The Army of Glinda the Good 1904 vs. 2013

 Ostensibly, Oz: The Great and Powerful is based off of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. Specifically, the fact the movie is meant to function as a backstory for The Wizard means that the movie is based on information from Baum’s second Oz book: The Marvelous Land of Oz. Now, Oz: The Great and Powerful changes, downplays and outright ignores a great deal of lore established in Marvelous Land of Oz, but for now I would like to focus on a small but revealing change regarding the character of Glinda the Good.

The Marvelous Land of Oz is very concerned with the topic of First Wave Feminism, of which Baum was an active supporter. The plot directly follows the event of the first book, where, after the Scarecrow is crowned king of the Emerald City, he is quickly deposed by a General Jinjur and her army of housewives. The Scarecrow and party seek out Glinda the Good Witch of the South, who they believe can help them take back the city. Glinda then tells them that she plans on finding and installing as ruler the missing Princess Ozma, who is the rightful heir to the throne from before the Wizard came into power. Her plan begins with confronting General Jinjur with her own army.

Glinda’s army is, like Jinjur's, composed entirely of women. Her army is described as disciplined, well-armed, and well trained. They march in perfect formation and tote intricate and well-made swords, spears, and rifles. At first, they first try to deal with General Jinjur diplomatically to find Princess Ozma, but when they've accomplished their goal they take back the city nigh instantaneously. 

Within the text there is a clear contrast between the Army of General Jinjur and The Army of Glinda the Good. Jinjur is a parody, a representation of everything men at the time perceived feminism to be- ineffectual and ridiculous, but ultimately a threat for their ambition. The Army of Glinda the Good is meant to represent everything feminism is. Glinda’s soldiers are benevolent, reasonable, but also formidable. Glinda displays keen intellect and an excellent tactical mind. She commands her army with complete authority and poise, and it is with her leadership that they win the day.

In Oz: The Great and Powerful, it is the two wicked witches who are in control of the Emerald City, and like Marvelous Land of Oz, Glinda assembles an army to take back the city. Her army in the film is…

...different.

First, all of her soldiers are men, a marked departure from the proto- Dora Milaje from the books. Second, her army is composed of Munchkins. This detail is frustrating not only because Glinda is supposed to rule over the Quadlings (which the movie acknowledges!!!) and not the Munchkins, the film is clearly trying to sell the use of the Munchkins as soldiers as a joke. Glinda does not have an impressive fighting force of tall, imposing manly men, but a bunch of funny little dwarves stacked on top of each other, who could not hope to stand against two powerful sorceresses.

We are meant to laugh, but lurking underneath the comedy of the moment is an unfortunate implication. Paradigmatically, by substituting trained female soldiers with funny male munchkins, the film insinuates that there is no place for women in the military. The joke could have worked just as well with a cabal of Munchkin women, but using women as the soldiers doesn’t even seem to have been considered. There is also the implication that Glinda is not capable of leading a competent military unit. The reason this bait and switch is even included is because the movie needs the audience to believe that the witches cannot be defeated without The Wizard and his skills. Glinda couldn’t assemble a satisfactory army on her own- the dainty, compassionate woman that she is- so it is now up to the Wizard, the male hero who needs to believe in himself, to forge something usable out of what is being presented to him.

In essence, they nerfed Glinda. Hard. I suspect this has more to do with the genre of the film (along with a general lack of critical thinking) than any conscious misogyny. Oz: the Great and Powerful was meant to be an actionized fantasy blockbuster meant to appeal to men as well as women. Movies of this kind have a particular format: insecure everyman falls into a fantasy land, saves the day, gets the girl and the crown and everything he ever wanted. Had Glinda remained as brilliant and powerful as she was in the book, she would have taken the limelight away from the Wizard, who the movie was trying hard to sell as the protagonist (something he very much wasn’t in the first few novels, but more on that later). As such, her character strength had to be taken away in favor of the Wizard’s.

Unfortunately, it is one of the many things that seems to mark Oz: The Great and Powerful as a regression rather than a progression. Marvelous Land of Oz, written in 1904, long before women were able to enlist, had a more far positive depiction of women in the armed forces than a film that premiered 65 years afterwards.