The making of the Wizard of Oz Book

After recently reading the Gregory Maguire novel "Wicked" and being thoroughly disappointed in its destruction of the Wizard of Oz "canon" material, I decided to give this book a read to get the REAL story behind the Wizard of Oz film. In this case, the old axiom "the truth is better than fiction" proved to be true in spades.

Put in the simplest terms, this is really the only "Making of Oz" book that ever needs to be produced. Why? Because it discusses EVERY SINGLE aspect of the film in detail that will likely never be matched. The key areas that this book focuses on include: Scripts, Music, Casting, Directors, Filming, Special Effects, and Critical Reception. In each one of those areas, author Aljean Harmetz does a truly remarkable job of understanding the "why" behind everything. Every decision made had a reason behind it, and Harmetz was extraordinarily successful at deciphering those reasons (whether person, political, or other).

In fact, about the only "knock" I have on this book is that, at times, it would go into too much detail for just the casual "Oz" fan. For example, not only do we learn about how the four directors who worked on the picture did things differently while on the set, we also learn about their backgrounds going right back to childhood. Hard-core movie buffs will revel in this information, while others (like myself) might gloss over it a bit and again become engaged when Harmetz takes us back to the "Oz" angle.

Also, the book (as the title indicates) not only gives a history of the film, but also a sort of de facto history about MGM Studios as a whole. Having never really studied filmmaking at that time, I found it to be quite interesting how, back in those days, actors were contracted to studios and only loaned out if it was financially suited to their "lender". In fact, most of the "Oz" cast was taken right from the MGM lot, so to speak! This is in stark contrast to today's filmmaking, where actors are "free agents" of sorts, signing with whoever will give them a star vehicle and the most money.

Thus, I would recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in how "The Wizard of Oz" was created, from mind to page to screen. History buffs will savor every fact about the directors/actors pasts, while the casual fan (because of the way that book is paragraphed) can skip over some of that to get to the "Oz parts". So, don't waste your time with "Wicked" and its tangled philosophical/political web...this is the true history of Oz.