tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post115160418563743892..comments2024-03-09T05:53:59.542-05:00Comments on Oz and Ends: Oz movie festival to lead into 4th of JulyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-1152050172074368942006-07-04T16:56:00.000-05:002006-07-04T16:56:00.000-05:00The MGM movie's ruby slippers would also have to r...The MGM movie's ruby slippers would also have to restore Dorothy and her home to Kansas <I>before</I> her family and friends notice that they were gone, most likely bending time to do so. <BR/><BR/>Possible--after all, their magic must be very powerful or else the Wicked Witch of the West wouldn't want them so much. (Which reminds me of the movie Glinda's lie to Dorothy that she doesn't know what the ruby slippers can do.) <BR/><BR/>But still not a plot that satisfies me as much as the Dorothy-driven original.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-1152005962926167272006-07-04T04:39:00.000-05:002006-07-04T04:39:00.000-05:00I don't think it's necessary to accept the MGM fil...I don't think it's necessary to accept the MGM film version of The Wizard of Oz as a dream. The ruby slippers waft the house back to Kansas, drop it into place on the farm, and put Dorothy back in bed asleep. Unlike the book, where the silver shoes merely take Dorothy back to Kansas in three steps, in the movie the ruby slippers do a lot more. Watch the last bit of the movie again and see what you think.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-1151894291741938642006-07-02T21:38:00.000-05:002006-07-02T21:38:00.000-05:00There are indeed a lot of good lines in the MGM mo...There are indeed a lot of good lines in the MGM movie. And good not just because they've been worn into our brains through repetition.<BR/><BR/>But the Glinda line I so dislike is tightly connected to the plot, and that's my real problem with it. (I could live with Billie Burke's syrupy delivery if she'd had something else to say.)<BR/><BR/>As you say, MGM made Dorothy's journey to Oz into a dream. And dreams aren't supposed to make sense. But fiction—including filmed fiction—is supposed to make sense. More sense than real life, even. Even if Dorothy's trip never actually took place in the MGM re-telling, it's still supposed to have some meaning for her and for us, the moviegoers.<BR/><BR/>The MGM screenwriters united Baum's two Good Witch characters into one "Glinda, Good Witch of the North." They then had that character withhold important information from Dorothy as the simplest way to explain why she didn't send Dorothy home right away. And that turned the girl's whole journey into Oz from an adventure (as in the book) or a random dream into a lesson.<BR/><BR/>"What have you learned, Dorothy?"<BR/><BR/>"Not to trust a witch who glues silk to her face to pull back her wrinkles."J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-1151646660684826112006-06-30T00:51:00.000-05:002006-06-30T00:51:00.000-05:00In defense of Glinda's line that you don't like: H...In defense of Glinda's line that you don't like: Hey, it's a dream! As Aunt Em says, "Oh, we dream lots of silly things when we..." Too bad she never finishes the thought ("...get clonked on the head by a badly installed window," perhaps). For all those folks who want the movie to make sense and wonder why it doesn't, I always trot out, "Hey, it's a dream, it's not <I>supposed</I> to make sense."<BR/><BR/>My favorite line from the movie? After Dorothy asks the Scarecrow, "How can you talk if you don't have a brain?" the Scarecrow replies, "I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking. Don't they?"<BR/><BR/>Which is my cue to stop this reply now, I think...Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02328723961556156210noreply@blogger.com