Don't you wish they would've added something at the end to show it was more than a dream? Like Dorothy finding a poppy flower in her pocket, or some other item that would give the audience a hint that it might have been real.
shareOn one hand yes, but really, at the last moment, would've felt like too much back-and-forth to me
shareNever really thought of it but yes that seems like it would've been a nice touch.
shareNot for 1939..
Today we're used to having our heads screwed with. Back then, having Dorothy wake up in bed after being thumped in the skull explained to the less sophisticated movie audience that the weird characters we saw in Oz were conjured from a young girls wild imagination, which by itself was a significant plot twist for the time. If there was a clue afterward that it was something more than that, it would have freaked out a 1939 audience.
Why would they be freaked out exactly? Whether or not Dorothy's trip to Oz was "real", it's just a movie. None of it was real.
shareI'm not suggesting they would run from the theater and hurl themselves in front of a trolley. Freaked out from the perspective that the movie would have an odd unresolved ending, unusual for the time.
shareHee. I see what you mean.
shareYou are forgetting about "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn"? :-) 'Gone with the Wind' had a unresolved ending, but still a huge hit at the time.
Gone With the Wind - Jan 1939
Wizard of Oz - Aug 1939
Not forgetting my favorite movie at all Michelle.. But I believe there's a big difference between a couple separating possibly forever and an alternate ending (which is what we were talking about) with the possibility of the land of OZ being *real* as opposed to existing only in the dream/imagination of a concussed girl.
shareIt's one of my favourites too. :-) Have you seen Scarlett (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108915/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_37)? It continues straight after Melanie dies. It is really good. There is one part I didn't like, but the rest is amazing. Timothy Dalton looks exactly like Clarke Gable.
shareYou are forgetting about "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn"? :-) 'Gone with the Wind' had a unresolved ending, but still a huge hit at the time.
You are forgetting about "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn"? :-) 'Gone with the Wind' had a unresolved ending,
From my perspective, it was pretty resolved. He told her to EFF OFF. Considering that the line "I don't give a damn" barely got past the censors and was scandalous for the time, can you imagine a more complete kiss-off? Just like Scarlett suddenly came to the realization that her love for Ashley was a girlish crush that her childish willfulness pretended was the love of her life, Rhett came to the realization that Scarlett was a hopelessly selfish bitch and it all went, "POOF!!!" He love her no more. The telling part of the ending is that Scarlett hasn't much learned her lesson, because she is already back to scheming believing she can always get whatever she wants. Rhett's gone and he ain't comin' back. You can't get more resolved than that.
"it would have freaked out a 1939 audience."
Yes, because life was simple and everyone was innocent. They had not reached the zenith of sophistication that we occupy.
But it WAS just a dream. That is the point. Dorothy had a bad case of Wanderlust, which she lived out, at least in the dreamscape, and this dream helped her to realize that (yes, corny final line) "there's no place like home". So she is cured of her Wanderlust by delving into her own subconscious.
shareYes, in the movie. What many wish is that the film indicated that Oz was real; as it is in the book.
share