Retrospective Film Review

The Wizard of Oz (1939) • 85 Years Later — America’s most beloved film is a surreal trip with a political subtext

A young farm girl from Kansas and her dog are swept away by a tornado to the magical Land of Oz.

It’s perhaps the most beloved children’s film ever made. It’s spawned numerous, disparate interpretations, from the political to the religious, from the mythical to the psychedelic. But what is the true meaning behind Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz?

Often celebrated as one of the greatest pieces of cinema, the film is based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The story follows Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), a young girl who dreams of escaping to a place without worry. After a tornado lifts her house into the heavens, knocking her unconscious in the process, she awakens to find herself in a strange land, populated by even stranger characters…

The Wizard of Oz is a film that requires a little bit of historical knowledge to appreciate fully, which this article aims to provide…