“It's a rare opportunity to see The Wizard of Oz on a big screen, and for that reason alone I urge you to go. However, The Wizard of Oz remains the weirdest, scariest, kookiest, most haunting and indelible kid-flick-that's-really-for-adults ever made in Hollywood.
“When it first came out, in 1939, American sex roles were all but defined by the he-man/she-woman dichotomies of other 1939 clas- sics. Against that backdrop we have Oz, a place where Dorothy, a pig- tailed girl, is surrounded by men who've been robbed of macho. Including, of course, Dorothy'sYellow Brick Road companions, who may be the three gentlest knights-errant ever imagined by the studio system.This candy-cane landscape, though, does feature one authen- tic vision of unfettered masculine force - the Wicked Witch of the West.
“The Wizard of Oz is our most indelible fairy tale because it prophe- sies, with mythic surrealism, a society in which the patriarchal brain (i.e., the Wizard) is about to be torn down, in which women (i.e., the Witch) have matched the male will to destruction and power, but where there also appears a benevolent new breed of valiant softy- man (i.e., the Scarecrow et al.), who can make the world safe again."
- Entertainment Weekly
Printer-friendly version
