QUOTE OF THE DAY

"This is my art and it is dangerous!"
- Delia Deetz, Beetlejuice

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Untitled Movie Thought

"Follow the yellow brick road."

Today I have no pictures to present. I started and stopped several this evening. I might need to take some new pictures. Most of what I've recently taken are of the same subject just from different angles.

Instead of doing any creative work, I have chosen to watch The Wizard of Oz, a movie I haven't watched in years. It was never a particular favorite of mine but I must say I am enjoying it now. I am fascinated by the fact that when this film was originally released, it barely made it's money back. It was made with a budget of three million dollars which I can imagine was the most unheard of thing in 1939. We are so used to movies with overblown budgets these days but think about it in terms of primitive cinema. There was no marketing or media hype and there certainly wasn't the amount of screens that we have now. There was no such thing as a "multiplex", just single screen theaters that could only show four movies a day. However, over the years it has become a classic and has earned numerous reincarnations on video and dvd.

It just seems bizarre to me that this film was already forty something years old before people were given the chance to own it. Before the VCR and VHS, people would have to wait for their favorite movies to play on television. I personally would not have survived in such a time (knowing what I know now of course).

There are just so many elements that make this film so progressive and ahead of its time that it's mind boggling. I have much more respect for it now as an adult than I ever did as a child.

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