The Wizard of Oz (1939)

 Victor Fleming's "The Wizard of Oz"

I don't feel as though there could be anything too bold said about the iconic film that is "The Wizard of Oz." It is a film that is apt to hyperbole, prone to conspiracy, recognized for achievement, and use for reinterpretation and reiteration. I would even argue that MGM's 1939 masterwork musical is perhaps the origin of cinematic consciousness. Like I said, there is no statement about "The Wizard of Oz" that is too bold. 

In fact, I feel as though "The Wizard of Oz" is so embedded into the cinematic consciousness that I don't feel the need to reiterate the film's plot, as everyone surely knows it. Although I don't feel the need, I will do so for posterity's sake. A young Kansas girl, who lives on a farm with her aunt, uncle, and three farmhands, wishes there was more to life. She dreams of escaping. After a run-in with a cruel neighbor woman, the Kansas girl, Dorothy, decides to run away. After a tornado, she is bonked on the head and imagines a fantastical realm full of wizards, witches, munchkins, talking animals, and flying monkeys. Along her way, she meets a scarecrow looking for a brain, a tin man looking for a heart, and a cowardly lion searching for courage. Together, they all work together to defeat a wicked witch and get the assistance of a powerful wizard to grant them their desires. However, in the end, they realize the things they desired were inside of them all along. Dorothy wakes up safe at home and reevaluates her life, believing that through this new perspective, she can take stock of the things that matter in life.

Although the thematic elements of the film can't be said to be on a complexity on par with say "Citizen Kane," "The Wizard of Oz" manages to take the purest of notions and illuminate them into big ideas for a large audience, especially targeted toward a younger audience. After all, it is a fantasy film. Despite the simplicity of its themes, it manages to spread these themes to the far reaches of societal and individual consciousness. And yes, I am well aware the film is based on the L. Frank Baum novel from 1900, so these themes didn't originate from this film. However, because most of 20th century society has seen the film and not read its source, I will continue to refer to that which is more commonly utilized. 

It's themes contain ideas that will be used time and time again throughout various works of literary, social, and artistic expressions. The films recounts to the audience that of an artificial construction, an abstraction, designed to allow the viewer to reimagine the personal into something fantastical. You could even point to this abstraction as representing film or art itself. For example, Dorothy feels stuck in her lowly, everyday life. She imagines life could be better somewhere far away. However, through this fantastical abstraction of Oz, she reinterprets her very own life and instills it with wonder and excitement. It wasn't her life that was dreary at all, rather it was her perception of this life that was so dreary. She needed to reach this conclusion in the same way as F.W. Murnau's "Tartuffe" characters, through the lens of film, fantasy, reimagination, etc. 

Ironically, the ability to reimagine her circumstances is through the means of deception. Just as the 'great and powerful Oz' is merely a grifter behind a curtain, the fabricated fantasy is merely an illusion, a dream. Dorthey's voyage into a magical realm is nothing but a fabrication of her own subconscious. Our voyage into the realm of Oz is merely a magic trick played upon us by the magical and powerfully deceptive Victor Fleming (a director at MGM). We are deceived into viewing our life through an abstraction. However, rather than being cheated and played, we take from this abstraction something for our own betterment: an exciting new way to view life. 

With this abstraction, we can begin to understand mechanisms that surround us. For example, Dorothy recognizes the people in her own life through this abstraction and comes to a better understanding of them. As we watch the film, we can associate the various abstractions of morality, government, and community. Fiction and art contain elements of reality, despite its fabrication. Sure, Oz is a not real place, both in the context of the film and in real life. But, what Oz contains is the abstractions of very real things, things that contain truth. In viewing these truths through these lens, we begin to come to a more complex understanding of them all together. 

I believe this is why "The Wizard of Oz" is the origin point of cinematic consciousness. Perhaps this bold notion comes from a place of severe bias, as I have a special place in my heart for this film, but I believe this notion serves a wider net. I remember watching this film when I was a small child, perhaps too young to fully understand much of anything. However, what I did understand was the abstractions taking place in front of me. The man with no brain ended up being the most intelligent person of the group by developing plans and recognizing complex situations to help Dorothy. The cold, empty tin man who believed he had no heart ended up being the most sensitive, soft-hearted. The cowardly lion discovered his courage after finding the strength to do anything to save Dorothy from the wicked witch. The powerful and all mighty Oz was actually just a smooth-talking illusionist playing tricks. The way in which I understood my own reality was to view it through this magical lens of a fantastical world. A world that was presented to me in the form of cinema. As a child, it's hard to understand the things happening around you. It's hard to grasp the logic that seems just beyond your reach. However, if these forms of 'logic' are presented through these fantastical characters, worlds, and situations, you begin to understand these things in a more vibrant way, just as Dorothy begins to understand her own world through these same lenses. The magical realm helped Dorothy better understand and appreciate and understand the things happening in her own life, just as "The Wizard of Oz" helped me as a small child better appreciate and understand my own world as well.

This reasoning seems to point to the birth of my own cinematic consciousness, but I have not yet seemed to make my point about it more generally. I'm sure that many people across the globe can point to "The Wizard of Oz" as some childhood moment of clarity, just as I did. I'm sure many would consider it the backbone to their artistic understanding of the world, or even their understanding of art itself. Those things contribute to the 'cinematic consciousness' comment. However, what I would like to point out is the film's overarching reach socially and generationally. Not only does the film lay the subconscious groundwork for artistic understanding through the lens of fantasy and abstraction, but its reach to an wide audience to achieve this is perhaps the most significant reach of any piece of art in modern history. In a 2018 study by the University of Turin that measured the success and significance of 47,000 films from around the world using data from readers and audience polls, it was determined that "The Wizard of Oz" is the 'most influential film of all time.' Also, because of its initial success,  MGM sold the television rights to CBS in 1956. CBS's debut of the film in glorious technicolor in average, everyday American homes garnished an audience share of 53%. It was then repeated again in 1959 with an audience share of 58%. Its otherworldly success on this television format created an annual television tradition. It continued its television appearances between 1956 and 1974. A study done by the Library of Congress concluded that, because of its initial success, its major success on television, and its subsequent appraisal, "The Wizard of Oz" is the most seen film in history. This stature is unparalleled and it is safe to say that no other film has the same width and expanse as "The Wizard of Oz." Our modern audiences' understanding of cinema, its illusions, its construction, its themes, and its iconography all stem back to this nostalgic, childlike wonder of a film. A film student or film lover may know the works of Fritz Lang, understand the significance and danger of "The Birth of a Nation," or the majesty of "Metropolis," but the average, everyday person's knowledge of the earliest in film iconography would certainly have to be "The Wizard of Oz." It is for this reason I believe it is the origin point of cinematic consciousness. 

With the birth of cinematic consciousness also comes fixation. The reinterpretation of the film has been done time in memoriam. The concept of the 'yellow brick road,' the terror of flying monkeys, good witches and bad witches, "I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore,' clicking your heels three times, "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," 'somewhere over the rainbow,' ruby red slippers, technicolor magic, Dorothy's blue farmgirl dress, Glinda coming down in a bubble, etc. All of these notions are lasered into the consciousness of an entire 20th century community. It is almost as if "The Wizard of Oz" acts as a children's story for an entire century of people, whom all have come to some understanding of the cinematic art of storytelling through this lens, just as I did. It is in the cloth of our vernacular, our outlook on art, our understanding of the format, the way in which we create, and the way in which we use cinema as a tool for understanding our world. From David Lynch's dreamscapes to Steven Spielberg's magical renditions of extra terrestrials, to Salman Rushdie's acknowledged effects the film had on his writing (especially his first ever short story at the age of 10 with "Over the Rainbow"), to any realm of medium and imaginative fiction.

Another aspect of this fixation occurs with the production itself. This is perhaps the earliest film to experience this level of fixation well beyond the film's tenure in public domain. The abuse of star Judy Garland, the toxic work environments, the dangerous effects, conspiracies about depressed little persons, and on and on it goes. Fixation, rumination, obsession, reiteration, reinterpretation, and constant playback and discussion about this film continues and continues.

Beyond the significance of the film culturally, there also comes the technical marvel that it is. For one thing, the technicolor majesty of the film surpasses anything else before it. Sure, technicolor had been used plenty of times before, but the level of vibrancy and starkness with which it is employed goes above and beyond all levels before imagined. It's use of special effects, like the witch disappearing in a smog of smoke, the electrifying glass slippers, the flying broomstick, and other eccentric uses of 'film magic' all take your breath away. As a child, I felt that, despite animation being able to accomplish 'film magic' to a much richer extent, "The Wizard of Oz" and all its effects are exceeded these with its incorporated realism. To me, the things happening on film were just as real as reality itself.

This leads to to the most exciting notion about the film itself: fabrication as reality. I've touched on this above, but the themes of the film demonstrates how something fabricated can communicate a sense of reality to the viewer. To extend this notion, it goes to say that reality is exactly what you make of it. There is nothing external from you that can replace the internal strength you have. Brains, heart, and courage are not some external concepts that you can be bestowed with by some external power. There is not some magical place over the rainbow that is going to make you happy. Everything you need in life exists inside of you. You set the precedent that allows for these things to happen. The most powerful tool at your disposal is your own ability to take control of your perceptions. The wizard was able to become a powerful politician through sheer force of will and the magic of illusion, propaganda, and fabrication. The scarecrow, tin man, and lion were all able to somehow fabricate the very notions that they felt they lacked. Dorothy, after the journey through the realms of fabrication, was able to reconstruct her reality as she saw fit. That is the point of "The Wizard of Oz." Perception and reality are entirely within your control, the person you want to be is entirely within your control, and your own happiness and future are yours for the taking. Sometimes all it takes it just a unique lens to come to this conclusion. In the end, you'll realize that you were home all along. You had everything you needed at your disposal, and you were and ARE the person you want to be inside of you this whole time.