Why I'm Boycotting The Wizard of Oz in 3-D

[CaveGirl]

Hello all true film lovers!

 

I just feel as my contribution to humanity that I must take a firm stand against all this ballyhoo on TCM advertising the upcoming showing of TWOO in 3-D at ahem, some unmentionable Chinese Theatre.

 

Now I have nothing against 3-D as I get out my stereopticon all the time and look at pics of Teddy Roosevelt on tour but I must protest at this abomination, as there are so many valid reasons to blackball this event.

 

To whit, just who thought it was a good idea to remove Sid Grauman's name totally from the Chinese Theatre? That's a bit like calling the Eiffel Tower the MCA Tower just cuz they bought it.

 

Next, as for 3-D well...I forced myself to go see Jaws in 3-D, even though I didn't even like the previous installments of Jaws 1-D and Jaws 2-D and I was sorely disappointed.

 

Nextly I can't even understand what that Bert Lahr is talking about in TWOO. I mean, he doesn't enunciate much and his voice is kinda creepy and he sounds foreign. Plus I've never been a fan of bestiality ever since reading Leda and the Swan and have found such things objectionable and of poor moral standards.

 

Another thing that brings to mind...too many foreigners in the film. All those people you thought were named Lahr and Morgan and Bolger were really named Lahrheim and Wupperman and Balcao and I thought this was a film about America and good old Kansas. What is this country coming to?

 

And as for Bolger, why did they not hire a real scarecrow for the role as many of them are always out of work and just hanging around cornfields anyway. That would never do nowadays and is simply verboten.

 

Also the abysmal cruelty to monkees, particularly flying monkees is anathema. I bet poor Nikko lost not only his little hat but his mind after all that enforced flying and dog carrying stunts he was required to do. No, I am against not just domesticated animal cruelty but also that involving flying monkees and also the gryphon and any to those of the cerberus persuasion.

 

By the way, Dorothy should have been played by Shirley Temple who could have put a little more pep in the dance numbers. And speaking of Dorothy what was with the treatment after the film, of little Terry who played Toto. As usual Hollywood used him and then just discarded him like an old shoe, and gave him uncredited roles in Tortilla Flat and as a nasty dog in The Women and you know he deserved better.

 

The director Victor Fleming was an old reprobate and probably had an affair with Clara Bow when he directed her, plus his highlighting of the scene with Harry Earles AKA Kurt Schneider in the Lollipop Guild scene is unfortunate. Aren't we all overly conscious now that candy is so bad for children and adults alike and this proselytizing about the joys of sugar in animated song is just wrong and I will no longer support such films.

 

The film also is political and we can blame L. Frank Baum for that, and what's with changing the silver shoes to red and do I smell a tip of the hat to Lenin and Marx.

 

Oh, one more good reason to boycott this film...John Waters likes it and you just know he's a Commie pinko or at least on LSD as what else is there to do in Baltimore.

 

Anyone willing to join me in this protest of a film which shall live in infamy, even without the added inflammatory 3-D effects, we are meeting up at Ciro's tomorrow at noon. Be there or be square!

 

Edited by: CaveGirl on Sep 18, 2013 4:41 PM

[Dargo2]

Well CG, seein' as how you've trained me not to "ROFL" at your more humorous postings around here, I'll just say I grinned quite a lot while reading this one of yours.

 

(...oh and btw...you may remember that the "Mann" theater chain removed Sid's name from the Chinese Theater and substituted their own for many years from the early '70s to just after the dawn of this millennium...so that is who would do that, besides the current owner of this venue...though I do agree that it's a shame)

[CaveGirl]

I know I know, and I'd make some nasty comment by Mark Twain about "man" with a double "n" but I don't want to look like a hater.

 

Why you grinned makes me wonder if this means you won't be showing up at the protest at Ciro's?

[Dargo2]

Well, no, sorry. I won't be able to make it to the protest, and for two reasons. One being I no longer live in SoCal, as I'm now comfortably retired in beautiful Sedona Arizona, and the other reason being this whole 3-D conversion of this flick isn't that big a deal in my book.

 

(...but as Billy Crystal says in one particular movie: "Have fun stormin' the castle!")

[FredCDobbs]

>too many foreigners in the film. All those people you thought were named Lahr and Morgan and Bolger were really named Lahrheim and Wupperman and Balcao and I thought this was a film about America and good old Kansas. What is this country coming to?

 

Well, actually, the original story was set in the Principality of Kansastein in central Europe.

[CaveGirl]

Okay, obrien but don't say I didn't warn you.

 

And as for you Dobbsy, if it was supposed to be set there, wouldn't they have hired the Marx Brothers to play the Dorothy companions.

 

Let's see...Harpo as the Scarecrow, Chico as the Tin Woodman and Groucho as the Lion with Gummo as the Wizard.

 

Either that or they should have hired Sig Arno, Martin Kosleck and Ivan Triesault with Stroheim as the Big Cheese in Oz.

 

If Baum hadn't looked at his second set of encyclopedia books, it would have been called The Wizard of AN.

[CaveGirl]

Okay, obrien but don't say I didn't warn you.

 

And as for you Dobbsy, if it was supposed to be set there, wouldn't they have hired the Marx Brothers to play the Dorothy companions.

 

Let's see...Harpo as the Scarecrow, Chico as the Tin Woodman and Groucho as the Lion with Gummo as the Wizard.

 

Either that or they should have hired Sig Arno, Martin Kosleck and Ivan Triesault with Stroheim as the Big Cheese in Oz.

 

If Baum hadn't looked at his second set of encyclopedia books, it would have been called The Wizard of AN.

[thegreatman]

clara was auditioning fleming for the part.

[CaveGirl]

Yeah yeah yeah, greatman!

 

How would she have time for that when it was a day off for the UCLA football team.

[thegreatman]

when the football team fumbled.

[CaveGirl]

That fast, huh?

 

You're revealing something about what you think is normal foreplay and afterplay, TGM.

 

Thanks for being so open and honest!

[sfpcc2]

One of these days I'm going to have to try that Pink Floyd thing,

(even though I'm kind of tired of a lot of classic rock.)

[hamradio]

Could be worst, it could be in Dolby ATMOS.

 

Leave this classic ALONE! We don't need it in 3D, stereo on steroids or the first 15 minutes colorized.

 

What's next, the wicked witch with a CGI nose job.

[Tikisoo]

Boycotts Rule!

An entire bunch of curmudgeons stay home while the world spins past them.

 

But I agree 100%. I also never attend digital presentations of classic movies. You've never seen that unnamed film until you've seen it projected 35mm with an audience.

 

(except of course digital restorations of film fragments not sound enough for projection)

 

>Fred said: Well, actually, the original story was set in the Principality of Kansastein in central Europe.

 

>hamradio: Leave this classic ALONE! We don't need it in 3D, stereo on steroids or the first 15 minutes colorized. What's next, the wicked witch with a CGI nose job?

 

I recognise my fellow curmudgeons.

[FlyBackTransformer]

I would not want the first 15 minutes or the epilog colorized as the makers obviously intented for the technicolor portion to be contrasted against the silent era-like hued B&W portions...I thought TCM was already showing a restored print of The Wizard of Oz just like GWTW. Is this 3D IMAX print better in terms of clarity and Technicolor brilliance?

[CaveGirl]

The Pink Floyd thing and it's groovy, man.

 

Could Roger Waters have been watching the film...nah.

 

Honestly I thought it would be stupid but I will say the first half of the album actually kind of really seems to fit the happenings on screen. I remember that "Money" bit was fab. But at a certain point it seems to let down so not a complete success.

 

Oh, forgot another reason I am boycotting the showing.

 

Witches are in it. Now we all know these days that this is a satanic connection, and it would be wrong to support Satan in any of his doings, and that is why I am also giving up all my Led Zeppelin albums since Zoso was into that Aleister Crowley thing but let's not go there.

 

I'm not even gonna watch old "Bewitched" episodes even though I love Maurice Evans and Agnes Moorehead as I could get taken in and be possessed.

 

One can't be too careful nowadays. Just threw out my Ouija board also so whoever's been contacting me can hang it up now...

[LonesomePolecat]

I'm with you, CaveGirl, let's stand for Scarecrow Rights!

[CaveGirl]

Scarecrow Rights is so apropos!

[sfpcc2]

The reason the you don't see any scarecrows anymore is the they were devoured by the evil Children Of The Corn. After more than five films I wouldn't go out there.

 

Speaking of Pink Floyd , the closest thing I've seen to that was on the old USA Network program Night Flight. They showed a clip of Godzilla destroying Tokyo while Elvis Costello's What So Funny About Peace Love And Understanding was playing, (I am a major Blue Oyster Cult fan and have seen them twice, but playing their song Godzilla would be to obvious.) I was very funny and oddly touching.

[Dargo2]

>(I am a major Blue Oyster Cult fan and have seen them twice, but playing their song Godzilla would be to obvious.)

 

Hmmmm...never cared much for that one. Not enough cow bell in it.

[BingFan]

>The reviews are in for the 3D rerelease. The Kansas scenes are still in sepiatone, and it is a wonderful restoration they say, with subtly effective usage of 3D.

 

I saw THE WIZARD OF OZ in 3D today at a local IMAX theatre outside DC, and putting aside the 3D, it was quite a spectacular restoration of the print. The images were sharp, the colors were vibrant, and the sound was rich. I've seen the movie on the big screen before, and this was by far the best it's ever looked.

 

And even though I'm usually dead-set against tampering with the original format of a movie in any way, I have to say that the 3D here was beautifully done. There was a real depth to the scenes, as you might expect, but the 3D never called attention to itself -- it was very natural-looking. (None of the "look-at-me" 3D effect that SCTV parodied so well by, if I remember correctly, having John Candy shove a plate of pancakes toward the camera repeatedly.) From the start of the film, beginning with the MGM lion and logo seeming a little more real, followed by the movie title floating in front of the threatening sky, I felt like I was seeing more in the movie, but without really thinking about it at the time.

 

In any event, the 3D was in the service of the wonderful performances that make this movie one of the best-loved of all time. What other movie that's in its 8th decade can still draw an audience to a suburban theatre on a rainy Saturday? Besides GONE WITH THE WIND, I think THE WIZARD OF OZ may be the only other one -- and rightly so. It truly is a great movie.