Journal

Having never completely viewed one of the most famous movies in all of film history, this journal gave me an excellent excuse to watch the old, dusty copy of The Wizard of Oz (1939). I have only watched snippets of the movie on television and heard it referenced tens of hundreds of times throughout my life. So now finally, i have watched the film start to finish and am now Oz literate.

Directed by Victor Fleming, The Wizard of Oz as everyone knows is about a girl named Dorothy who is played by the hometown hero Minnesotan Judy Garland. As the story progresses and the plot expands, I began to realize in my own basement that my body was the only thing actually in my bottom floor, my head and imagination had long dissapeared into simpler times; my childhood. I have heard somewhere that The Wizard of Oz brings out the child in everyone who watches it, a detail I have never lived until now.

Just like how a war movie can take your thoughts into a defferent realm, or a sad song captures your fellings about a topic, and even how a sighint of toy flys a person off to a different time in thier life, the Oz did this to me. A fantasy land that i dreamed of as a child, floated into my mind like a mirage in my slummy basement.

Victor Fleming used sound extensively in the film throughout. Whether it was the flying monkeys, or the sound of Dorothy's voice while she skipped to the castle, the music and sound, in my opinion took center stage in the impressive category for the flick. The sound effects of the characters and the witches really made the movie of that time period stick out to me as one ahead of its time. and also make it a movie still referenced over 60 years later.