I’m
doing The Wizard of Oz with my film class. This is really the height of
masochism, in a way, because there is so much about this film that is
unquantifiable.
People
love to break down The Wizard of Oz. God knows I understand that. I’ve used
tons of examples from Wizard myself. We all KNOW Wizard, so it makes sense to
reference it. But The Wizard of Oz is such a special case. It’s a deceptively
simple film with profound psychological and political undercurrents. And it is an iconic movie for so many
reasons that I wouldn’t possibly want to have to explain – it’s like explaining
sunlight, or – a rainbow. You can break it down into its elements, but that
will never give you the experience. There was a special magic (which my film
agent calls “the movie gods”) looking over that movie through all its harrowing
changes of writers, directors, actors, etc. - and let's not forget that it was
based on a classic SERIES of books - and, oh, yeah - it's a friggin' MUSICAL.
And all that terrifying mess somehow combined to make a classic. It is not
something anyone could ever duplicate by design.
Just
consider what The Wizard of Oz would have looked like had Shirley Temple (often
named as the top choice for Dorothy) been cast instead of Judy Garland.
The
casting of Garland, and her lush, just blossoming, completely vulnerable
sexuality, TOTALLY changed the dynamic of the character and every single
interaction she had with the other characters in the movie. It changed the
meaning of the journey. A young woman’s dream, or fantasy, or metaphorical
journey – whatever you want to call that adventure to Oz – is completely
different from a child’s. Teenagers yearn for significantly different things
than children do.
When I
was a preteen I became firmly convinced that the whole Wizard of Oz journey was
Dorothy's dream letting her explore which one of the three farmhands she wanted
to marry - as a young woman reaching marriageable age, those would be her
obvious choices in such a farm town. In Oz, Hunk/the Scarecrow is the first one
she meets, and over and over and over again the Scarecrow steps forward as the
problem solver and her biggest defender. (She also dances with him in a musical
number that was cut from the final film – The Jitterbug - and as any dancer or
choreographer knows, when two characters dance in a musical, that means sex.).
When she leaves Oz, she tells the Scarecrow she'll miss him most of all, and
when she wakes up in bed, he kneels by the bed and she touches his face. She's
chosen.
I would
tell people this occasionally in college and they'd laugh - but years later I
read much more about the elaborate history of the film and learned that the
final scene of an earlier script really had concluded with Hunk going off to
agricultural school and winning a promise from Dorothy to write to him –
implying a romance that would continue (and marriage once “The Scarecrow” had
his real-life diploma).
Okay, I
might be the only person who’s ever watched The Wizard of Oz and gotten that out of it. Quite
possibly. But my analysis of the subtext is meaningful to me, just as my
analysis of Ophelia’s role in Hamlet is, and my strong personal opinions on the
movies I watch and the books I read, however obscure they may seem to other
people, have been invaluable to my growth as a writer. My point is, a LOT goes into creating a film or book, a lot of it unquantifiable, and even if some writer or teacher or workshop leader breaks it down brilliantly for you, it's even more important for you to figure out what YOU think is going on in that film or book.
I’ll
continue this longest disclaimer in history by saying it’s confusing even to
break this movie into sequences, because it is a musical, and musical numbers
were cut and rearranged (and rightly so!) which would have made the timing of
the sequence structure make more conventional sense. Just as an example - the
studio wanted “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” cut because it made the first Kansas
sequence too long, but the movie gods apparently intervened, the song remained,
completely screwing with the sequence timing, and film students have been
arguing about the Act One break ever since.
BUT.
All that
being said, The Wizard of Oz is also a pretty perfect template for the Hero/ine’s
Journey structure, with some of the best-realized examples of key story
elements you’re ever going to find on celluloid. It gives us all something to
aspire to. So for better or worse, here we go.
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The
Wizard of Oz
Directed
by Victor Fleming
Written
by Noel Langley & Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf (screenplay); Noel
Langley (adaptation)
From the book
by L. Frank Baum
Produced
by Mervyn LeRoy
Music and
lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg
Running
time 101 minutes
ACT
ONE
Sequence
One
In the
olden days, before ADHD, movies had credits sequences at the beginning of the
film. Nowadays apparently audiences lack the attention span to sit through a credits
sequence, so the credits go at the end. But if you’re looking at a classic movie there
are often two separate Opening Images: the image(s) under the credits sequence
and the actual opening visual of the film. In Wizard, the image under the credits
sequence is slow movement through clouds in a blue sky (only it’s black and
white), setting up the subliminal idea that we are going to be up in those
clouds pretty soon.
Then
there is a placard telling us that this is a beloved classic story, for the
young and the young at heart. Opening scrolls or placards give us the sense
that this is an Important Story, even maybe epic. (Think of “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...”)
Then we
get the true OPENING IMAGE, and INTRODUCTION OF THE HEROINE: We see Dorothy
running on a country road, under stormy skies. This is a great opening image
because it directly introduces Dorothy's PROBLEM and sets up her CHARACTER ARC.
We learn in the opening lines that Dorothy is running away from Miss Gulch, the
tyrant of the county, and that she fears retaliation because Toto, her beloved
dog, has bitten Miss Gulch, and Miss Gulch has threatened to call the sheriff.
Throughout
the first act, and most of the film, Dorothy’s answer to the threat of Miss
Gulch is to run away – here, and in her Wish song (she wants to be over the
rainbow, away from her troubles) and then when she runs away with Toto, and
later when she tries to escape from Oz to evade the Wicked Witch. But the truth
of her situation is, she is never going to be able to run away from Miss Gulch.
If she wants to live a fulfilled life in this town, she is going to have to
face and defeat this powerful ANTAGONIST. The whole story of the film is
Dorothy’s psychological transformation; she is going through an inner journey,
through this dream of Oz, to internalize the qualities of braininess, heart,
and courage – and all the powerful qualities of her higher self, Glinda - so
that as she grows into a woman, she will be able to use those qualities against
Miss Gulch (and any other enemies that come up) instead of running away as she
does at the beginning of the movie.
And in the FINAL BATTLE, she will face Miss Gulch in her scariest
incarnation, the Wicked Witch of the West, and defeat her.
In just
a few seconds, the opening image sets up this theme of running away. It’s a
priceless lesson in how to set up a character from the beginning so that it
will feel like a huge character arc when they finally face their greatest fear
in the end.
The
opening image also incorporates the open road, letting us know that this is a
road trip story, and suggests the storm to come, as well as immediately setting
up the bleak grayness of Kansas, the ORDINARY WORLD which is in such contrast to
the spectacular beauty of the special world. All in all a very layered image, a textbook example of how
much you can convey in the first shot of a film or first page of a book.
Next we
see Dorothy at the farm, and more images of the ORDINARY WORLD. We meet
Dorothy’s guardians, Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, plain, hardworking people who
care for Dorothy but have no real time for her. Dorothy tries her best to
explain the danger, the threats that Miss Gulch has made against Toto, but her
aunt and uncle have problems of their own (the broken chick incubator) and
can’t help her. Dorothy then goes to her ALLIES, the three farmhands: Hunk,
Hickory, and Zeke, and tries to get help from them. Each man has his own comic
(but not very helpful) advice about the situation, and the dialogue, movement
and gesture is laced with setups (PLANTS) that will be paid off when we meet
the three allies again in Oz. Then Aunt Em shoos Dorothy away with an
admonition to “find someplace where you can’t get in any trouble,” the lead-in
to Dorothy’s “Wish Song” – “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
The
protagonist’s first song in a musical is almost always an “I Am” song or an “I
Wish” song, which spells out the character’s OUTER DESIRE. Dorothy longs to journey over the
rainbow, where “troubles melt like lemon drops.” Again, her instinct (and plan)
is to escape, rather than face her problem. Notice that this song not only
makes us identify with Dorothy, but also strongly features Toto. We must fall
in love with this little dog, and quickly, because the great FEAR the
filmmakers are creating here is that Toto will die. Talk about STAKES! A
child’s greatest fear, besides the loss of their parents, is the loss of a pet.
(Let’s not kid ourselves, it’s also one of the biggest griefs we experience as
adults). “Over the Rainbow” is one of the ultimate tearjerker songs – remember,
one of the prime reasons we go to the movies is to experience the CATHARSIS of
tears. The longing of the song, Judy Garland’s breathtaking talent and
heartbreaking vulnerability, and the emotional tug we get from those close-ups
of the little dog, all work to lower our defenses and provide an excellent
opportunity for weeping, if we happen to need it.
And
then in a splendid moment of contrast, just as we’re wide open emotionally and
probably dissolved in a puddle, we cut from the end of the song to Miss Gulch
furiously pedaling her bike toward the farm (with that ominous theme music
underneath). Uh oh. Dorothy was
right. (An excellent demonstration
of how to intensify an audience’s sense of fear and dread by opening up their
emotions first and then hitting them with the threat.)
There’s
a comic moment at the fence, Uncle Henry serving briefly as a GUARDIAN AT THE
GATE, not allowing Miss Gulch in at first and letting the gate hit her in the
backside. But this is an ineffectual protest. In the next scene inside the
parlor Miss Gulch pulls out an order from the sheriff demanding Dorothy
surrender (SET UP) Toto to her so he can be “destroyed.” (The INCITING
INCIDENT/CALL TO ADVENTURE – the event that forces the heroine to take action).
And we see Aunt Em and Uncle Henry are unable to help; though it clearly pains
them, Miss Gulch threatens the loss of the farm if they don’t give her the dog.
This all adds to Dorothy’s sense of fear and isolation – her parental figures
are unable to help her or to protect her dog.
Another
very layered scene here. Let’s take a look.
Miss
Gulch is not only the ANTAGONIST, she is Dorothy’s GHOST, and the town’s ghost,
and Aunt Em and Uncle Henry’s ghost. The film was developed in the late
thirties, when Hitler was coming to power in Germany, Stalin was already
carrying out the Great Terror AZin Russia, and the rise of these tyrants was a
looming fear in thinking Americans’ minds. There is no doubt that the political
darkness building overseas had a profound influence on the development of this
film; Miss Gulch is portrayed as a tyrant in the county and a threat that is
not going to go away, but no one in the county has had the courage to face off
with this woman. And yet we see teenage Dorothy stand up to her, shouting at
her, even physically shoving her basket away. This is a girl with courage, and
the potential to defy Miss Gulch. Her INNER DESIRE, though she does not know it yet, is to defeat Miss Gulch. And she does not yet have the power to defeat
this villain, but by the end of the journey of the film, she will have gained that power.
Another
symbolic layer of this scene is the Jungian archetypes that Aunt Em and Uncle
Henry represent. This film was made when the new theories of psychoanalysis
were all the rage, and it’s a fact that the studio mandated that the fantasy
journey of the original book be presented in the film as an elaborate dream
sequence, because it was felt that a 1930’s audience was too sophisticated to
buy into a straight fantasy. I strongly suspect that one or more of the filmmakers
involved was a student of the psychology of Carl Jung rather than that of
Sigmund Freud, because Jungian archetypes abound in this story, and Jung
specifically wrote that these archetypes, among many others, populate our
dreams.
Aunt Em
and Uncle Henry are representative of the animus, the inner male, and the anima, the inner female – but they are
the weak, damaged versions of those forces. The “hen-pecked husband” and the
“fishwife” are the unfulfilled versions of the masculine and feminine principles.
While they are good, decent, hardworking people, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry have
been worn down by the unrelenting evil that Miss Gulch represents. They are not
strong, integrated role models for Dorothy. And Miss Gulch is an even more
twisted version of the feminine: the destructive anima.
We’ll
soon meet Glinda, the ideal version of the anima: the powerful, wise,
beautiful, fully-realized feminine, the inner goddess. She is the fulfilled
feminine that Dorothy is capable of becoming.
And
together, Dorothy, Glinda and the Wicked Witch represent the Triple Goddess,
the three feminine forces that Jung and the goddess religions said live in
every woman of every age: Maiden, Mother/Queen, and Crone.
All of
these concepts are so very Jungian that I can’t imagine that someone involved
in this production wasn’t having Jungian therapy, or at least was reading a lot
of Carl Jung. (And the Maiden/Mother/Crone trinity even makes me think that
someone involved with the film did their research on basic witchcraft.)
Anyway,
at the end of this harrowing scene, Miss Gulch departs in triumph, with Toto in
her basket, and a heartbroken Dorothy flees weeping to her room.
CLIMAX
of SEQUENCE ONE
But as
Miss Gulch bicycles off, pedaling furiously, Toto escapes the basket and runs
home. TWIST.
He
leaps in to Dorothy’s window, and she is wild with joy to see him, but
immediately realizes that Miss Gulch will come back to get him. So she tells
Toto her PLAN: they will run away.
SEQUENCE
TWO:
Dorothy
and Toto hit the road. (I told you
this was a road trip.) We see them crossing a bridge, a favorite image of
filmmakers everywhere, symbolizing transition, a new phase. The bleakness of
the images also suggest the desert, the age-old symbolic setting of a spiritual
journey.
They
find the caravan of Professor Marvel, an itinerant carnival psychic, who is
dismayed when Dorothy wants to come with him “to see the crowned heads of
Europe.” The man is an amiable fraud, but with a good heart. Acting as a MENTOR
(and a SEER), he tells Dorothy they must “consult the crystal”, and ushers her
into his wagon, a masterpiece of set decoration which gives the scene an
eccentrically mystic flair (and SETS UP the visual for “Oz the Great and
Terrible” in Act II. Marvel himself is a SET UP for the payoff of the Wizard of
Oz being nothing but a clever carnival balloonist who got trapped in an upwind
and has conned the people of Oz into believing he has magical powers). Using
all the tricks of a con artist, Marvel rifles through Dorothy’s belongings,
then “sees” Aunt Em becoming ill because of worry over Dorothy. We’ve seen
Dorothy’s courage, now we see her heart: she abandons her plans to run away
when she thinks it will hurt Aunt Em.
Dorothy
and Toto head back for the farm as the wind is picking up, and by the time they
reach the gate we can see the cyclone heading straight for the house, an
awesome visual effect (and another Jungian symbol, the spiral that represents
inner transformation) that begins the SETPIECE SEQUENCE of the storm.
Aunt Em,
Uncle Henry and the farmhands take refuge in the storm cellar (symbol of the
unconscious), and Dorothy and Toto are left on their own, barely making it into
the house. And as soon as they’re in the bedroom, the window crashes in,
knocking Dorothy unconscious, and beginning the dream sequence.
Dorothy
wakes up in the middle of the storm, to find the house sailing in the middle of
the cyclone. One of the most fun and trippy elements of fantasy is the PASSAGEWAY into the SPECIAL WORLD: think of the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, the mirror in Through the Looking Glass, the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the little door in the wall in Coraline.... and of course here, we have the cyclone that takes Dorothy into Oz. There’s some beautiful comic relief as we see other people and
animals from the county flying past in the storm, a bit of whimsy which lowers
our defenses for the shock that comes when Miss Gulch suddenly appears in the
cyclone, pedaling her bike... and then transforms into an even more terrifying
figure: The Wicked Witch of the East riding her broom. Dorothy screams, the
house begins to spiral downward, the furniture slides around the house, and the
house thumps down to the ground.
There
is a breathtakingly suspended moment of complete silence as Dorothy walks
through the house toward the front door. Then she opens it and CROSSES THE
THRESHOLD, the most famous entry INTO THE SPECIAL WORLD in all cinematic
history, as she steps from the sepia- toned house into glorious Technicolor Oz.
Now,
some people might say this is the beginning of Act Two, and I wouldn’t really
argue it. But we still have no firm idea what this story is about, yet.
Personally I think this is a long first act that has an extra sequence just
exactly where a lot of fantasy and science fiction stories have an extra
sequence, specifically to set up the RULES of the special world.
So I
would put this next SEQUENCE THREE in Act One, and call it, of course,
Munchkinland.
This is
a sequence-long SETPIECE, a dazzling series of musical numbers with stunning
set and costume design. SPECTACLE is one of the key promises of any fantasy,
and Wizard delivers in every way. We meet the mentor, Glinda, with one of the
most famous character entrances in history, floating down in that luminous
bubble and stepping out in the princess dress of all time. Glinda assumes Dorothy
is a witch, which Dorothy assures her she is not. (And yet by the end of the
story Dorothy will have found her full feminine power, which is the definition
of a witch if ever there was one!). In an extended song and dance number
(“Ding, Dong, the Witch Is Dead”) the Munchkins celebrate Dorothy as a heroine,
because she has slain the Wicked Witch of the East and set them free from her
tyranny. Well, actually Dorothy didn’t do a thing; the house simply fell on the
witch, killing her. But we see Dorothy enjoying the ceremony and attention.
It’s an interesting framing device: Dorothy is celebrated here for killing a
witch when really she’s done nothing, but it SETS UP that she really must kill
the witch in the final battle, and then she is honored in another ceremony that
is much more meaningful because she has actually done the job. (And though it
is not overtly stated, our HOPE at the end of the movie will be that Dorothy is
now prepared to do real-life battle against Miss Gulch and free the county from
her tyranny.)
Notice
that the Munchkins sing to Dorothy in clusters of three (THE RULE OF THREE).
Also I’d like to point out that if you are creating a fantasy (or a costume
drama!) it is part of your job to design wild and fetishy costumes that will be
adopted by the significant portion of the audience for that genre that engages
in cosplay. Cosplay is part of the interactive experience of a movie, and it’s
part of your job to be aware of that world.
In
another great moment of CONTRAST, at the very height of this celebration, the
Wicked Witch of the West appears in a cloud of red smoke, a terrible shock
which graphically illustrates one of the THEMES of the story: you can’t run
away from your problems, because they’ll come right along with you until you face
them and defeat them.
The
Wicked Witch is royally pissed that Dorothy has killed her sister. She’s even
more pissed when Glinda magically bestows the Wicked Witch of the East’s ruby
slippers on Dorothy (this is a key element of fairy tales: MAGICAL GIFTS from
magical allies. Also this addition of red to the blue and white of Dorothy's dress makes her a symbolic representation of America). Glinda tells the witch to be gone, she has no power in
Munchkinland. But before she slinks away the witch threatens Dorothy in one of
the most famous statements of an ANTAGONIST’S PLAN in film history: “I’ll get
you, my pretty. And your little dog, too!”
Glinda
tells Dorothy she’s made a powerful enemy. And true to form, Dorothy’s desire
and plan is to run away: she now wants to go back to Kansas to escape the
witch. But no one knows how she can do that, so Glinda suggests a new PLAN:
Dorothy must travel to the Emerald City to petition the Great and Powerful
Wizard of Oz, who will surely know how to help her get home.
And
that PLAN is underscored in song: “Follow the Yellow Brick Road/We’re Off to
See the Wizard.” (In a musical,
the PLAN is almost spelled out in song.) Note that the Yellow Brick Road begins
in a spiral, another visual of that symbol of the transformative journey.
The
Munchkins dance Dorothy to the border of Munchkinland, where she CROSSES THE
THRESHOLD again, off on the road to Oz.
So –
STATEMENT OF PLAN, big location change, big musical number – I’d say that’s the
real CLIMAX OF ACT ONE. We know
everything we need to know about what the story is about.
We know
Dorothy’s new DESIRE: she wants to get back home (which is really just a
variation of the initial desire to run away from her enemy).
We know
what the CENTRAL ACTION of the story is: Dorothy is going to journey on the
Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard of Oz for help getting
home.
We know
who is blocking her: the Wicked Witch of the West, who has overtly threatened
to kill her.
Our
HOPE is that she can get to the Wizard without being killed by the Wicked
Witch. Our FEAR is that she won’t.
And we
know – it’s a road trip. And now that we know the PLAN, we can settle in and
experience the ride.
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4 comments:
This is a fabulous analysis! I'm looking forward to reading the next part!
Thanks, Jeanne! Be patient, I'm already exhausted from Act I! ;)
Recently, I told students that storytelling expectations have sped up, audiences have gotten quicker, and we no longer need to analysis above has been a good nudge for me to realize I'm full of hooey. The swift beginning has always been good sttake much time to establish "normal." Your terrific orytelling practice. Nobody needed to see a whole afternoon of Dorothy gathering eggs and Auntie Em taking the cornbread out of the oven. (Or Lear hanging around the castle with Cordelia bringing him tea.) Things are already in a swirl at lights up, and that's as it should be. All we need are enough hints to guess at what normal was, and what things have been in precarious balance. Not over-spelling Life As Usual gives the audience more to do--which, of course, is part of the pleasure.
Never thought of Oz this way, but I was nodding my head the whole time I was reading. Now I am lemming to read Frank Oz's original books, and mebbe throw some Jung fries in there too.
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