Snapshots From a Dream

What is this thing that builds our dreams yet slips away from us ....

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Great Moments From Cinema - 30


Beyond The Yellow Brick Road

Movie: The Wizard Of Oz (MGM-USA; 1939)
Director: Victor Fleming, Richard Thorpe & King Vidor
Screenplay: L. Frank Baum (Book), Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson & Edgar A. Woolf
Major Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Burt Lahr & Jack Haley

Film Synopsis: ‘Dorothy’ (Judy Garland) and her dog ‘Toto’ are carried by a tornado from their farm in Kansas to the magical land of ‘Oz’. She embarks on a journey to find the mysterious 'wizard' who could help her get back. On the way she makes many friends who join her because they too are seeking something which the 'wizard' may provide

My Favorite Moment: “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”

Why I Like It:
“If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can’t I”

Judy Garland’s ‘Dorothy’ sang this with such innocence that the whole world has been in love with her ever since. This is a timeless tale of a young girl who dreams of finding a magical land ‘somewhere over the rainbow’, where all her dreams will come true. Once she does get there, all she wants to do is find a way back home to her family in Kansas, because she realizes that to really find a happy place; one doesn’t have to look further than their backyard. In ‘Oz’, she is hunted by a wicked witch and starts following a yellow brick road, which she’s told will take her to this ‘wizard’ who can help her. On the way she meets a ‘scarecrow’ who is looking for a brain, a ‘tin man’ looking for a heart and a ‘lion’ seeking courage. Together they sing their way to the 'wizard' and once there, they understand that some things in life are found deep within oneself and that all people require, is guidance.

The dialogue mentioned is a part of folklore. A simple review is not enough to communicate its significance. One has to see the movie to understand its context in our life. Kansas has become as legendary a place as ‘Rick’s Café’ or ‘Scarlett’s’ farm in Tara or ‘Kinsella’s field in Iowa or ‘Kane’s ‘Xanadu’ or ‘Frodo’s’ hobbit-hole in the ‘Shire’. ‘Dorothy’s dialogue is a metaphor for that point of our lives when we lose that security of family and home and have to fend for ourselves. Everyone dreams in their childhood of getting away but then spend the rest of their lives trying to get back. The same is with ‘Dorothy’ who sees this new colorful place which she always dreamed of but now that she’s there, it fills her with trepidation. In a brilliant masterstroke, Kansas is shot in dull sepia which becomes colorful when we see 'Oz' and reverts back to being colorless at the end when she returns home.

The scenes with ‘Dorothy’, her friends and the wizard hold significance for viewers of all age group. The songs are everlasting anthems, ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ being voted by AFI as the greatest movie song of all time . The references to this film reverberate loudly through dozens of books, stories, songs, films and plays.

Of all the movies ever made, this one single film is a true part of our heritage and we hold a duty to pass it down to future generations.