Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie's The Wizard of Oz was a very interesting read. It was amazing to learn that such a talented writer was so deeply inspired by the film. Throughout the book he references his time growing up in Bombay and parts of the film that specifically influenced his childhood and ultimately his career.

I found the most intriguing part of the book to be the point when he begins to discuss the switch to color in the film. This is the point where I remember everything changed as I watched the film as a child. Growing up in a world of only colored film I was upset when my parents made me watch the Wizard of Oz and complained until the scene where she enters the land of Oz and all the color fills the screen. For Rushdie, this scene in the film takes him back to the 1950’s as a child in Bombay when Hindi movies were all in black and white. He notes that the colors in the film are not just there to brighten the movie a little but rather the colors are as bold and bright as possible to the point where Rushdie began to dream of green-skinned witches. From here he goes on to explain that when Dorothy goes into the Technicolor scene she has done a lot more than just leave the greyness, she has been unhoused as he puts it. Meaning that her homelessness is accompanied by the fact that until she reaches the Emerald City she will never have a roof over her head. I had never realized this and it really brought the whole film together for me. It makes sense that when she is home she has a roof over her head and the Emerald City is supposedly the only place that can help her get home.

The perfect colorful land that Dorothy entered looks amazing on the screen and is entertaining to watch but based on the ending of the film and Rushdie’s commentary I have realized that the meaning of the film was that happiness is not found in the colorful place that one dreams of but rather in the people that you love.