Sunday, October 2, 2016

Semiotic data on The Wizard of Oz (1939) & The Wiz (1978)

1939 The Wizard of Oz to 1978 The Wiz

We have two great movies that are great in their respective time period. Yet lets not focus on the time period yet, but the changes in cast from the first movie in 1939 to the 1978 movie. Just to look at something notable we have Judy Garland as Dorothy in the first one and as time progressed we get Diana Ross. Many can say that there is a race issue at hand, but this is a thirty-nine-year gap with these movies and we begin to see a cultural shift in movies where we see black actors balance out roles in movies. So now that we have The Wiz there is an all-star cast of African American people including Michael Jackson as the scarecrow and then Ted Ross as the Lion.

 










Another thing that I will be taking a look at is the differences between the Dorothy’s with their age, attitude and growth of the character throughout the movie. In the first film we see a young Dorothy that is in Kansas trying to get her dog from her mean neighbors. Were in the 1978 film we see her as a school teacher in Harlem, New York and trying to save her dog out in a snow storm. Now of course both portray acts to get back home and get back to their love ones, but it seems like the older Dorothy is taking care of business more and not as clueless as the younger Dorothy. 

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