Classics Film Marathon: The Wizard of Oz

Director: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor

Written by L. Frank Baum,
Screenplay by Noel Langley
Director of photography: Harold Rosson
Music by Harold Arlen, Herbert Stothart

Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke

Hollywood has always been alive with rumours about just how troublesome it was to shoot Oz, how much effort it took to make the film come together, just how close things came to the entire enterprise being scrapped, which was important and great not only because of Judy Garland and the song – Somewhere Over the Rainbow – that became one of the biggest hits in the world, but also due to its structure, the first appearance of its structural model, the ‘hero’s path’ model, that has been used many times since: writers have built countless smash films from Star Wars to Harry Potter around this structural model. It is worth noticing how the first part, that is, the part just before stepping over the threshold, the move into the world of magic, speaks of the entire story and how the characters transform. And how it was possible to exploit colour film to highlight the moment of crossing the threshold.

More programmes of the Budapest Classics Film Marathon 2019 in Urania National Filmtheatre.