This movie is better with the mute button on and "Dark Side of the Moon" playing on the stereo ...

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Adam’s rating: ★ (out of 5)

Director: Victor Fleming

Rated: none. 101 min.

No. 6 on AFI 100

No. 10 on AFI 100 reissue

No. 122 on IMDB Top 250

Starring: Judy Garland,
Frank Morgan

"The Wizard of Oz"; No. 6 on AFI 100;
No. 10 on AFI 100 (2008); No. 122 on IMDB Top 250
 
Exactly what my headline says.

Watching this movie is like going to a college football game or college basketball game where the visiting team is ranked higher than your team and your team blows them out and you join in with the entire crowd chanting, “Overrated!” in the final minutes. This film is super-overrated.

I remember watching this movie when I was four. My dad made a big deal about it because we had just got our first VCR and he had rented this movie on VHS and was ranting about how it was the first movie to be made in color and bla bla bla. And I barely remembered watching it. Until I watched it again as an adult.

The older I got, the more I watched it and the only scene I liked – as long as “Dark Side of the Moon” wasn’t accompanying the movie (note: start the album after the third time the MGM lion roars to start the movie to get the sync right) – was when the munchkin hangs himself.

And, the flying monkeys creep me out.

Why do I need to watch this movie? I've never understood it. I've never understood any of its redeeming qualities. I don't understand why the AFI rated this movie so high, although I do understand why it's one of the most beloved movies among older people.

 

Aside from my gripes, in terms of technical stuff, I feel like this movie gets a free pass because it is one of the first color films (similar to “Gone With the Wind”). It's like we're all supposed to drop what we're doing and admire what is really a terrible family film, with splotchy color on the Wicked Witch of the West, because this is the first movie to use color. And Technicolor was such a monumental achievement that somehow this a good enough rationale for ranking this film at the top of all of the best of, must-see movie lists? No, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a monumental achievement in the history of animation. I'm sure color is a big deal; but it's a much bigger deal -- and better executed -- in "Gone With the Wind," which in this case (and I can't believe I'm saying this) is a much better movie than "The Wizard of Oz."

See my headline.

The story is terrible – and completely taken out of context from the book it was based on, despite the fact that the book was one of protest for social change in turn of the 19th century America and the movie was somehow changed into a lovable kids film where all symbolism was lost on a stupid girl who runs away from home with a tornado coming.

Personally, I’d rather see the house drop on Dorothy as punishment for running away and being outside when the tornado comes. Then there would be no movie.