Episode 120: Wizard of Oz

Art or distortion? Can the Wizard of Oz be brought from 1939 into 2025 without compromise? Let's have a talk about that.

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Transcript

00:00 - Ed Goldman (Host)
Hi, this is Ed Goldman with the Goldman State Podcast Lions and tigers and bears and two thumbs down. A hailstorm of hatred is engulfing the perpetrators of a new ginormous screening in Las Vegas of the beloved 1939 film the Wizard of Oz. Apparently, to make the film work in its new mountain range dimensions, ai was deployed in a few spots to ensure that characters, and even the legs of some characters that were no longer visible once the original format was aggrandized have now been restored. But, like most of you, I haven't seen the newest incarnation of the film and, like most of you, that doesn't prevent me from being incensed, indignant and aesthetically violated by it. Oh, whence my smelling salts and fainting couch? No, never mind that, I'll sue. No, wait, even better, I want to see the manager. By the same token, do you think that anything ever produced in Hollywood is or was an untouchable work of art? 

00:57
Ted Turner colorized the classic Casablanca in 1988, remaking Humphrey Bogart's white dinner jacket into a shade of canary yellow that even century 21 real estate people who sported hideous gold blazers for decades might consider a tad, hmm, gauche. And what happened? Why? Nobody ever watched Casablanca in its original format, ever again. That's right. You didn't know that did you. It was consigned to the ash heap of cinematic history, correct? No, of course not. In fact, while the colorized film drew a bunch of viewers including me when it was shown on TV and home video sales were okay, people who loved the original black and white film, including me continued to see, re-see and love it. 

01:41
I think I've watched Casablanca a minimum of 30 times since the first time I saw it with my big brother, jerry, sitting on the carpet in his New York City apartment in the very humid summer of 1969. The air conditioner turned up to arctic mode. I remember both of us roaring with laughter at this snippet of dialogue. Captain Raynaud, played by Claude Raine, says what in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca? And Humphrey Bogart, as Rick, says my health. I came to Casablanca for the waters. Captain Reno says the waters. What waters? We're in the desert. I was misinformed. 

02:17
Now, by way of background, colorization is a technique that was introduced to lure younger viewers to older films, presumably because they wouldn't watch anything that lacked the Crayola hues they first encountered when their parents took them to dinner and filled the little darling's high chair trays with drawing supplies. It was meant to prevent the kids from becoming pint-sized terrorists when they got bored, which usually started as the menus were delivered to the table and escalated as the waiter recited the daily specials. You know this is something I can still relate to Now, despite the French auteur theory of film, that's that the director is the author of everything we watch and hear. Movies have always been a highly collaborative art and industry, and I don't mean just the shooting and editing of them. They're products that are researched, target marketed, altered when poorly received in sneak previews and generally not utterly faithful to the director's, writer's, actor's or editor's initial vision. To recap, if your life won't be complete until you see Toto look like a cast member of Jurassic Park, get thee to Vegas. 

03:19
I'm Ed Goldman. My column, the Goldman State, comes out every Monday, wednesday and Friday. You can subscribe for free at GoldmanStatecom. Thanks for listening.