"The Wizard of Oz" was a movie my mother banned me from seeing because she said the Wicked Witch of the West was the work of the devil. Wasn't she the one who took my brothers and I to its far scarier sequel “Return to Oz”? Maybe she knew that watching Judy Garland would turn me gayer.
What is the queer appeal of “The Wizard of Oz”? It can't just be Judy Garland. Queer viewers most likely identified with Dorothy's yearning for “Somewhere / Over the Rainbow,” a place far from their oppressive reality. Or the campiness of the witches? Or the visibility of the Sissy stereotype in the guise of the Cowardly Lion.
This time, however, I read the film as a metaphor on movie escapism. Dorothy's journey mirrors that of a moviegoer's. Dorothy /Moviegoer is sucked into the vortex and transported from the harsh black and white world to a Technicolor fantasy land. Dorothy's time in Oz is a dream. The moviegoer's time spent in the cinema is nothing but a dream. The movie doesn't sell the fantasy. Since this is 1939 at the tail end of the Depression, the movie emphasizes the importance of family and home. “Lose yourself in a movie” it says. “But your real life, no matter how dull, is more precious.”
1 comment:
You know that the original book (and musical) was a direct allegory on the bi-metallic standard (as opposed to the gold standard) and the Cowardly Lion was a barely disguised Willian Jennings Bryan, right?
Emerald City refers to New York and paper money naturally and the Wicked Witch of the East represented the bankers naturally (plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.)
The book was set after the Panic of 1893 (just like the movie is set during the GD), and as unlikely as it sounds, it bears noting that Kansas used to be the hotbed of revolution in the 19th century. (In fact, it resembled Berkeley more than anything!)
Also, the original musical in Chicago had "inserted" scenes of contemporary relevance that it's audience would've no trouble recognizing (cue Tina Fey as Sarah Palin here!)
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