What childhood would be without it?

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2009)

My Take: In almost every way, a landmark in cinema history.
After seeing James Cameron's AVATAR yesterday, I think it would be wise to reminisce on the one movie that started it all. Nope, not STAR WARS. It's none other than Victor Fleming's THE WIZARD OF OZ. Yes, all the magic, all the wonders and all the visual accomplishments that we have come to achieve today began in 1939 when Dorothy and Toto set foot on Oz, with the mundane Sepia transforming into pristine Technicolor, as seen for the very first time. Ever since then, THE WIZARD OF OZ has become part of the movie-going culture that it's almost virtually impossible that anyone has not seen it, at least once.
I admit it's been a long time since I saw OZ (the last time, I think, was when I was introducing it for the first time to my little brothers), but the memory of seeing it will forever be etched into my mind. Here's a bit of cinema that's hard to forget. Almost everything about it spells "classic" or "landmark cinema". That's a lot to be said about a movie which only started out as a family film, based on L. Frank Baum's books, about a little girl (Garland) and her dog carried away by a freak tornado into a land populated by a good witch, a wicked witch, a walking scarecrow, a heartless Tin Man, a cowardly Lion and a wonderful wizard we have all come to know and love.
The music has since become part of culture (I can no longer recall how many times me and a friend of mine quite "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" during conversations) and the visuals, although not as flashy today, are still as visibly groundbreaking and still absolutely gorgeous. Indeed, the Ruby Slippers are still a treasure, the Emerald City still as emerald is it was and even that multicolored horse in the Merry ol' Land of Oz still looks wonderful. Among other reasons (not to mention, one of the most cleverest twist in disposing of the villain) makes THE WIZARD OF OZ the classic that it was.
Rating: ***** out of 5.