The first of an occasional series of posts in which I fix storytelling
problems in movies. Before reading, take a moment to review the original storyline: Wikipedia's summary page
Sam Raimi’s "Oz the
Great and Powerful" is a shiny tribute to the power of CGI. Lush backdrops,
beautiful costumes and makeup and gorgeous actors’ faces lit up the screen for
over two hours. But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here because, alas, the
plot has holes. The story of Oscar Digg’s arrival in Oz and his subsequent struggle
to become a better man, a man who would be called “Wizard of Oz”, suffers from—first
of all—the same problem most prequels do: that is, they have to have sad
endings.
Why does a prequel require a sad ending? Simple. Because the
beginning of the original movie is not a happy beginning. In screenwriting,
characters who change must go through a reversal: if they are to end up at
point “A” by the end, then they must begin at point “Not A”. If “A” is “happy”,
then the character must start out unhappy. The same can be applied to situations and events as well. In this particular instance, we already know from having seen “The
Wizard of Oz” that the Wizard is a fake, and that he’s old, and not terribly
happy. He also has some unresolved conflict with the Wicked Witch of the West. So
at the end of the prequel, Oscar/Oz must be fake, old, unhappy, and have a
conflict with the Wicked Witch of the West. Therefore at the beginning of “Oz
the Great and Powerful”, he must not be these things. He should be real, young,
happy, and must get along with the Wicked Witch.
Raimi’s version of the movie gets three of four of these
starting points correct. Oscar, as played by James Franco, begins the movie as
a young and happy but fake wizard who gets along with Theodora (as she is
called before she becomes Wicked). Even though he charms her, though, he is not
truly interested in her, rather he is interested in—shall we say, the feminine
form. He is an unrepentant skirt-chaser, having chased and released numerous female
assistants of his show in Kansas, and he falls for each of the three witches in
the movie as he meets them. Yet he never learns his lesson or changes his ways,
ending up as happy in the end of the movie as at the beginning. This is a major
problem for Raimi’s film if it is to be taken seriously as a prequel to the
movie we all already know.
I need to identify one more major problem in Raimi’s film:
that is, that there is no magic in Oz. No living tin-men, no talking
scarecrows, no talking lions. Yes, we have a doll that can speak, and other
animals that can talk, but there is a serious lack of magic in the movie, which
doesn’t make sense considering that there is magic in “The Wizard of Oz”. I
will solve both of these problems by turning this fluff piece into a classical tragedy.
At the beginning of the movie, Oscar Diggs is a magician who
is so talented that he begins to believe he is actually magic. Annie is his
true love, but he is too focused on his career as circus magician to give her
the attention that she deserves and therefore she marries John Gale instead.
Heartbroken but keeping it bottled in, Oscar continues to perform and is
eventually carried away to the Land of Oz.
The first person he meets in Oz is Theodora, who shows him
around and tells him about the prophecy of the Wizard of Oz. With full
confidence that he is the wizard they have all been waiting for, he falls for
her—and she for him—and they make plans to rule Oz as King and Queen. Theodora
warns him, though, that there is one rule of magic in Oz, and it’s that magic
cannot affect non-magic things. For example, spells and curses, etc. only work
on witches and wizards and those things that are intrinsically imbued with
magic. Unknown to Theodora, this does not pose a problem for Oz, because his “magic”
is done with technology and sleight of hand, not spells and potions.
Evanora, who is clearly a bad witch (as opposed to her
sister Theodora, who still has much good in her), disapproves of this coupling,
which could interfere with her plans to become Queen in her own right. She has
been keeping Theodora isolated to use her as a pawn in her campaign against Glinda
the Good. Evanora exploits Oz’s inexperience by telling him lies
about Glinda and sending him off to kill her, although secretly Evanora expects
him to die trying. This part is no different from Raimi’s version.
As in Raimi’s film, Oz meets Glinda by accident and
recognizes her as the analogue of Annie, his lost love, and he is so struck by
her that he forgets about Theodora—or rather, he remembers her but can no
longer love her. He plans to make Glinda, not Theodora, his Queen as she helps him
become King.
Evanora sees this development through her crystal ball and
shows Theodora parts of it, in triumph because although he has taken the
throne, she can again use her sister as a tool to overcome the new King and Queen. Theodora becomes
evil as a result of her sister's coercion and her own broken heart.
Theodora appears to Oz, who tries to apologize, but she will
not listen. She curses him with her strongest evil magic but the spell bounces
off of him, and explodes all over the Land of Oz. Oz the man explains that he
was never magic, and that he is a “fake”. This is a moment where the audience
will feel sympathy for both Oz and Theodora. Enraged, the witch exits, leaving
him alone, and all around him are the effects of the magic: dolls come to life,
scarecrows start to stir, etc.
Oz’s conscience dictates that he must now clean up Theodora’s
mess: that is, he must find and help all the people and beings affected by the
spilled magic. In order to so do, he enlists the help of Glinda, who does not
know he is a “fake” but still thinks of him as the Wizard of the prophecy. Unable
to tell Glinda the truth, Oz eventually grows away from her and is as alone as
when Annie left him.
Oz is now both the Wizard of Oz and the charlatan behind the
curtain. His experiences have aged him, he is unhappy because he feels fake,
and the Wicked Witch hates him. Glinda idolizes him but doesn’t really know him.
When Dorothy arrives in Oz, the Glinda sends her to him as she has all the
other magicked beings in the last several years, having even gone as far as fabricating
a yellow brick road leading to his abode in the Emerald City.
There’s your classical tragedy, your “fall from grace”: experienced,
believable, and lovable Kansas magician Oscar becomes a fake Wizard with no
friends, perpetually paying for the heart he has broken in his quest to help
those who apply to him for brains, courage, family, etc. as a result of his
hubris.
