371. The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger

Director: Victor Fleming

Running Time: 101 mins

The Wizard Of Oz is an American film about a girl, Dorothy Gale, who is taken away from her home in Kansas to a magical land, where she seeks the ‘wonderful’ Wizard of Oz to help her return home.

This film delighted me! Of course, it’s a classic fantasy story that centring around a brilliant idea, but it was the extremely happy and magical atmosphere that was created that was the main reason I loved this film so much.

Initially, I thought that this film would just be another irritating and cheesy musical, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Although it took 15 minutes to get going, with a seemingly random performance of ‘Over The Rainbow’ securing my doubts, it was eventually great fun to watch.

I think that the idea to show the whole film in colour was a fantastic decision on the part of the filmmakers, because the vibrancy of the picture really added a lot to making the film as enjoyable as possible.

I was also really impressed by the amount of special effects. The colour alone was outstanding for a film from 1939, but there were loads of cool effects that once again made that magical atmosphere all the more real.

But it wasn’t just the enjoyment that was brilliant. The story of this film was actually really interesting to follow along, and despite being occasionally boring during the songs, by the end, the ‘action’ and drama surprisingly made the story really exciting to watch.

Overall, I’ll give this an 8.5 because it was extremely impressive for an older film, but mainly because it had a great story and was thoroughly entertaining to watch.