The Wizard of Oz (BFI Film Classics) - Softcover

Rushdie, Salman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0851703003 ISBN 13: 9780851703008

Publisher: British Film Institute, 1992

Synopsis

For Rushdie The Wizard of Oz is more than a children's film, and more than a fantasy. It's a story "whose driving force is the inadequacy of adults," in which the "weakness of grown-ups forces children to take control of their own destinies."

About this title

Review:

While Salman Rushdie has treasured The Wizard of Oz since his boyhood, the movie's idea of returning "home" has had a special resonance for him as an adult. In this lovely appreciation of the MGM classic, Rushdie does not dwell upon his continual flight from any "home" after writing The Satanic Verses. But his affinity for Dorothy and her predicament comes through in his analysis.

This is a marvelous little book, full of wonderful tidbits about the making of The Wizard of Oz. Rushdie also talks about the movie's contrast of black and white and color, order and disorder, good and evil. The volume ends with "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers," a surrealistic short story in which Rushdie meditates on the value of fantasies like The Wizard of Oz.

From the Back Cover:

The Wizard of Oz 'was my very first literary influence,' writes Salman Rushdie in his

account of the great MGM children's classic. At the age of ten he had written a story,

'Over the Rainbow', about a colourful fantasy world. But for Rushdie The Wizard of Oz

is more than a children's film, and more than a fantasy. It's a story whose driving

force is the inadequacy of adults, in which 'the weakness of grown-ups forces

children to take control of their own destinies'. And Rushdie rejects the conventional

view that its fantasy of escape from reality ends with a comforting return to home,

sweet home. On the contrary, it is a film that speaks to the exile. The Wizard of Oz

shows that imagination can become reality, that there is no such place like home,

or rather that the only home is the one we make for ourselves.

Rushdie's brilliant insights into a film more often seen than written about are

rounded off with his typically scintillating short story, 'At the Auction of the Ruby

Slippers,' about the day when Dorothy's red shoes are knocked down to $15,000 at a

sale of MGM props ...

In his foreword to this special edition, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of

the BFI Film Classics series, Rushdie looks back to the circumstances in which he

wrote the book, when, in the wake of the controversy surrounding The Satanic Verses

and the issue of a fatwa against him, the idea of home and exile held a particular

resonance.

About this edition

• Publisher: British Film Institute
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0851703003
• ISBN 13: 9780851703008
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 69
• Editor: Bragg Melvyn, Maltby Richard