The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Information at Internet Movie Database
"A Summer of Movie-Discussion Nights. Part Three: The Wizard of Oz," Steve Lansingh, TheFilmForum: Christian Conversation about the Movies.
Themes
- Alternate Reality/Illusion-Reality
  - Dorothy is transported to another reality from which she is able to see her own world more clearly.
- Baptism
  - The witch in the flick is melted or killed by water. An old theological position (Augustine of Hippo ?) is that evil is not real, but an "echo" of good. It is the reality of the water that kills the witch, not her wickedness. (cf. T.S. Elliot "Human [or witches it seems] being can not bear too much reality.") (submitted by Rev Mark A. Thompson, Mpls MN)
  - The "tornado baptism" (spirit/pneuma and fire) which marks the beginning of Dorothy's journey. She is knocked out and comes back to life - reborn in a world that is in color.
- Call
  - Dorothy gathers disciples for the Wizard (submitted by Bill Mosley, Frelsburg TX)
- Home/Going Home
  - Dorothy returns home and finds that the people on her journey were the same people who have loved her all along.
- Journey, Growth
  - Dorothy's growth as a journey along the yellow brick road, through which she and others recognize traits (graces) that they had all along.
- Pentecost/Holy Spirit
  - The cyclone in the Wizard of Oz:
    - Things were normal, grumbly, not very happy, until THE WIND came.
    - Picked up the house, Dorothy, Toto and all, and took them to a place where NOTHING WAS THE SAME
    - Little people dancing around
    - Monkeys who could fly
    - Unexpected dangers
    - Friends with unexplainable gifts--Courage, Compassion, Wisdom--without anything to offer a rational explanation for their presence
    - The Emerald City--beautiful, full of promise
    - HERE'S THE RUB: At least on the surface, the Wizard was a fraud. But was he really? He put on a big show and was just a normal guy with a great need for attention and adoration. I know clergy like that.
    - BUT--The Wizard knew Dorothy had what she needed all along to take her back home
    - What about when she got back to Kansas? Was everything at home different? No, DOROTHY WAS DIFFERENT! She experienced her life with a soul made light by the wind, with eyes made bright with the spark of the Holy Spirit.
    - (submitted by Katherine M. Glenn)
- Prodigal Son
  - Dorothy leaves home, wanders, and returns with new appreciation for those who love her.
- Seeing/Seeing Differently
  - Another way of looking at it is like in the Wizard of Oz. The world is in shades of gray, and then suddenly you see all the colors of God's rainbow. (submitted by Gayle Bach-Watson)
- Wisdom
  - James 3:13-4:3 tackles two kinds of wisdom, God's and the world's. Near the end of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends have brought the broomstick of the wicked witch to the wizard and ask that he grant their requests. As he stalls for time, Toto pulls back the curtain revealing that the magnificent wizard is nothing more than a man who has everyone fooled. James' exposition on wisdom pulls back the curtain on the world's wisdom and exposes it as for what it really is, wisdom de jour based upon a consensus of people who convince everyone else that they are right. James calls such wisdom earthly, unspiritual, and of the devil.
    
    The flames and the image of the wizards face contrasted by the man behind the curtain is powerful both for kids and adults. (Larry Trotter, pastor,
    
    Martel United Methodist Church, Lenoir City, TN)

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