The Wizard of Oz
by King Vidor, Mervyn LeRoy, Richard Thorpe, Victor Fleming
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DVD details
Actor: Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Jack Haley, Judy Garland, Ray BolgerDirector: King Vidor, Mervyn LeRoy, Richard Thorpe, Victor Fleming
Writer: Bert Lahr
Writer: Arthur Freed
Writer: E.Y. Harburg
Writer: Edgar Allan Woolf
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: AC-3, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-10-19
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
DVD Reviews of The Wizard of Oz
DVD Review: Wow, beautiful work
Summary: 5 Stars
Super regeneration of a great film, even my teenager wanted to see this one and he loved it!DVD Review: as expected
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this item for my mother who is a big Wizard of Oz fan. It was exactly as expected and described in the product description.DVD Review: Adventures of Dorothy
Summary: 5 Stars
A spectacular boxed set of the Adventures of Dorothy and company in "The Wizard of Oz." Extras galore included. Highly recommended for children and adults of all ages!DVD Review: A splendid updating on Blu-ray of one of the all-time classics
Summary: 5 Stars
I give the new Blu-ray five stars despite being a little irritated with the lack of an option to buy a nice, single disc version of hte Blu-ray. I got all of the set through Netflix and saw it that way. I would very much like to won THE WIZARD OF OZ on Blu-ray, but I'm going to hold out for a less expensive single or two-disc edition. Mind you, I like the film; but that is what I like, the film not disc after disc of extras that for the most part are repackagings of earlier editions.OK, that is my beef, and having made it, let me move on.
The Blu-ray is a definite improvement in the overall quality of the film, though not as much as one might have hoped for if you have watched the DVD on a up-conversion DVD player. This is not a problem restricted merely to this. Most of the older classics seem to have reached the point of diminishing returns on DVD. Even epic films like John Ford's THE SEARCHERS shows minimal improvement on Blu-ray. Still, even if the improvement isn't as marked as on more recent films, it is still definite.
But frankly, I think I loved the movie just as much when I was a kid watching it on my parents' old black and white tube TV. We all know the story about the film these days, that it was a critical and box office failure when it first was released. And we know all the stories about it. Buddy Ebsen being forced to drop out of the project when the make up that was sprayed on him caused a serious lung reaction. How Judy Garland took over the role when a deal to trade Jean Harlow and Clark Gable to Warner Brothers for a film so that MGM could get Shirley Temple, a deal that fell through when Shirley Temple died. We know all the songs, all the skits, and a host of the lines. And most importantly we have experienced firsthand how the film became a hit years after its first release because of its annual showings on television, hosted by Olivia DeHavilland (which never made a great deal of sense to me, since he had no connection to the film and had spend her studio career with Warner Brothers rather than MGM). Television was responsible for THE WIZARD OF OZ being the hit it became. But despite its success in the television era, it is almost impossible to understand how it failed to become an instant classic. The songs are irresistible, the performances classic, and the art design unmatched at the time. Scene after scene is filled with one perfect touch after another, like a peacock that strolls around in the background when Dorthy and the Scarecrow meet the Tin Man for the first time. Or the way the Cowardly Lion's tail twitches all the time (it is a subtle effect, but imagine how static he would be if he tail always drooped). It is a beautifully structured film, marvelously photographed, and beautifully scripted. The entire production is magical.
And this is a film that generations share. I remember vividly the terror I felt as a child watching Dorothy's friends come after her in the witch's fortress. Nothing in my childhood scared me more than Later it was the first movie that I watched with my daughter on TV (barely verbal at the time, she for several weeks referred to the film as "Scary Apples," for obvious reasons). My daughter probably watched the movie on VHS a hundred times minimum, largely because Dorothy was at the time one of the few female heroes around (this was before the Era of Buffy), and when she and I were stranded on a ski lift that was stopped during a sudden lightening storm immediately outside Flagstaff, Arizona, I kept her calm by retelling the entire movie, no mean feat given the lightening flashing all around us (though thankfully there was little rain).
This truly is one of those classics that it is impossible to imagine going away. The film is, if anything, as popular today as it has ever been. And conversions of it into new media like this new Blu-ray will guarantee that each generation will continue to rediscover it.
DVD Review: A favorite
Summary: 5 Stars
The Wizard of Oz, being the classic film that it is, deserves to be well done. I'd gotten used to seeing the substandard version and just assumed that "fuzz" was normal. I had a few film buffs with me when we first viewed the Anniversary Digital Copy [Blue-ray] and what a difference it made. We all saw things for the first time that couldn't be seen in previous video viewings. Great!!!
Description of The Wizard of Oz
When it was released during Hollywood's golden year of 1939,The Wizard of Oz didn't start out as the perennial classic it has since become. The film did respectable business, but it wasn't until its debut on television that this family favorite saw its popularity soar. And while Oz's TV broadcasts are now controlled by media mogul Ted Turner (who owns the rights), the advent of home video has made this lively musical a mainstay in the staple diet of great American films. Young Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), her dog, Toto, and her three companions on the Yellow Brick Road to Oz--the Tin Man (Jack Haley), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger)--have become pop-culture icons and central figures in the legacy of fantasy for children. As the Wicked Witch who covets Dorothy's enchanted ruby slippers, Margaret Hamilton has had the singular honor of scaring the wits out of children for more than six decades. The film's still as fresh, frightening, and funny as it was when first released. It may take some liberal detours from the original story by L. Frank Baum, but it's loyal to the Baum legacy while charting its own course as a spectacular film. Shot in glorious Technicolor, befitting its dynamic production design (Munchkinland alone is a psychedelic explosion of color and d?cor), The Wizard of Oz may not appeal to every taste as the years go by, but it's required viewing for kids of all ages. --Jeff ShannonGeneral DVDs
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- Music Video & Concerts > Artists > King, B.B.
- Musicals & Performing Arts > Musicals > Classics
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- Garland, Judy
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