One of the most famous and most watched movies ever made, The Wizard of Oz is inarguably a classic, but it’s rarely thought of as a film of profound spiritual yearning. True, there’s no existential anguish in it like you’d find in an Ingmar Bergman or Carl Theodor Dreyer film, or transcendental spirituality like in a Terrence Malick movie, but The Wizard of Oz offers up characters praying for deliverance, intelligence, compassion, courage, a way home. The heart of a musical always lies in its musical sequences and The Wizard of Oz has several great songs that act as prayers from the hearts of its characters. There may be no mention of God or the divine and the Wizard of Oz himself seems to take the place of all-powerful authority within the land of Oz, but there is spiritual searching in this musical quest.
As Dorothy confesses in the show-stopping “Over the Rainbow,” she wants to find a place free from the pressures and pains of her farm life in Kansas. And for a while, she thinks she’s found it in Oz and the way to get it: by putting faith in the Wizard of Oz and his fabulous powers. Dorothy brings others along in her spiritual quest. As she partners with the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion, she awakens their desires for more in their lives. Problem is they misplace their hopes in the Wizard, who’s exposed as nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Luckily, Dorothy and her friends come to a new realization on their journey together: that their friendship has revealed more about themselves than they thought possible and that deliverance is much closer to home than they thought.
As Josh Larsen incisively writes in his book Movies Are Prayers, “If The Wizard of Oz functions as a yearning prayer of a seeker, it also ends as a parable of grace. In the finale, Dorothy comes to realize that ‘my heart’s desire’ is in ‘my own backyard.’” Like all good spiritual quests, Dorothy’s quest is as much internal as external; she may follow the Yellow Brick Road, but its lessons lead her back to her Kansas home with a new understanding of herself and what’s she capable of in the world.
In the end, her prayers are answered, just not in the way she expected.
— Aren Bergstrom; 3 Brothers Film (2022)
- Directed by: Victor Fleming
- Produced by: Mervyn LeRoy
- Written by: Noel Langley; Florence Ryerson; Edgar Allan Woolf
- Music by: Harold Arlen; Herbert Stothart
- Cinematography by: Harold Rosson
- Editing by: Blanche Sewell
- Release Date: 1939
- Running Time: 102 minutes
- Language: English
Arts & Faith Lists:
2012 Top 25 Road Films — #20
2022 Top 25 Movie Musicals — #11