Friday, July 4, 2014

The Wizard of Oz - Analysis of the Movie - part 1: Introduction

CATEGORY: MOVIES; WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!

[Image at left from the Wikipedia 'The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)' page; "WIZARD OF OZ ORIGINAL POSTER 1939", public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]












Welcome to the analysis of The Wizard of Oz. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis. Regarding the appearance of possible anti-Semitism on this blog, please see the 'Disclaimers' section near the bottom of this page.

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical comedy-drama fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and is the most well-known and commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy. It co-stars Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, and Jack Haley. Notable for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score and unusual characters, over the years it has become an icon of American popular culture.[a]





Above left: The Wicked Witch of the West has a long, hook nose; Jews are often caricatured as having this type of nose, so the Wicked Witch represents a Jew who is evil. Also note that her skin is green; in Europe and the U.S., green is sometimes associated with death, sickness, or the Devil. Green can also symbolize envy.[b] Above right: The Wicked Witch in flight. Her broom handle is here placed such that it is reminiscent of a phallus; this symbolizes that the evil Jew the Witch represents has male sex characteristics, in addition to female sex characteristics. She is a female pseudohermaphrodite. Pseudohermaphroditism is a condition in which the individual has a single chromosomal and gonadal sex but combines features of both sexes in the external genitalia, causing doubt as to the true sex.[c]







Top left: The Scarecrow's nose has a prominent dark brown color, and thus, he represents some group of persons who are brown nosers of evil Jews. Top right: The Tin Man's nose is long, and could be taken to have a smudge of something on the end of it; this 'something' represents stool, and thus, the Tin Man represents a brown nosing Jew. Above left: The Cowardly Lion's nose is large, and therefore, he represents a cowardly Jew. Also, his 'mane' makes him appear like he has girl's hair, suggesting that he is gay. Above right: All three of Dorothy's 'friends' are, in fact, evil, and are deceiving her during the group's journey.


a. Wikipedia, 'The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film).
b. Wikipedia, 'Green'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green.
c. 'pseudohermaphroditism'. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 26 Sep. 2015. URL = http://www.britannica.com/science/pseudohermaphroditism.




Posted at 9:10 AM
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