Two very different Oz movies

<p>Continuing through the Vatican's 1995 list of important films, in the section of Art we find the universally beloved 1939 musical <em>The Wizard of Oz</em>.</p> <p>The film is undeniably delightful and magical, but suffers from the attempt to provide a moral of dubious coherence. The film is about a band of characters seeking various virtues, but at the end we aren't quite sure where virtue comes from, and are left with a sense of disillusionment both within Oz (the Wizard being a phony) and with regard to the whole story (having been a dream).</p> <p>Nearly half a century later, <em>Wizard</em> got a sequel in Walter Murch's <em>Return to Oz</em> (1985) - but a sequel in plot terms only, with a very different spirit and style.</p> <p>For one thing, <em>Return</em> is more faithful to its source material in the stories of L. Frank Baum, who was inspired by Lewis Carroll's insistence that children stories don't need a lesson at the end. This approach too has its liabilities, because while a shoehorned theme is bad, so is realizing halfway through a movie that the series of events one has been watching, while charming and inventive, doesn't have much of a point.</p> <p><em>Return</em> is also significantly scarier than <em>Wizard</em>, as one of a number of whimsical but dark fantasy films made in the mid-80s (alongside <em>Labyrinth</em> and <em>The Dark Crystal</em>).</p> <p>The films can also be contrasted in their visual concepts, each compelling in its own way. Where <em>Wizard</em> opts for overtly artificial yet delightful sets, <em>Return</em> offers a more fully realized world, appropriately since the film rejects the idea that Oz is a dream.</p> <p>Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. <a href= "https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com">https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com</a></p> <p>This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! <a href= "http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio">http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio</a></p>