When the American Film Institute announced
the 100 best American movies, I don’t think
anyone was surprised that The Wizard Of Oz
made the top ten. The film is not only a great
movie; it is a deeply loved movie. Many can
remember the first time they saw it. Me? I was
about six years old. This was on the big screen,
at the Culver Theater which, unbeknownst to me,
was less than two blocks from where The Wizard
of Oz was made. I guess you can say that Oz
was sort of in my own backyard.
What makes this movie so appealing and popular?
There are many reasons. The most obvious: The
Wizard Of Oz was wonderfully made and is one
of a kind. Nothing else looks like or sounds like
it, and all of the characters, from Dorothy
herself to the Wicked Witch, the Munchkins,
Scarecrow, Tinman, Cowardly Lion, and even Auntie
Em and Uncle Henry have become icons, instantly
associated with this one film.
Another reason is that the story is about
something to which children and adults can all
relate on an emotional level. Think about it. The
Wizard Of Oz is a story about a girl who
feels misunderstood and is separated from her
family in a terrible storm. She struggles to find
her way home but has been stranded far, far away
from the family farm in a very strange place. She
is hopelessly lost and gets assistance from three
individuals who, in their own ways, struggle as
much as she. How many of us, in our own way, can
relate to this scenario? At different times in
our lives and in our own ways haven’t most
of us been just as lost somehow, felt out of
place and have shared our lives with others who
seem just as mixed up as we?
As it is for a lot of people, The Wizard of Oz
is a very personal movie to me. As a child it was
the most wonderful and the most scary (remember
this was in the late 1940's) thing I had ever
seen. As a kid I wanted to go on this great
adventure down the Yellow Brick Road. Years later
I sometimes identified with the Cowardly Lion; at
other times I felt like the Wizard hiding behind
the curtain ("I’m not a bad person,
just a bad wizard"). At one point, as a
young adult, when I was overwhelmed and feeling
depressed and vulnerable, I felt like Dorothy,
lost and wanting to be rescued. I can remember at
that low point seeing the movie on t.v. What
struck me then was what Glenda told Dorothy,
after all the girl had gone through to get home,
only to be left behind when Professor Marvel took
off in his air balloon:
"You
don’t need to be helped any longer.
You’ve always had the power to get
back to Kansas."
"Then why didn’t you tell her
before?" the Scarecrow had demanded
to know.
"Because she wouldn’t have
believed me....She had to find it out for
herself."
I also had to find things out for myself, and I
did, with help in therapy. That was a turning
point for me. Many years later I rediscovered
this and summarized these thoughts in the booklet
Getting Unstuck, A Guide For Breaking Out Of
Self Defeating Patterns. In this booklet I
point out that real change can only occur when a
person is confused, feeling discomfort, and in
the right place at the right time, i.e., not only
looking for new answers but encountering
experiences inconsistent with what one’s
normal ways of thinking would predict. We have to
be motivated (in Dorothy’s case, wanting to
go home), the old way of thinking no longer works
(Kansas logic didn’t apply to Oz), and we
need to have the right type of experiences to
expose us to new realities in such a way that we
can change our automatic assumptions and beliefs.
When Dorothy ended up in Oz, she became part of
that place’s magic as was the way in this
land. The "other side of the rainbow"
was a very different world with dissimilar rules
(including unique laws of physics). Her journey
down the Yellow Brick Road continually exposed
her to these distinct realities so that at the
end of her journey she knew the ways of the land
of Oz, had realized that even she was different,
and could believe that clicking her heels three
times would send her home.
The Wizard Of Oz is a wonderful movie to see,
especially when a person is overwhelmed and in
need of hope and encouragement. Of course, there
are some who have become bitter with life and
lost their dreams. They will use their hard-core
cynicism to bludgeon any positive experience they
(and anyone else around) might experience
watching this movie. Don’t let them spoil
the experience you might have. (If you are one so
cynical, try to put that acquired shell of
disappointment and disillusionment aside for a
couple of hours and try again to know possibility
and marvel.)
In the beginning of this review I mentioned that
Oz was sort of in my own backyard. Actually it
was behind a great wall and fence that separated
M.G.M. from the rest of the world. I never
actually went beyond that wall until I was an
adult. Still I dreamed about Oz as a kid and
found other things that were accessible to me in
my backyard that gave meaning and joy. A point
that the movie makes is that it’s not
what’s in our backyard that’s
important but what we make out of
what’s in our backyard. Dorothy said that if
something’s not already in our backyards we
never really lost it in the first place. If you
look carefully at the Oz that Dorothy experienced
you will discover that the place was a reflection
of what she knew in Kansas. The people she was
drawn closest to (Scarecrow, Tinman, Cowardly
Lion) were colorful versions of people back home.
The problems she had there were the same problems
she had when the movie began.
As you watch, don’t try to analyze The
Wizard Of Oz. (I’ve already done too
much of that here.) Let the movie talk to you
about life and learning to see the possibilities
in yourself and in a sometimes confusing and
frustrating world. If you see it with another,
share your experiences and observations.
©
Turner Entertainment Co., A
Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Portions of
this review were previously included in Getting
Unstuck: A Guide For Breaking Out Of Self
Defeating Patterns, Copyright © 1995 Claremont
Behavioral Studies Institute
