The Wizard of Oz (1939) Blu-ray

This is the 70th anniversary release in Blu-ray high definition, an especially loaded, extras-rich release: there are several documentaries, most of which have been seen on previous video releases, including the restored DVD of just a few years ago (2005). But they're all smoothly made, including a TV documentary on the film hosted by Angela Lansbury. This includes original footage of Mervyn LeRoy, the film's producer, as well as Ray Bolger and Jack Haley, forever the Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman. This featurette was directed by Haley's son (and, peculiarly, David Niven Jr.); there's footage of Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft (the daughters of Judy Garland), John Lahr, son of Cowardly Lion Bert, Robert A. Baum, grandson of Oz author L. Frank Baum, plus archive footage of songwriters Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, and Judy Garland too.

Another featurette, "Oz: The Art of Imagination" is about the making of the film and its impact, and includes some unusual interviewees: Randy Newman, Peter Jackson, Sean Astin, Allen Daviau, Richard M. Sherman, Michael Feinstein, John Hora, the late Henry Bumstead, Nicholas Meyer, Rob Bowman, Rick Baker, Harrison Ellenshaw and many others. It's narrated by director Sidney Pollack.

All of the featurettes are excellent, well worth watching; "Because of the Wonderful Things It Does," with Oz historian/collector John Fricke (seen throughout the featurettes), "Memories of Oz," A TCM documentary including. Improbably, "Hairspray" director John Waters. In "Prettier Than Ever," there's a discussion of the color: 16-bit color, as seen here, has 65,536 colors available to each pixel--and the images are 4000 pixels wide per frame. How many high, technical fans alone now. There's a section on each lead actor.

Elsewhere, there's a very good, corrective featurette on Victor Fleming, who not only directed most of "The Wizard of Oz," but the same year, directed most of "Gone with the Wind" as well. Fleming was one of Hollywood great craftsmen; he died in the late 1940s, definitely much too early. There's also a featurette on L. Frank Baum, the man behind the curtain. This traces the unusual history of "The Wizard of Oz," from its initial publication as a children's novel (it was immediately a major success), to its transformation into a lively stage musical (none of the songs are used in the film). This was also tremendously popular, and prompted Baum to write many sequels to the original novel. Others took over after him, and new Oz books continue to appear even now.

In the 1910s, Baum, now resident in Southern California (in a house he called Ozcot), produced a series of silent films about the land of Oz and its myriad characters. These were not at all successful, but several are included here so you can check them out for yourself. There are also other movie versions of the original novel; the earliest, an adaptation of the stage musical; is charming and entertaining, even though everything takes place right in front of the camera, with no closeups, no camera movement, no intercutting; it looks more primitive than the films of Georges Melies. A 1925 adaptation of the novel goes way afield from Baum's book, and though its full of visual tricks, it's dismayingly terrible, even though it stars the otherwise likeable Larry Semon and, surprisingly, Oliver Hardy as a farm hand who pretends to be the Tin Woodsman. You may not be able to force yourself to watch the whole thing; I wasn't. But another adaptation is a very early sound short cartoon; it's not very good either, but is closer to the novel and blessedly brief.

The oddest inclusion is "The Dreamer of Oz," a feature-length TV movie biography of L. Frank Baum, starring John Ritter and Annette O'Toole, written by Richard Matheson. It's surprisingly good, often entertaining, and a welcome addition.

As with the also recently-released Blu-ray set of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," this package includes three discs, the first with the feature in Blu-ray plus some extras, a second disc entirely composed of extras, and a third that includes a six-hour documentary on the history of MGM. Incidentally, "The Wizard of Oz" was filmed because "Snow White" was such a huge success; it's a nice coincidence that both movies were released in Blu-ray around the same time.

But, of course, the real feature is, well, the feature. "The Wizard of Oz" can still surprise you, even if you know it by heart (and how else to know such a film?). The sepia sequence in Kansas that opens the movie could well seem to be longer than you remember, but still just the right length, as it presents elements that will recur in Oz: cranky neighbor Miss Gulch (Margaret Hamilton) will turn up as (briefly) the Wicked Witch of the East, then her "even worse" sister, the Wicked Witch of the West." Three farmhands, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley and Ray Bolger, each exhibit the lack of traits that their counterparts in Oz, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Woodsman and the Scarecrow, want the Wizard of Oz to give them. Dorothy Gale (Garland, of course) encounters a sideshow entrepreneur, Professor Marvel (Frank Morgan), who also plays the Wizard of Oz--and three other residents of the Emerald City.

It's hard to believe that the MGM powers wanted to drop the song "Over the Rainbow:" it's so amazingly immortal and so thoroughly demonstrates Dorothy's longing for something more miraculous than Kansas, that it has become one of the most beloved songs of all time, particularly as sung by Judy Garland. It became her signature song; even she loved it. The other songs are memorable, but mostly because they occur in this movies; none of the others have come close to embedding themselves in the minds of the world.

But the movie overall has, of course. A few years ago, Warner Bros. (which now owns the rights to the film) had the movie digitally restored and cleaned, working from the original three-strip negative. The registration of the three strips was perfected; the soundtrack was improved; the colors strengthened. And it's an amazingly colorful movie--one of the most colorful films ever made, in fact. The transition from the sepia of Kansas to the nearly-blinding Technicolor of Munchkinland is one of the great visual surprises in movie history. This was accomplished without a cut by having a double for Garland dressed in a sepia version of Dorothy's blue gingham dress; she opens the door of the farmhouse (which has fallen on the Wicked Witch of the East) in sepia, revealing the color outside; she steps back to be replaced by Garland in the full color costume. The first time you see this, it's astonishing, and has the effect of practically yanking you into the movie.

The movie looks effortless, an effect gained only through a lot of hard work. It's as graceful as Fred Astaire, as witty as Groucho Marx, as funny as Bugs Bunny, with loveable characters--no one has ever gone on a journey with such endearing companions as Dorothy has--that are movie immortals. Nowhere has there been a wickeder or scarier witch, no city has seemed as glorious as the Emerald City. At times, some curmudgeon will declare "The Wizard of Oz" overrated, but you won't find me in that group. I first saw it on a reissue, could hardly believe what I was seeing. It seemed bright, sassy, a little silly, exciting, scary and just about the most entertaining movie I'd seen.

I don't hold in quite that regard now, but it's still one of the greatest accomplishments of Hollywood's Golden Era, and is presented here in a package equal to the film itself. The sound is rich and full (and monaural, though there is some fiddling to try to suggest stereo effects, but this can--and should--be ignored. "The Wizard of Oz" still seems like the best children's movie ever made, but it has also always been for adults as well. You owe it to yourself and your family to pick up this 70th anniversary release of "The Wizard of Oz" in Blu-ray high definition

Directors/stars: Victor Fleming, Mervyn LeRoy, George Cukor, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton, Frank Morgan