The Wizard of Oz....

[EL34]

...must be one of the greatest movies of all time! (all IMHO, of course) I've seen it dozens and dozens of times, and I'm continually amazed by every aspect of this movie! The characters, the set design, the drama, the whimsy/fantasy, the music, and the dreamlike quality of the whole thing. I admit I didn't fully appreciate it until I had kids and watched it with them, but ever since then I have thought it to be one of the best movies ever made, which is amazing since it was filmed 70 years ago!

[Caretaker]

And it`s on 3 times this weekend. I`ll watch it even though I have the dvd.

[Doodad]

Watching it right now

[cvansickle]

It's amazing when you watch it and understand that it was state of the art for movie special effects at its time.

[bluesjuke]

Must be on cable or sattellite, I can't find it here.
It is one of the best I agree El34.

I thought this usually aired just before Easter.

[demillso]

My wife is 29 years old and has never seen it. I still don't understand how this happened. Great movie.

[The Guy]

My wife is 29 years old and has never seen it. I still don't understand how this happened. Great movie.


same with my girlfriend. of course, she lived in a cave for about 22 years.

[hellbender]

It is the closest description of how a human being dreams ever documented.

[rattles]

Fantastic movie! I must have seen it a hundred times! :AOK

[joolzriff]

i have tobe the odd one out i'd wish they'd burn that film..tired of it

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

I watched it several times before I noticed it went from black and white to color :messedup

Yeah, it's a great movie for sure..... one of Hollywood's masterpieces. :love:

[v-verb]

My fave movie ever. I don't think it could ever be remade to top the original...

And if you love the Wizard of Oz, seeing the play "Wicked" will add a new dimension to the tale (the play is different from the book though).

[Greggy]

Wife and I watched the first 45 minutes before moving on to bigger and better things :warning What impresses me are the set designs. Must have cost a forutne to build. The visual transitions between the real trees in the foreground and the painted canvas landscapes in the background is neat. Costuming is also impressive. Great movie.

[mge80]

Yes, it is. It is my (and my wife's) all time favorite. While it might not be the best movie ever made, although for it's time it is quite impressive, it is definitely one of the best stories ever told.

I think that is why it has held up so well for so long.

[DavidE]

I caught part of the end last night. I didn't remember much about the parts I watched, so maybe I need to watch the whole thing some time.

If you like the story, you should see the musical Wicked. It's an ingenious plot that will make you think twice about what really happened in Oz.

[IndianScout]

my sister in law is terrified by that movie, won't even sit in the same room if it's on..

makes for good teasing material..

[HoboMan]

Most people know this but in case you didn't:

The original actor that played the Tin Man was Buddy Ebsen (Jed Clampett). Unfortunately the paint they used made him very sick and put him in the hospital. They replaced him and the paint.

He was forever upset that he was replaced for that role.

[Greggy]

I have not read the original book, so I'm telling this on second hand info. I was told the the book is a metaphor for the late 1890s debate over the gold standard and Western farmers (remember William Jennings Bryan and his Cross of Gold speech?). The yellow brick road represented gold and it led to Washington DC (the Emerald City). Maybe I should read the book?

[Smakutus]

Actually there's a bunch of books.There's also another movie made in 1985 called Return To Oz which follows the original books better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Oz

Jeff

[Jon Silberman]

I highly recommend to all Oz-philes Philip Jose Farmer's take on Oz. Farmer is, of course, best known for his classic Riverworld series but authored many more top notch novels.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/22/45/7e6ec060ada0aaf440a3a110._AA240_.L.jpg

Wikipedia's entry is helpful to give a flavor of what to expect without ruining the plot for new readers.

The central character of the novel is Hank Stover, a pilot and the supposed son of Dorothy Gale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Gale), who finds himself in Oz when his plane gets lost in a green cloud over Kansas in 1923. The Oz he discovers is on the brink of civil war; he encounters Erakna, the new Wicked Witch.

Farmer takes an unusual approach to the corpus of Oz literature; he depends primarily, almost solely, on Baum's original Oz book and neglects its many sequels. In Barnstormer, Dorothy has made only one visit to Oz; when Hank Stover arrives, the Scarecrow still rules the Emerald City (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_City), just as at the end of Baum's first Oz book. (Farmer's "originalist" approach to the Oz mythos is rare but not unique; a few other writers — perhaps most notably, Roger S. Baum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_S._Baum) — have taken similar tacks.)

Farmer wrote several other books that take fresh views of famous figures of popular and pulp literature: A Barnstormer in Oz can be grouped with his Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Alive:_A_Definitive_Biography_of_Lord_Greys toke) (1972), Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Savage:_His_Apocalyptic_Life) (1973), and The Other Log of Phileas Fogg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Log_of_Phileas_Fogg) (also 1973), among other works. Since Farmer wrote for adults rather than children, there are elements of sex and violence in Barnstormer that are not typical of the Oz literature. As the book's subtitle indicates, Farmer indulges a rationalizing and explanatory bent: he treats Oz as a parallel universe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_%28fiction%29) in the science fiction vein. He attempts explanations and analyses of some of the fantastic elements in Baum's fictional world, including magic and talking animals.

Inevitably, critics have disagreed on the value of Farmer's contribution to the literature of Oz. Jack Zipes called the novel "splendid,"[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Barnstormer_in_Oz#cite_note-0) while Katharine Rogers considered it "revision to the point of debasement."[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Barnstormer_in_Oz#cite_note-1)

[Bluedawg]

I enjoyed Sci Fi's new take on it as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Tin-Two-Disc-Collectors-Zooey-Deschanel/dp/B0010X744G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1226785183&sr=1-3

:phones

[jcmark611]

Wizard of Oz is much better if you turn off the sound and crank up Dark Side of the Moon.

If you've never done this you should give it a try but, you have to find an old copy of Wizard of Oz. All the DVD copies I've seen have something added to the beginning of the movie that screws up the timing.

[akihiro]

wizard of oz is much better if you turn off the sound and crank up dark side of the moon.


+1
yes!

[Kingbeegtrs]

Did it about 8 years ago. THe part that gets me is MONEY - which is in 7/8 time. Not exactly a popular time signature in rock music....but it is a popular time signature in marching band music. Guess what the munchkins are doing during MONEY...Marching.

[EL34]

my sister in law is terrified by that movie, won't even sit in the same room if it's on..

makes for good teasing material..

When I was a kid, the evil flying monkeys freaked me out. I still feel a little wierd when I see that scene!

[EL34]

Wizard of Oz is much better if you turn off the sound and crank up Dark Side of the Moon.

If you've never done this you should give it a try but, you have to find an old copy of Wizard of Oz. All the DVD copies I've seen have something added to the beginning of the movie that screws up the timing.

I've heard about this but never tried it before. Are the scenes really that well matched up with the music? I need to give this a try.

[scott]

I have not read the original book, so I'm telling this on second hand info. I was told the the book is a metaphor for the late 1890s debate over the gold standard and Western farmers (remember William Jennings Bryan and his Cross of Gold speech?). The yellow brick road represented gold and it led to Washington DC (the Emerald City). Maybe I should read the book?

Yup, Ive heard that to. The "straw man" is also what our all caps name is called in comercial law. Its amazing how closley it follows the pricipals of commercial/maritime law. I thought it was all BS until I learned more about law and how the Gov. uses it.

[theRocco]

I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!

[george4908]

What's remarkable is that it went through four directors (one of whose scenes never made it into the final cut). You would expect the result to be an awful mishmash, but it's not.

[rob2001]

I saw a bio on Judy Garland that was pretty incredible. What a special talent she was.