'The Wizard Of Oz'

BFI Film Classics/ The Wizard Of Oz by Salman Rushdie  791 .437 Fle

I want to be exploring how people react differently to cult films, making it important in the way that the spectator has walked away from the film with more then just a cinematic experience but something to think about or even learn from.

Salman Rushdie writes-
"I have begun with these personal reminiscences because 'The Wizard Of Oz' is a film whose driving force is the inadequacy of adults, even of good adults, and how weakness of grown-ups forces children to take control of their own destinies, and so, ironically, grow up themselves."

An important part of the success of 'The Wizard Of Oz' is that the story is godless and throughout the film there is only one part where religion is mentioned to create "good old-fashioned plain speaking" at the start of the narrative when Miss Gulch says 'Im a good Christian woman, I can't do so.'

"This absence of higher values greatly increased the film's charm, and is an important aspect of its success in creating a world in which nothing is deemed more important than the lovers, cares and needs of human being (and of course, tin beings, straw beings, lions and dogs)"

This is also another sign of pushing the boundaries of cinema by making the audience learn a valuable lesson of life through a time that was very traditional and strict, I bet a lot of the audience didn't even realize the film didn't contain christian morality.