Escapism & Going Over the Rainbow from the Comfort of Your Grandparents’ Couch: The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Screen Cares

Episode Transcript

Screen Cares host Jennie takes listeners and co-host Sarah somewhere over the rainbow through a conversation about the power of movies to help viewers escape while simultaneously connecting them more deeply with what it means to be truly home. The Wizard of Oz (1939) was a formative film in Jennie’s early life because it was one of the only films her grandparents had on cassette for her to watch when she would stay over at their home sick from school while her parents worked. Sarah asks Jennie illuminating questions to explore how the magic created by the marriage of black and white meets technicolor brilliance, Judy Garland’s heartfelt performance, Toto’s steady companionship (Jennie and Sarah are nothing if not dog-lovers), and the timeless tale of escaping only to long for home, left an indelible mark on the Screen Cares host.

Screen Shares Rating:

• Solo-Screen
• Little-Screen
• Family Screen

Screen Sparks:

1. Do you need to leave home to appreciate it?
2. How would Dorothy’s life have been different had the tornado never happened?
3. What movies help you escape and what movies feel like home to you?
4. What movies feel like “home” to you?
5. How does lack of confidence lead people to follow blindly and doubt their gifts?

After the Credits Roll-Links Referenced during the show:

• Jennie describes also being influenced by the source text on which the movie was based: The 1900 children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L Frank Baum 1900 in Chicago after the death of his niece Dorothy and an unrelated but devastating Kansas tornado in 1893. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43936/43936-h/43936-h.htm
• Screen Cares discusses the further influence of the NBC made for tv docudrama The Dreamer of Oz Staring John Ritter in the 1990s https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099464/
• First movie version of the Wizard of Oz was actually in1910 silent film by Selig Polyscope Company in 1910 coming in at slightly over 13 minutes. https://youtu.be/BWQ5-UBU22M
• 16 Hidden Symbolic Messages in the Wizard of Oz https://historycollection.com/16-hidden-symbolic-messages-in-the-wizard-of-oz-you-may-have-missed/
• The Allegory of the Wizard of Ozhttps://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-schaller-0805-20150804-column.html

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