can be equaled. Watching her as the lost, disheartened, naive Dorothy singing "Over the Rainbow" is heartbreaking. Just that one rendition has conjured up self images of beheading Shirley Temple if she played Dorothy, and only because of the picture's massive budget. Yes, Judy's voice seems too big for Dorothy, but it could not be right any other way.
"The Wizard of Oz" is a cinematic blessing, a stroke of pure genius. It has everything it needs on its side, with the partial exception of early editing annoyances, but is otherwise an almost flawless conception. The score itself is an immortalised masterpiece. "The Sound of Music" remains my musical favourite, but "Oz" gets a look in there in the top 5. Even "Singin' in the Rain" cannot surpass this one.
My only complaint of the musical is that MGM released it in the year on which they were focusing more on "Gone With the Wind". The public reaction was so strong for "Gone With the Wind" receiving the Best Picture statuette that year it would have been impossible for anything else to take the top prize. In 1940, "Oz" would have been a pure breadwinner.
The film survives in an era where we are searching harder for 'quality' entertainment. There's no need to look beyond your back yard for this one. It's in the video collection. Or should be.
Rating: 9/10