In Oz The Great and Powerful, the young magician Oz (James Franco) finds himself in a magical land where he meets a series of characters who force Oz to spiritually mature. The movie is a spiritual journey that transforms Oz from a self-centered person into someone who is nurturing, innovative and who can be a helpful member of a community. (Photo Courtesy Walt Disney Pictures)
Few books chronicle the American spiritual journey as well as Frank Baum‘s Wizard of Oz stories do. The Oz books were children’s stories with American themes different than the European folk stories early immigrants brought to America. And in the movie Oz the Great and the Powerful, a magician named Oz (James Franco) goes on the most American of spiritual journeys.
In American literature, spiritual journeys are often about conquering the dark side of the American Dream. The upside of the American Dream is the longing for something more, to rise out of oppression and limitations. But there’s a dark side. The restless longing for success can be such an idol, and so consuming that one can lose perspective on what’s important. One can cast aside community, humility and “goodness” — important components of most spiritual beliefs.
So many of the best American stories are about the tension between individual ambition which the American dream stirs up — and the longing for being settled and part of a community. Oz The Great and the Powerful is a spiritual journey to correct one man’s twisting of the American Dream into an unhealthy ambitious obsession.
“Am I in heaven, where am I?” Oz asks when he first sees the witch Theodora (Mila Kunis). He’s told that this is the land of Oz, which is his name — suggesting this land will be a tour of his psyche. (Photo courtesy Walt Disney Pictures)
It’s the story of Oz, the magician from the original 1939 movie who the characters went to in Emerald City. Oz The Great and Powerful is about his youth and how he is transported from the plains of Kansas to the land of Oz (which has the same name as himself — suggesting this is a tour of his psyche).
Like the classic film, the beginning of the film is in black and white and set in Kansas. As a young man we see that Oz is a manipulative womanizer who underpays his workers. His sideshow work embodies some of the worst elements of America: sham business and sham religion. At times it seems like a satire of spiritualism with his false communications with spirits. He’s like a cross between a huckster faith-healer and a conniving businessman.
He’s also aware of his shortcomings and how his ambition is strangling the best part of himself. The telling scene is when Annie (Michelle Williams) comes to see him in his circus trailer. She tells him she’s getting married, but seems like she’d call it off if Oz would commit to her. But Oz doesn’t try. He calls her finance John Gale “a good man.” What’s clear in this brilliant scene is that the restlessness and obsession with success within himself has transformed Oz into less than he ought to be.
“No, I’m many things, but a good man isn’t one of them,” Oz says.
“But you could be,if you wanted to,” Annie replies.
“Well, that’s just it, I don’t want to,” Oz says. “You see Kansas is full of good men. Churchgoing men that get married and raise families like John Gale and like my father who spent his whole life tiling the dirt just to lie face down in it. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be a good man, I want to be a great one. I want to be Harry Houdini and Thomas Edison all rolled into one.”
When Annie leaves Oz tells her “see you in my dreams.” And Oz’s womanizing catches up with him. He’s forced to flee in a hot air balloon. But he’s caught up in a dangerous tornado that threatens his life. Within the chaos, he speaks aloud as if speaking to God.
The Wizard has a chance for a mature relationship with the good witch Glinda (Michelle Williams). He’ll have to change some of his ways to impress her though. (Photo courtesy Walt Disney Pictures)
‘Please I don’t want to die,” he says. “I haven’t accomplished anything yet. Get me out of her and I’ll do great things. Please, give me a chance. I promise I can change.”
Then the storm subsides. So many times storms are metaphors for a spiritual journey. We lose control and are thrust into a deprivation, a dark night of the soul of sorts where we will grow. Oz’s promise to change seems to have brought him to Oz, where he will embark on a spiritual journey and come out a better person.
“Thank you,” he says when he enters the colorful magical land of Oz. Then he sees Theodora (Mila Kunis).
“Thank goodness, I thought I was dead,” he says. “Unless you’re an angel. Am I in heaven? Where am I?”
“Where do you think you are?” Theodora replies. “You’re in Oz.”
“That’s my name,” he says.
Theodora then tells him he is a messiah. She tells him he has fulfilled a prophecy to save the people. He’s puzzled by this, but intrigued by the promise of riches and power the title brings.
What a way to educate someone spiritually. He reluctantly takes on the role of messiah. The Bible is full of reluctant messengers and messiahs who don’t want to take on that role: including Moses, Jonah, and the Virgin Mary.
A turning point when he visits a war-ravaged town after his monkey companion tells him to go there because “there may be people in trouble even if you don’t care.”
He becomes compassionate when he sees a china girl whose legs are broken. He takes some glue out of his bag and pieces them back together so she can walk. Like many self-centered men he rises out of selfishness by bringing out his nurturing side.
The evil Evanora (Rachel Weisz) is a satanic figure who encourages her sister Theodora to eat from an apple which turns her into the Wicked Witch of the West. Weisz plays Evanora as a charismatic embodiment of evil. (Photo courtesy Walt Disney Pictures)
And there is evil along the way that threatens the spiritual journey — but also brings out the best in him when he fight it. The manifestation of evil is the character Evanora who rules over the Emerald Center and sends legions of armies to suppress rebellion. In a chilling scene she convinces her sister Theodora to turn over to an evil witch. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden she tempts her with an apple. But instead of knowledge, it will lure her into a life of evil.
“What is happening to me?” Theodora asks after taking a bite of the apple.
“It’s just your heart withering away. soon you will feel nothing at all except beautiful wickedness,” Evanora replies.
The Wizard may not be the magical wizard that the people of Oz imagined. But he finds within himself the ability to use the skills he has and make the best of them — to turn them around and use them for good purposes and to help other people. He leads an army of soldiers farmers, tinkers and munchkins against the Evanora and The Wicked Witch. The end of the film becomes an apocalypse and a political rebellion in one.
Toward the end of the film he seems to take on some of the Messiah status — where he has a kind of resurrection into a higher form.
“You thought you could kill me,” he says. “Thanks to you I’ve shed my mortal shell and taken my true ethereal form. I’m now more powerful than ever. I’m invincible. You can not defeat me, I am immortal.”
And in the concluding scent of the movie The Wizard has a conversation with Glinda that reflects the conversation he had in Kansas with Annie. But now he shows how much he has matured spiritually. He is no longer so restless for success and greatness.
“I want to thank you for opening my eyes,” he tells her.
“What do you see?” she asks.
“That I have everything I ever wanted,” he says.
“For the record, I knew you had it in you all along,” she says.
“Greatness?” he asks.
“No better than that, goodness,” she says.
The difference between greatness and goodness is the difference between the dark side of the American dream and the humility and community that’s necessary to reclaim the soul.
Here’s the trailer for ‘Oz The Great and Powerful’:
