The Wizard Of Oz

The wizard of Oz (1939) directed by Victor Fleming was an important film mainly for the fact that it was able to address very serious matters like 'The Depression' yet almost mask it in its delivery. "The Great Depression" heavily influenced how the movie was made, you can see this in the opening When Dorothy is on her way home, she runs through a rather deserted area colored in sepia, giving a hint of depravity however there is a heavy contrast with happy music while she is making her way home which almost makes you ignore what you see. Also at no point does she mention her parents, she lives on a farm with her grand parents ..despite it not being in your face there are many subtle undertones of "economic references".

                                                                                                               - (BBC News) Rumeana Jahangir 

The music deceives, entire shot in sepia, meaning depression there is no light, but the music is trying to suggest dispite the bleak colouring everything is fine. by the music being chippy and joyful.

"Dont bother us now honey" when she gets to her granparents the jouful music dissapears, we see they are too busy trying to sustain themselves via work. They show no intrest in her problem "dorothy we're busy".

It would appear that all the adults in the sepia/depression world don't care about dorothy, and are either to busy or unintrested in her problem, you find this when she tries to talk to zeec about her small issue. "listen honey I got them hogs to get in".

fore shadowing is constant in the beginning scene, all the people who work on the farm say something explains scenes to come  "Your head's ain't made of straw you know "

foreshadowing on the witch consisted of witch music, they condition us with the music so when we hear it again, we link the two people. "you wicked old witch".

Relates possibly to how dreams' are closely linked.

find his reason for why the people in her dream are simualr to the poeple she knows on the outside.

zeec "have a little courage that's all"
 the seemingly three promanent men in her life are replicated in her dream world.

The hidden message about fantasia and its colours were all todo with money, "Moreover, following the road of gold leads eventually only to the Emerald City, which may symbolize the fraudulent world of greenback paper money that only pretends to have value".

There were also theories about what the cyclone meant, "Taylor also claimed a sort of iconography for the cyclone: it was used in the 1890s as a metaphor for a political revolution that would transform the drab country into a land of color and unlimited prosperity. It was also used by editorial cartoonists of the 1890s to represent political upheaval.
                                                                                                                                                              -Quentin P. Taylor

"a place where there isn't any trouble". its far far away behind the moon"
Shows at the time people possibly thought they wouldn't ever be back to normal civilasation, by her saying its far far away, she places happiness as an unreachable goal. "why o why can't i".


When she gets to the fortune teller we see him looking for any information possible on her so he can claim he knows something, after he tells her to close her eyes.possibly showing naivety of little girls, or of the children in the depression. They were at a stage when they were willing to believe anything.

More subliminal hints in the actual wizard of oz book actually had Dorothy's shoes as silver. Having the yellow brick road as gold, emerald city as paper money, and Dorothy's silver shoes as coins.
The only reason they changed the shoes to red was in order take advantage of Technicolor.

Once they had finally arrived at emerald city and gotten in to see the Wizard, his first impression was a scary one "Why frighten him like that when he came to you for help"

when she reveals the "great and powerful wizard" there is only a small man who behind it all.Is he suppose to represent what the director thought about the poeple behind why america was in depression? for example by revaling the little man behind the 'booming voice' it strips the one we are afraid of of thier power.

Possible he felt the people behind the depression were just like that.

The message the movie seemed to be implying was the piece everyone was looking for in the depression, wanting to move to find a happier place, where they are is happy, its not the place its the company you keep on whethter its a sad place for you. "there no place like home" your always happiest when your home.


When she does get back even though its all sepia again, she and the people around her are happy, and unlike before whenever she would speak to them there would be no music, but now there is music and everyone is listening to her this time. "and your all here" "if I ever go looking fo rmy hearts desire again i wont go looking any further than my own back yard."

biblo:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7933175.stm
http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/oz.html