"So Oz finally became home; the imagined world became the actual world, as it does for us all, because the truth is that once we have left our childhood places and started out to make up our lives, armed only with what we have and are, we understand that the real secret of the ruby slippers is not that 'there's no place like home,' but rather that there is no longer any such place as home: except, of course, for the home we make, or the homes that are made for us, in Oz: which is anywhere, and everywhere, except the place from which we began."

Brilliant, funny, thought-provoking, distracting, and comforting.

"some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
- CS Lewis
Great trivia details about the movie but what fascinates me, that even a literary giant like Salmaan Rushdie could feel such a passion for children's movie. I liked it more because it gave a great insight of working of author's mind.

You lost me at "Toto, that little yapping hairpiece of a creature, that meddlesome rug!" Mr. Rushdie!

The Wizard Of Oz is a book about fantasy and magic. It begins in Kansas with Dorothy and her family.
They are a close knit family and Dorothy is especially attached to her little dog Todo. Todo is disliked
by a local lady who wants to take the dog from the family. This leads to Dorothy running away and
beginning her adventures of the movie. Dorothy is transported, as well as the reader to another time
and place – to Oz. In Oz there is a scarecrow, lion and tin man. All three help Dorothy find her way
through Oz to find the Wizard who will help her find her way home (back to Kansas).

I felt that although the Wizard Of Oz movie was made some time ago, that it was much more gripping
than the book. Perhaps because of the transition from black and white to color as Dorothy enters
Oz. The book, while very good, was slower going for me than the movie.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone and of all ages. It gets the attention of the very young
and there are younger versions of this book for the younger reader), and also keeps the attention of the
older reader. You are never too old to read this book. Everyone needs a little fairy tale in their life.

Part of the BFI Film Classics, this short essay by Mr. Rushdie tackles the perennial classic the Wizard of Oz. Along with the essay, original written in 1992, this bind-up includes a short story dealing with the auction of the famous ruby slippers.

Dealing with the short-story first, the futuristic setting and the commentary on consumption and the desire for reinvention doesn’t really fit in with the movie or the general hypothesis of the essay. Connecting this story to the movie by saying that the Wizard of Oz was really about reinvention was stretching it for me. It didn’t convince me and as a result, this was a weird little tale which didn’t add much to the reading experience.

In fact, most of the essay didn’t really convince me. The anecdotes about the movie were great but Mr. Rushdie is fairly dismissive of portions of the movie and genres he doesn’t like. As an example, he describes Hindi movies as “[being] then and are now what can be called trashy... like ... watching junk food.” First of all, Hindi movies are not Bollywood cinema and trashing an entire industry with a casual sentence like this didn’t sit well.

He is of course, entitled to his opinion but his case for the Wizard of Oz being a great film should not depend on lines like this. I think it’s his lack of nuance even more than his tone which irked me in places.

As another example, his view on children’s book as “a kind of ghetto but one subdivided into ... a number of different age groups.” was quite dismissive. Which is sad as he has a point about how the movies “have regularly risen above such categorizing [and where] … kids and adults sit happy side by side”. This all-age fare and ability to find the childlike wonder when watching a movie like the Wizard of Oz is important.

At least the point he made was intriguing enough for me to want to check out Haroun and the Sea of Stories. I guess that is a win for Mr. Rushdie.

The part about the essay which spoke to me the most is how the movie is a tension between two dreams - of home and of leaving it behind. He calls the movie "a film about the joys of going away” as the most evocative parts of the movie were the parts in Oz. He links the movie to the migrant experience which made the essay a little more poignant than I was expecting.

However, he dismisses the ending of the movie with its emphasis on ‘there is no place like home’ as a misstep. And even though I do not agree with him as that message stayed with me as a child - and despite Kansas being all grey and dull - I loved the fact that Dorothy came home - I can understand what Mr. Rushdie is getting at.

For bringing that fresh perspective to the movie and talking about some new ideas I am giving this essay a 3 stars. It would have been higher if not for the extraneous short story which ends the book at this odd place.

Found this obscure book [British Movie Classics] in City Lights in San Francisco [my nephew, who was w/ me in S.F., was impressed that I knew of the former haunt of Kerouac and Ginsberg -- people my age aren't supposed to know anything even remotely cool] and enjoyed not only Rushdie's style [never read him before] but also the inside scoop on the movie. Esp. liked his comparison of the Oz movie to Bollywood films!

I've now ordered several more from the series.

Salman Rushdie's formal analysis of the Wizard of Oz, full of little vignettes and details about L. Frank Baum, the making of the movie, and Rushdie's own life.

Ok children's book. Interesting to compare to movie. The notes in the Barnes and Noble Classics edition were interesting and gave some good context.

WOZ is one of my favorite movies, and I enjoyed this book. There’s so much material from the movie to write about. I did feel like I wanted more. I suspect Mr. Rushdie left a lot on the cutting room floor.

This is a very interesting commentary on The Wizard of Oz, but, then, both Salman Rushdie AND The Wizard of Oz both intrigue me tremendously...

In this blend of personal essay and film criticism, Rushdie shows us the magical influence that The Wizard of Oz (1939) has had on the beginnings of his literary career (with a short story titled "Over the Rainbow"), as well as his complicated relationship with his father and with the notion of home in general.

Although I personally disagree with several of Rushdie's opinions about our mutual favorite film (he hates Toto!), his thoughts are beautifully phrased and compellingly drawn out and make it clear that Oz will continue to enchant the young and young at heart from all backgrounds for years to come.

This essay is one of the most beautifully written film analyses I've ever read, particularly Rushdie's passage about how "Somewhere over the Rainbow" is "the anthem of all the world's migrants." The second part, a surreal fictionalized depiction of the auction of the ruby slippers (only 8 pages long), is unexpected but equally entertaining and true.