By: Max Jasper

Without the wonderful land of Oz, we’d still be in black and white. 

“The Wizard of Oz” is undoubtedly the most important film ever made. Not only did it introduce the world to color, but it also introduced the world to a visual adventure that everybody wanted to go on, myself included back when I first saw this film when I was a young boy.

Believe it or not, I once had an “Oz”-themed birthday party, thanks to my grandma, who got me hooked on the film.

Rewatching the film nearly a decade and a half later, I struggle to remember why I was so infatuated with this film. Was it the story? The singing? The colors? The characters? I’ll be honest, I don’t know.

While I can’t exactly say why I liked it then, now, I like it for the film’s blend of reality and fantasy. You see, the land of Oz is a picture-perfect fictional place. Sure, it has some weird aspects, but its reality is all the more pleasant than the one Dorothy (Judy Garland) lives in. However, the troubles of Dorothy’s reality remain in Oz, and she is forced to confront those troubles while simultaneously helping her friends confront their own. Dorothy’s journey in this film is all about appreciating her home life, despite the bad things that come with it. Sure, she has to deal with a crazy, witch-like neighbor (Margaret Hamilton) who threatens to kill her dog, but aside from that, her life isn’t all that bad. In fact, we don’t see much of Dorothy’s home life, aside from the way her aunt (Clara Blandick) and uncle (Charley Grapewin) absolutely fall apart when their neighbor comes to take Toto away.

Dorothy is sent to Oz because she wants to protect Toto above all else. Much like my girlfriend and her cat, Dorothy loves her dog and will do anything to protect him, even if that means running away.

Inside the land of Oz, Dorothy meets all sorts of unique people who do nothing but respect and uplift her, minus the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys. Dorothy then travels with four companions, who mirror her real-life friends on her farm in Kansas, to return to Kansas and escape the land of Oz.

It’s sad to me that despite how fun and cheery this film is, it had the darkest production I have ever heard of on a film set.

According to a posthumous memoir by Garland’s ex-husband, some of the munchkin extras would put their hands under Garland’s dress and sexually harass her on set. In fact, two years before Garland died, she said that munchkins on set were “drunks” and that they would constantly be drunk while on set. Many of the munchkin extras dispute these claims, saying that they worked hard for little pay, and with what little pay they had, they couldn’t afford to be drunk constantly.

In addition, the original actor for the Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, had a severe reaction to the aluminum makeup applied to his face, and the studio was furious and fired him, replacing him with Jack Haley. The makeup for Haley was altered to avoid an incident like that happening again; however, it did give Haley a serious eye infection.

Speaking of serious, Margaret Hamilton may have gotten it worst of all, as during the scene where her character poofs away, she caught on fire, burning her chin, nose, right cheek, right eyelashes and eyebrow. Because of these horrendous injuries, Hamilton had to take six weeks off from shooting, opting not to sue the production simply because “she wanted to work again.”

You’d think after Hamilton went through all of that torture, the studio would have played it safe from then on out, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Hamilton was asked (right after returning to set) to perform another fire stunt, and she refused. So, they used a stunt double, and she caught on fire and spent 11 days in the hospital in excruciating pain.

Despite all of those production nightmares, “Oz” is the most important film ever made. “The Wizard of Oz” was a shift in a new direction for cinema with the use of Technicolor, a feature that made people realize the potential in the filmmaking art form. Not only that, but its unique costume design and characters were visuals that are still fondly remembered over 85 years later…

Four and a half out of five stars.