Dorothy: The Great and Powerful

For me, more than anything, Salman Rushdie’s analysis of the Wizard of Oz proved, or rather re-affirmed, that Rushdie is a very talented writer. He has a mesmerizing way bringing poignancy and vivid imagery to what could have been dull nostalgia.

            I found myself equally intrigued by Rushdie’s fascination with The Wizard of Oz as an “authorless text”.  Rushdie goes so far as to proclaim The Wizard of Oz to be a work of art, which begs the question as to who is the artist behind it. I’m firmly of the opinion that a good film must have an auteur behind it: someone with a clear, uncompromised vision responsible for ensuring that each choice made reflects the overall vision (this need not be the director).  It’s difficult to fathom that four separate directors, each having their own vision and style, could have produced a work as cohesively successful as The Wizard of Oz. I am continuously reminded of the famous aphorism that “a camel is a horse designed by committee”.  I do believe that no matter how many talented people are gathered as collaborators, there needs to exist a strong, visionary leader, or the result is inane. But perhaps The Wizard of Oz is the one exception. Maybe it is, as Rushdie says, a masterpiece made by accident (He points to the fact that Somewhere Over the Rainbow was nearly cut from the final film).

            Additionally, Rushdie’s point about Dorothy as the film’s soul shed new light on the character for me. He posits that Somewhere Over the Rainbow is what gives the film its heart. Apparently, the principal actors playing the three men Dorothy encounters complained about the lack of “acting” that was required of their parts. And they were right to do so. Yet, Dorothy’s song and the emotion it embodies, carried throughout the film by Garland’s performance, provides true humanism and emotional urgency to the fanciful fantasy that follows.  As Rushdie says, Garland’s performance is so accomplished for that reason; she carries the entire emotional weight of the film while at the same time acting at the “empty vessel”: the eyes of the audience as we move through the strange and unknown land of Oz. She is the subject and object of the film, which makes Garland’s performance all the more impressive.

            The final point, which Rushdie repeats throughout his analysis, has to do with his contempt of dull and dreary Kansas and the demeaning of Dorothy’s jorney by her family members. Rushdie’s point about Kansas is true; it is a dull grey, characterized by straight lines and sharp angles. Yet, what Rushdie seems to ignore is the power of family. Dorothy never really wants to get back to Kansas; she wants to return to her family, wherever they may be.  And although, as Rushdie points out, Glinda insists that the moral of the whole journey is that “there’s no place like home”, Dorothy saves the film from such a banal conclusion in her fierce insistence that what occurred was indeed real. She leads us to believe that no matter what her family says, the spirit of her journey through Oz will at least live on in Dorothy.

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.

There's no place like home

Salman Rushdie's review of the Wizard of Oz is extremely thought provoking and interesting to read. While I've been watching the film since I was very young, you don't realize the messages it presents until you are an adult. This is fascinating because Rushdie presents the argument that in the film, adults are portrayed as inadequate. Dorothy's Aunt Auntie Em and Uncle Henry are incapable of helping her save her dog Toto. They seem undermined by the evil woman who supposedly owns half of the county. To the other adults in the film, Dorothy seems like a small child with minuscule problems and all of their farm animals running all over the place and other little issues seem much more superior to Dorothy's needs. In a frustrated mind set, Dorothy is transported to Oz. There, by complete mistake, her house is dropped on the Wicked Witch of the East. Without even trying, Dorothy becomes the heroine to the people of Oz. They look up to her both in mind but also physically, as the munchkins are much shorter than her. Without even trying she begins her journey to "adulthood". As the film continues and she is accompanied by the brainless scarecrow, the heartless tin man, and the cowardly lion, she becomes their heroine as well as she is bringing them to the Wizard of Oz who will hopefully get them what they need to feel sufficient. By the end of the film, when Dorothy, again by accident, melts the Wicked Witch of the West, as the witch becomes melted and lowers to the ground, she again looks up to Dorothy as the little girl who has been able to kill her, something she did not think possible. Rushdie points out that Dorothy's journey from Kansas to Oz was her right of passage to adulthood and also made her realize that although she is this heroine character in the colorful, beautiful, land of Oz, and gains all of these friends who look up to her as well as a new found courage, all she wants to do is go home to the town where she was considered a child her whole life. By the end of the film, Dorothy truly felt that "there is no place like home", and upon realizing this was able to return home to her family that she had a new appreciation for.

Symmetry and (Anti)Feminism in The Wizard of Oz

Rachel Brisgel

Briefly in his essay The Wizard of Oz, Salmon Rushdie alludes to the symmetrical nature of the film. Symmetry in film refers to an organizational formula that conveys unity by presenting to opposite, yet equal representation of characters and objects. In the movie, Kansas contrasts Oz, Mrs. Glutch equals the Wicked Witch, the three Uncles represent the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man, Auntie Em is Glinda. After Rushdie brought this to my attention, I realized that this mirrored world was the ideal canvas to show Dorothy's coming of age/maturation because it gives the audience a point of comparison. We may observe she evolves through her interactions with the characters. The most obvious example is Mrs. Glutch. In the beginning, Dorothy is fearful that she will take her Toto so she rashly decides to run away (to where? we don't know) without a plan, or food, or money, etc. At the end of the film, Dorothy has developed into a strong-willed young girl who is not afraid of Glutch because she has learned to overcome childish fears. Also interesting to note is how the opposite yet equal settings of Kansas and Oz contrast. As Rushdie says, "the world of Kansas is shaped into 'home' by use of simple, uncomplicated shapes. Throughout The Wizard of Oz, home and safety are represented by such geometrical simplicity, whereas danger and evil are invariably twisty, irregular, and misshapen" (22). Structural symmetry brings this to our attention because we can observe how Dorothy's overall maturation is developing throughout perilous or safe settings. For example, the tornado in Kansas epitomizes twisty danger. It's mirror, the Yellow Brick Road, for its twisty but organized shape, tells the viewer that Dorothy is literally on her way to safety and adulthood. Perhaps geometrics imply the mature order that life eventually falls into. Basically, I am saying that symmetry provides a point of comparison and a gauge on Dorothy'y maturation.

On a completely unrelated note, I would like to disagree with everyone saying this is a feminist film. Although the leads all happen to be women, they are all stereotypes of women, which perpetuates a narrow-minded view of what a woman should be. Glinda the good witch is of course pretty. The Wicked Witch of the West is ugly. Why for a woman to be good she needs to be pretty? Why is female ugliness so feared? This is quite exclusionary.

The Many Layers of The Wizard of Oz

I really enjoyed reading the author's thoughts and theories on the Wizard of Oz because they are ideas that I had not previously considered. “There’s no place like home” is one of the most infamous quotes in Hollywood history. Perhaps that is what makes Rushdie’s analysis so interesting to me. He makes the bold statement of saying that that highly quoted and beloved slogan from the Wizard of Oz is the least convincing idea in the film. It was one thing for Dorothy to want to get home back to where things are normal, but it is true that Kansas and the life Dorothy had at home was not the ideal state that that statement implied. Dorothy did not feel fully understood or appreciated at home, and her family was lower income. It was clear that Kansas was made to look like a ‘bleak world’- even the filter of the picture was colored gray to represent its depressing nature. In Oz, a land very different from home, Dorothy found courage, friends, adventure and her best self, thus making the statement “there’s no place like home” very contradictory. Why would Dorothy want to go back to a world of gray after experiencing a world of color? It was an argument that I had not really considered until now.

I also liked Rushdie’s thinking about the way gender and “growing up”. Regarding gender, the powerful roles of the Good Witch and the Bad Witch are played by women, and the cowardly roles of Oz, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow are not the typical roles of leading Hollywood men. It is a revolutionary change in Hollywood, where a film takes on a feminist position that was not typical of the time. Regarding growing up, this film serves as a rite of passage for Dorothy. It was the “inadequacy” of Auntie Em and Uncle Henry that forced Dorothy to take control of her life and grow up into an adult.

"The Wizard of Oz" as a Feminist Text?

     Despite it being such a foundational cultural touchstone, beloved by children and adults alike for generations, not once have I seen any sort of discussion of "The Wizard of Oz" through a feminist lens. In his analysis of the film, Salman Rushdie ruminates on its lack of a classic male hero.What's originally perceived as four points of power, comprised of Dorothy, Glinda, the Witch, and the Wizard, ends up being a triangle of women when the Wizard proves to be a so-called humbug. Rushdie writes: "The power of men is illusory, the film suggests. The power of women is real" (43.) Does this mean that "The Wizard of Oz" is a feminist text? I don't have an answer to this question and would love to discuss it. Taking Rushdie's statement at face value, I'd love to accept it - after all, it is a movie about a young girl who sets out on a journey of personal growth, helping others along the way, et cetera. However, the ending gives me doubts. Is it empowering for Dorothy to come to the conclusion that all she could ever want is at home on the farm, and that anything otherwise she doesn't truly need? Is it feminist for her to go back home and to stay out of trouble? We don't know what happens after the film ends - how things resolve themselves with Mrs. Gulch, what the state of the farm is like after the twister - but I'm not so sure that Dorothy would go on to do anything truly revolutionary. Does that necessarily rule out "The Wizard of Oz" as a feminist text, though? Or is it enough for a film of its time, simply because of its depiction of the power and agency of women?

The Wizard of Oz

            I enjoyed Salman Rushdie’s innovative thoughts on The Wizard of Oz, pulling apart a childhood film in a way I never would have viewed the film. I always find it interesting to re-watch childhood films because I too view them differently than from when I was a child. One of Rushdie’s first points stuck with me, the lack of religion in the film. Witches are typically associated with some secular meaning; however, there is no religious motive in the film. Rushdie notes “this absence of higher values greatly increases the film’s charm” making nothing “more important than the loves, cares, and needs of human beings” (Rushie 13). Without a religious undertone of the film, the audience focuses on the raw motives of characters actives and their personal characteristics.

            I also found Rushdie’s point about female power to be particular thought provoking. The film is ahead of its time by focusing on female power and having Dorothy as heroine lead. The Lion, Tinman, and Scarecrow are not the typical Hollywood leading men with their desires and insecurities about having courage, a heart, and a brain. In addition, the lack of power from the Wizard sums up the power men in the film as simply an illusion. While I always loved The Wizard of Oz as a child, I never realized the subtle impact it had on femininity. While these are only two small points Rushdie makes in her film, she highlights many aspects in the film that I never realized prior to reading her analysis.

The Wizard of Oz and its Shapes

Salman Rushdie’s, The Wizard of Oz, discusses unique aspects of the film, a film that has inspired generations. One aspect of Rushdie’s interpretation that I found particularly interesting was his focus on shapes and images. Rushdie points out that in the film good is associated with geometric and structured images. Evil is shown with chaotic shapes and strangeness. The farmhouse where Dorothy lives is very geometric with little complexity. Even the path that Dorothy must follow to see the wizard is very set and not chaotic. The simplicity of sameness is seen with all the good in Oz. Chaos associated with evil can first be seen with the tornado in Kansas. This is the first time in the film where we are presented with a truly complicated image that we know is going to bring pain. This difference in shape allows us to see a clear contrast between good and evil. The difference is seen again in the portraying of the good and bad witches. The good witch Glenda comes on screen in a simple bubble that is uncomplicated. The Wicked Witch of the west arrives in a cloud of fire and smoke. She also has a castle that is full of different complicated structures. Goodness in the film is simple and evil is complicated. This leads me to think that the wicked witch has more depth to her. She has more of a chip on her shoulder and has layers. I am more interested in learning about her life than Glenda’s. The audience can sympathize more the Wicked Witch then Glenda.

Jinhe Weber: Response to Salman Rushdie

The Wizard of Oz is one of the films that has transcended its own time and has truly become a classic film, viewed by people of all generations. The story of Dorothy’s adventures in Oz is one that will most likely continue to entertain people for many years to come, much as it has influenced Salman Rushdie. Rushdie’s perspective as a child in India is interesting as well, and demonstrates how certain films and stories can have an impact outside of the “Western” perspective, and also be interpreted differently while the core themes remain the same. I found it very interesting how Rushdie pointed out that Dorothy’s last name is Gale, which parallels the force that Dorothy has both in Kansas and in Oz. The movie is full of parallels, particularly with the way that the characters back in Kansas represent characters in Oz. Additionally, I really enjoyed the background that Rushdie gave about the production of the film, as it helped to better my appreciation of the technologically advanced approaches that were used, especially in terms of color.

The observation that Rushdie makes, that Dorothy is rather literally “homeless” from the point of the tornado until reaching the Emerald City. While traveling along the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy and her companions never once have a roof over their head. This is an interesting point that Rushdie makes, especially when one considers how he questions the widely held belief that the film’s main message is the trope that “there’s no place like home”. Rather, Oz is where Dorothy truly finds her place.

The point that struck the most, however, was Rushdie’s observation about the lack of a male hero in the film. The Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow obviously do not fit in the traditional notion of masculinity in Hollywood. Additionally, the Wizard himself is merely a facade. The central conflict is between the female characters, and Dorothy’s adventure in Oz leads to her emerging as the true heroine of the story. Rushdie also challenges the film’s cliche and undeveloped portrayals of good and evil. Rushdie’s analysis that the Wicked Witch of the West represents a better portrayal of a powerful woman compared to Glinda. This reminded me of the popular book and musical Wicked, which explored this particular backstory. 

Rushdie’s analysis of The Wizard of Oz will stick with me for changing the way that I view the characters, particularly the Wicked Witch as well as Judy Garland’s portrayal of Dorothy, from a feminist perspective.

The Wizard of Oz!

I found that Salman Rushdie's analysis of The Wizard of Oz brought forth many interesting ideas about the film. Something that Rushdie brings up that I definitely noticed were the differences between Dorothy's town in Kansas and the Land of Oz. The first setting that is introduced in the film is the black and white version of Kansas that Dorothy calls home. Rushdie calls to attention the shapes that are used in this setting as all being very symmetrical with many straight lines and average shapes. This is then of course interrupted by the tornado which brings in an unfamiliar shape. Rushdie notes that throughout the film that these twisty shapes, such as the tornado, represent danger and evil. While watching the film, I thought that this observation was easy to make as I definitely noticed the difference in whimsicality between the two worlds. I thought that Rushdie brought forth a really interesting observation when he noted the two witches. While Gilda, the good witch, appears and disappears in a perfectly round nicely colored bubble. The wicked witch enters scenes in a large red cloud of smoke. It just goes to show that structure in this film represents goodness, while chaotic shapes represent bad in the film. Lastly, the most interesting aspect of Rushdie's analysis that I found was his discussion of power in this film. I feel that in most films that I have seen that were made during this time period did not show women to have power or any position to have power. However, Rushdie presents that the witches in the film are the only sources of power. I can see this in that they are the only characters that were really able to influence any other character to act a certain way or go down a certain path. I also found that throughout the film Dorothy was given power when she accidentally kills each of the witches and wins over the love of the different people of oz. Power is also given to the women through the inadequacies of the men in the film. For example the tin man, scarecrow, and lion all missing something important such as heart or a brain. Throughout the film I feel that there is this push to make out the actual wizard of oz to hold much of the power as he is seen as able to fix everyones problem when in reality this is all an illusion. I really found that looking at the film through the points of Rushdie made me gain a new perspective.