The Wizard of Oz, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1939, is a timeless film which follows young Dorothy's adventure from her home on a small farm in Kansas into the magical Land of Oz. This film is based on L. Frank Baum's fairytale entitled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (later changed to The Wizard of Oz), which was published in 1900. The film is a brilliant spectacle which not only continues to amaze audiences around the world, but also offers insight into the political and economic situations in the United States during the both the late 1900s and the 1930s. While some of the allegories found in Baum's original work were irrelevant by the time the film was released, many of the interpretations can be reapplied to the post-Depression era. And, moreover, there are new elements in the film, such as music, which add increased symbolism to the 1939 version of this fantastic story.

Harmetz, Aljean. The Making of The Wizard of Oz. New York: Knopf, 1977.

The third chapter of Aljean Harmetz' The Making of the Wizard of Oz, entitled "The Brains, The Heart, The Nerve, and The Music," discusses the way in which E. Y. Harburg (the lyricist) and Harold Arlen (the composer) worked together to develop the soundtrack for The Wizard of Oz. Harburg, who was hand picked by Arlen, had previously recorded "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," which became the "battle hymn of the Depression" (Harmetz, 76). When confronted with the challenge of composing a ballad for The Wizard of Oz, Harburg maintained his desire to reflect reality through music and created "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to showcase the possibility of exploring new places. Harburg attached deep emotion to this song and hoped audiences would realize his message. Technically, the rainbow offers Dorothy "a visual reason for going to a new land and a reason for changing to color" (Harmetz, 77). However, Harburg also intended the song to represent an opportunity to flee the black and white Kansas farm and enter a new city full of vibrant color. After the first screening of The Wizard of Oz, L.B. Mayer, the head of MGM, removed "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the film. Harburg was angry not only because that meant losing a beautiful ballad, but also because it meant eliminating a dramatic political statement. After much deliberation, however, the song was put back into the film and has since become one of the most easily recognizable songs in history.

Harmetz' discussion of Harburg as a lyricist can be analyzed further in light of Harburg's past accomplishments and the political and economic landscape in the Untied States in 1939. Harburg's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" is an overt representation of the economic crisis that overtook America in the 1930s. It is therefore probable that included in Harburg's intentions for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was the goal of representing Dorothy's entrance into a new land, full of color, as America's emergence into a new era of economic prosperity. In this light, it is probable that Kansas represents the Depression-era and the Land of Oz correlates with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. When FDR became president in 1933, he instituted the New Deal strategy in an attempt to restore America's reputation as a land of affluence. His efforts helped farmers across the Midwest reestablish themselves as successful workers and, ultimately, recreate their old lifestyles. The New Deal offered America the chance to reinvent itself and become vibrant country, full of Technicolor. Dorothy's desire to escape the dullness and squalor of Kansas and experience a new, exotic locale reflects Harburg's hope that America would once again be the land of opportunity where the streets are paved with gold.

 

Steinfels, Peter. "Following the Yellowbrick Road, and Finding a Spiritual Path." The New York Times, 28 November 2001. Published November 28, 2001. 28 November 2008 <http://proxy.library.upenn.edu:2101/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5253876110&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5253876113&cisb=22_T5253876112&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&selRCNodeID=24&nodeStateId=411en_US,1,23&docsInCategory=65&csi=6742&docNo=17>.

This article offers a religious interpretation of The Wizard of Oz and, further, posits that the film is a direct reflection of traditional American values. Steinfels recounts a speech given at the Convention of the American Academy of Religion during which Dr. Paul Nathanson suggested that Dorothy's journey mirrors a routine religious story about origin and destiny. In the film, Dorothy's adventure is split up into three sections-Kansas, Oz and Kansas-and ultimately she ends up right where she began. Nathanson claimed that Dorothy's homecoming is like the Israelites return to the Promise Land after years of exile. Nathanson also emphasized that while religiosity is not overt in the film, these values are also deeply ingrained in the American tradition. Steinfels explains Nathanson's second assertion which proposes that Dorothy's journey also represents a desire in the United States to return to a traditional, agrarian-based society. In 1939 America was still recovering from political and economic corruption and it is possible that Americans yearned for a more traditional lifestyle, like Dorothy's experience in Kansas.

This article's religious references are interesting because, as Nathanson says, numerous religious values are in fact embedded in traditional American culture. Furthermore, it is likely that many Americans turned to their respective faiths extensively during the Depression, and the years immediately following the disaster. If what Nathanson suggested about Dorothy's journey following a religious storyline is also correct, then it is likely that religious Americans found solace in Dorothy. Americans could identify with her quest and eventual return to Kansas, just as they wished to return to their pre-Depression lifestyles. Notwithstanding the utility of Nathanson's religious references, it seems unlikely that his idea about Americans in 1939 desiring a return to an agrarian society is correct. They may have sought traditional values, family structures and workplaces, but not an eradication of technology. Steinfels' retelling of Nathanson's speech offers insight into the ability of Americans to relate to Dorothy in light of dire economic circumstances. Interestingly, this high level of identification may have also led to the immense success of the film.

Bergman, Andrew Laurence. Depression America and Its Movies. University of Wisconsin: University of
Michigan Microfilms Inc, 1970.

Bergman offers a survey of how the film industry was affected by the Great Depression in
American history. He describes the changes that Hollywood underwent as a result of economic
crisis following the stock market crash in 1929. In addition to details of how general film-
making and production had to adjust to harder times during the Great Depression, Bergman
also notes the impact that the Great Depression had on the American public. For example,
the author explains how despite having less income to spend on leisurely pursuits, many
Americans started attending films in greater numbers during the Great Depression. This was in
no small part to the shifting cultural sentiments and attitudes of the time. Economic
hardship had a tremendous effect on how films were made and on who came to theaters to see
these movies.

Bergman's description of the movies produced during the years of the Great Depression
help to understand the immediate historical context that "The Philadelphia Story" was born
of. This perspective can be applied to how the film was influences by changes in the industry
as well as what was then popular with American audiences. In 1940 the United States was still
feeling the residual effects of the Great Depression and the movie industry could still
remember the harder times it had come across only a few years previous. Bergman explains that
1932 may have been the lowest point in Hollywood during the entire Great Depression; studios,
such as MGM were keenly aware of the financial risk that was taken with the production of
each film. This is an anxiety that should be kept in mind as an undercurrent that most likely
would have permeated behind the scenes in shooting "The Philadelphia Story". More importantly
perhaps is the statement that Americans wanted to see escapist films during this era. The
deprived public relished having a glimpse into the lives of the American over-privileged during
the Great Depression; the allure of the clothing, manner of speech, and general opulence of
the lives portrayed on-screen offered a temporary vacation from the dreary reality of the
unemployment lines. A chapter of Bergman's volume is titled "Federal Benevolence,
the Search for Authority, The Return of the Law, and Social Realism"; it reaffirms that
Americans were looking to have their values restored and moral codes re-validated during
this period. Watching members of the glamorous Philadelphia gentry celebrate a happy occasion
like a wedding would have offered an hour-and-a-half of escape from everyday life and a confirmation
that Americans were living a sound life.

Barr, Damian. "Crying on the Inside." The Times 1 May 2004. 6 Apr. 2008 .

     In this Times article, Damian Barr describes a phenomenon he refers to as the quarterlife crisis. The quarterlife crisis is similar to the midlife crisis in that people feel like they don't know what they are doing with their lives. The article describes twentysomethings living in London and realizing that the 20s are not what they're supposed to be. Most people in their 20s are stuck with a future-free job, debt from college, alleged friends, and a non-existent love partner. The excitement of graduation from college has faded and a life of work and no play lies ahead. Getting and keeping your life together has never been harder. Fighting for jobs and keeping strong relationships can be very stressful. Approximately one-third of all people in their 20s are depressed, and there aren't any psychiatrists who are experts on the quarterlife crisis, unlike those who have studied the midlife crisis. Additionally, there are people who say that the quarterlife crisis doesn't exist, just how people said that the midlife crisis and menopause didn't exist. Most 20 year olds are convinced that others are having better sex and taking better drugs than they are. The truth is that the 20s are bigger, scarier, and harder than people thought, and hardly anyone is talking about it.
     In The Graduate, Benjamin Braddock has graduated from college and comes home to sunny California without a job or any idea of what he wants to do in the future. From the beginning of the movie the viewer is aware that Benjamin is worried and distraught about this transition period in his life. In his first lines in the movie, he asks his father "to be alone for a while" although there are numerous guests downstairs waiting to congratulate him on his graduation and awards. Rather than be productive and look for a job, he chooses to drive around aimlessly and sit beside the pool all day. He doesn't have any friends at home and is worried about his future. He is definitely suffering from a quarterlife crisis.

This description of my project

Steven Watts argues a positive view of Disney’s importance in American history, although acknowledges the difficulty of understanding his impact on modern American culture. Many critics believe that Disney’s commercial success and popularity mean that his films cannot have cultural significance. In addition, the strong contradictory opinions of Disney make it difficult to simply look at his impact in order to gain understanding rather than to criticize or admire his work. Watts looks at Walt Disney as an artist of sentimental modernist films and as a promoter of American ideals, qualities that are evident in Disney’s rendering of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

America’s original perception of Disney was of a serious artist, inspired by both modernist art and sentimental realism. These two often contradictory influences show in his work. He blurred the line of reality and imagination by creating worlds where animals could talk, plants were animated, and household objects felt emotion. In Snow White, the forest through which the banished girl flees has trees which try to grab and trip her, but nearby, kind animals prepare to comfort her. In addition, he incorporated dreams often in his work. Walt Disney encouraged naturalism to a degree unheard of in animation and cartoons. He insisted that his animators take evening art classes and he invented the multiplane camera, which created the illusion of depth in Snow White and his other animated feature films.

Disney also used his films to imbue hope and to promote certain virtues to his audience during the depression. His films in the 1930’s remind Americans that they will overcome the hard times through vigor and virtue. Two Disney films in the ‘30s stand out in particular for encouraging the persistence and courage of underdogs. Three Little Pigs (1933) features the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” while the dwarves in Snow White (1937) merrily sing “Heigh Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go.” Snow White, too, exhibits a hard-working demeanor both in her house and the dwarves’. Disney claims that “wisdom and courage is enough to defeat big, bad wolves of every description, and send them slinking away.” Through his films, he encouraged self-reliance, a quality that he had exhibited since his youth.

Stabler, Scott. “To Kill a Mockingbird.” St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. 2002. 31 Mar. 2006.                                                     <http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419101241#continuev>

This article mostly provides a brief summation of the plot and themes of To Kill a Mockingbird. The author talks about the success of the book and film, and the effect on the prejudices of the south. To Kill a Mockingbird explores the race relations and racism in a small southern town, and the attempt to overcome that racism for truth. The article also provides a short, summarized biography of author Harper Lee, a direct descendent of Robert E. Lee. There is a good chance that the book is based on Harper Lee’s own life, as her father was also a lawyer in a small southern town. Harper Lee always said to write about what you know, and most likely she followed that advice herself.

            The article talks about the various themes in the work, such as ignorance versus knowledge, cowardice versus heroism, children versus adults, and courage versus cowardice. The dispute between Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell also concerns the “stereotype of race cohesion,” which Atticus attempts to end. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson both represent an attack on innocence, and Tom Robinson’s murder represents the continuing racism of the South. The article explores other themes and symbols as well. The book and film are a universal success because of the various themes on which they touch.

A plot-level reading of Mervyn LeRoy’s 1932 film I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, which depicts Robert E. Burns’s autobiographical, dual existence as a falsely convicted prisoner and dubiously lionized entrepreneur, does not inspire faith in the integrity of the Southern chain gang penal system. In its promotional campaign, Warner Brothers – Chain Gang’s production studio – publicized H. L. Mencken’s condemnation of the chain gang: “simply a vicious, medieval custom…and is so archaic and barbarous as to be a national disgrace” (Lichtenstein 16). Thus, Burns and Warner Brothers launched a national, progressive movement against Southern forced labor which resonated powerfully with a 1932 audience because it linked the chain gang's brutality to bleak realities of Great Depression America.

Yet, viewing the film as Hollywood’s response to social and economic crises of this period invites skepticism regarding the industry’s motivations for advancing such radical arguments. In other words, why would it have been in the studio’s interest to align a potentially desperate viewer’s sympathies with the film’s subversive message? I will argue that Chain Gang functioned in a complex network of New Deal agitprop which facilitated Roosevelt’s intimate business relationship with Hollywood, most notably with Warner Brothers. If Depression desperation rendered tenuous the dominant industries’ power, it would have protected Hollywood’s concerns to focus a frustrated viewer’s struggles specifically against the chain gangs which the film paints as “so archaic and barbarous as to be a national disgrace.”