With the unnecessary prequel due out this week, which I don't even feel obligated to see, I revisited the timeless classic and again found myself mesmerized. Here's something brief I wrote about it the last time I journeyed down the Yellow Brick Road a few years back:
What is it about this movie? What makes it so timeless? How
can it be so familiar and at the same time so fun and engaging? How can it be
based on a book with cultural references and allusions that were outdated by
the time filming began, and certainly hold no direct relevance today? Is it the
basic message of the film that grabs people, but that too is so tired and
sappy, but still how does it never fail to be moving? How can it be so
miraculous on so many levels, but so common on so many others? How do the sets
which are obviously sets sloppily merge with the backdrops which are obviously
backdrops to create arguably the most recognizable and cherished film setting
in history? And color had been around, but how did they make it so radiant and
glorious? This is a film that defies explanation. It's not the fact that it's
in color, it's that it knows it's in color, and knows it alive, and everyone
who has seen it knows its a great film, and anyone would be a fool to question
that.
