#10 The Wizard of Oz

A.F.I. Ranking: 10

Director: Victor Flemming

Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, and Billie Burke

Release Year: 1939

Brief Synopsis: I feel silly writing a synopsis about one of the most popular movies of all time, but here it goes. Dorothy is a young girl from Kansas who dreams of bigger adventures (insert song) “beyond the moon, beyond the rain.” Little did she know she was about to be faced with the biggest adventure of all time. A tornado hits Kansas sucking up Dorothy’s house with her and her precious pup inside. The tornado sets Dorothy back down in a Technicolor paradise filled with witches, munchkins, and talking trees. Dorothy desperately wants to get back home, so she decides to follow the yellow brick road to Emerald City to ask the Wizard of Oz to send her home. Dorothy makes an interesting group of friends along the way, while constantly being followed by a wicked witch and her band of flying monkeys (are we sure this movie wasn’t made in the 70s).

My Thoughts: This movie is definitely one of a kind. It is the only movie in this world that I can think of that everybody between the ages of two and one-hundred can quote. I don’t know anybody who wasn’t raised on this movie. Like pie and baseball, The Wizard of Oz is an American institution. There are also very few movies that you watched over and over as a child, and then watch as an adult without thinking it completely cheesy. When I was a kid I loved the musical numbers (although I just realized some of the crazy lyrics as an adult) and thought the characters were silly. As an adult now I realize what a great story and moral lesson this movie is. Like all of you, I have seen this movie dozens of times. Nothing is more comforting when you are sick then a bowl of chicken soup, an old blankie, and The Wizard of Oz.

“I learned that, if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again I shouldn’t look any farther than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with…”

Rating: Top of the List!