Student Film Reviews

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1. Hilary Rosenthal 05.15.09 / 2pm

   I agree with Chelsea completely in that “The Wizard of Oz” helped people during that era get through the hopelessness of the Depression.”The Wizard of Oz” characterized all of the elements of Depression-era America. The film begins in Kansas, in an area of rural poverty where Dorothy’s aunt and uncle barely made ends meet.The initial villain was Ms. Gulch, who owned alot of the land and did not care about the farmers trying to make a decent living on her land.

   During the movie, Judy Garland (Dorothy)sings the classic “Over the Rainbow,” which evokes the emotion of a better tomorrow in the near future. The rainbow is a symbol that has always been used as a sign of hope. This was just what Americans needed to hear in 1939.

   In many ways, Dorothy’s travels to the land of Oz exemplifies the American notions of self-reliance. Dorothy just wants to get home and she will do anything to get herself back. This can be metaphorical in that Americans worked to raise the economy back to its original state.Dorothy kills the wicked witch of the East accidentally with her Kansas farm house, thus setting free the Munchkins. The killing of this witch, and her initial encounter with the witch of the West, demonstrates courage and leadership. The demonstration of courage and leadership gave American’s inertia to fix everything in 1939.

   Although Dorothy is helped along the way, notably by three inhabitants of the fantasy land, the lion, the tin man and the scarecrow, she is the leader of the pack and it is her ideas that bring the group success in what they were looking for. Dorothy is the perfect example of self-reliance and individualism, which is most definitely something Herbert Hoover would have loved in a citizen.The entire Oz segment is filmed in color, which highlights the contrast between this magical land that offered the key to success and the sad associations of Kansas.

   Although the film was not a supposed to be about the Great Depression, many aspects within the film gave Americans hope.
2. Tawni Irvine 05.15.09 / 11pm

   The Wizard of Oz is a classic movie that will be around for generations to come. Due to its glamourous special affects and the moral of the story, the Wizard of Oz has become an unforgettable film. The lion, the Tinman, and the Scarecrow give Dorothy a meaning and a reason to reach her goals. They work together to get past her fears and create good again in her town. Through following the yellow brick road and working through many struggles along the way, Dorothy finally meets the Oz. Although the Oz wasn’t exactly what she expected him to be, she helped the lion find courage, the tinman find a heart, the scarecrow find a brain and to find out once again that “there is no place like home”.
3. Cherrylin Mucho 05.17.09 / 1am

   I still watch The Wizard of Oz every times it plays on TV. As a child, I never thought of the film as reflecting the Great Depression, all I knew was that something bad happened to Dorothy and she needed help to go back home and then everyone would be happy again. As I watched this film again during my teen years, I understood that there was more to uncover. After learning about the Great Depression in school, it was easier to see that it was the same time frame as The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy was taken away with the tornado, to an unfamiliar place, poverty. As we meet the witches, which represent political views, the Good Witch, Glinda, represents democracy, while the wicked witch of the west represents totalitarianism. The friends that Dorothy meet along the way through Oz represent qualities within ourselves: Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow. The Lion needs to find courage, the Tin Man needs a heart, and the Scarecrow needs a brain. The characters unite to help each other seek the wisdom of the Wizard at the end of the yellow brick road. At the end of their journey, they find that the qualities they are hoping to find already exist within themselves. They did not need the wizard to make something happen, if anything, the wizard is used as a stimulus to push through to promote promise. In a way, this symbolizes finding these qualities within oneself to make it through tough times..and somewhere over the rainbow, there will be better days. The happy ending gave people something to look forward to, to look past the depression. At the beginning, the film starts off in black and white, and as Dorothy travels to the land of Oz, it becomes bright and colorful. The mise-en-scene creates a world of blissful imagination and hope.
4. Griffin Goldbarg 06.30.09 / 7pm

   The Wizard of Oz is a classic, and one must understand the historical context to fully appreciate this film. The reviewer did a great job of explaining its ties to the Great Depression, and its overall impact on America during the late 1930s. The use of Technicolor really makes this film stand out from others of the time period. I never really understood why the beginning was black and white and then it turned to color, but the reviewer did a great job of explaining this aspect of the film. It is interesting how what is often perceived as child’s entertainment actually has very important cultural and historical importance.
5. Amy Oberholtzer 06.27.10 / 3pm

   I love this film; I definitely agree that it is a classic. I never really thought about the connection to the Great Depression, because I watched this film mainly when I was younger. This was my grandmother’s favorite film and it was also the only movie that she owned, so I’ve seen it quite a lot of times. Neilson does a great job of reviewing this film and she has definitely opened up my eyes to the connections throughout the film. One of my favorite parts of this film was when it went from black and white to Technicolor. I remember the first time I had seen this movie when I was a child that scene was the most exciting thing in the world to me. This is a must-see classic film that shows how it was like in the 1930s during the Great Depression; it also has lots of catchy songs and dancing.
6. Cameron Dennis 08.01.15 / 6am

   “The Wizard of Oz”, directed by Victor Fleming, is an American musical classic, renowned for its advancements in Technicolor. It is about a young girl named Dorothy and her dog Toto’s adventure in the fantasyland of Oz. It all starts when a wind-blown window hits Dorothy’s head and she falls unconscious. Then she finds herself in the Land of Oz, being praised by many Munchkins for killing the Wicked Witch of the East. Out of revenge for killing her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West swears that she will kill Dorothy and Toto. This is when Toto and Dorothy start their adventure to find the “wonderful Wizard of Oz”. Along the, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and Cowardly Lion join them. These three characters represent important people in Dorothy’s life and I really like how they tied that together at the end. I toughly enjoyed this movie, but I would not recommend it to younger children because many of the scenes are disturbing. I did not like the voices of the munchkins. They made me feel uneasy. The advancement in Technicolor really emphasized what the Land of Oz looked like. If this movie were made 10 years earlier, it would not have the same effect on people.

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