Reading Oz

Rating: 9/10 (27 December 2008)

OZ is, my dears, about learning, and, as such, a meaningful fairy tale; it should teach the kids that guts, mind and aptitude to love are not given miraculously by any wizard; are not magically conferred, but come by experience, by life, by facing the life. As the wizard explains the team, they're cases of temporarily messed psychologiesindividuals deluded about the meaning of what they're searching for. You do not get to be hearty, gutsy or brainy by some magic, these don't come from a wizard, but by experience and learning who you are and what you're capable of and what defines you indeed; I must confess I've found this identity quest very much appealing. Baum's literary world is one without psychologies, of course, without psychologically true creationsyet these questions are very acutely underlined in the movie (and, of course, in the books).
So, they do not so much learn how to love, or how to think or be braverbut rather they learn who they are and what their forces already aresee the scarecrows prodigious, and I mean prodigious, ingenuity in devising plans.
This educative piece is also a work of wild fancy; and, if you ask me, Baum solitary created a _sui _generis form of surrealism and of literary _magicality. His was a surreal, unbridled, unbound fancy; sometimes mechanical, given the scope of his enterprise, sometimes wonderfully creative.
The whole episode of the evil witch's castle was marvelously donethe choreography of the guards, etc.. It's the one I've liked best. There is some of the original creepiness of the book, and the flying monkeys are well craftedsee the impressive view of the departure of the flying monkeys, when sent by the evil witch to kidnap poor Dorothy Gale.
Do the characters truly need the controversial, if I might say so, the controversial wizard? (Because in today's crapped language, that's what they would call hima highly controversial wizard.) well, first they need experience, true open experience, action; but then, they need one to disentangle their messed up psychologies; and the couple of magiciansthe wizard and then the good witchdoes that.
Now on the other hand, if somewhat compared to the book, of course the action in the movie is a little hurried, or a little messed up itself, some fine points of subtlety are definitely missed for goodbut such as it is, this adaptation is some fine work.
This brightly colored, vividly colored, exquisitely scored and fastpaced classic really deserves exceedingly its prestige; its meaning is vital and needed. Its values shall endure.