Day 717 (Tidbits)

We're off.........

To see the Wizard...

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - We hear he is a wiz of a wiz

If Ever a Wiz There Was...

Frank L. Baum wrote a very different version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz than what people are accustomed to, or have gotten used to, according to the film, Wizard of Oz. You know - the one with Judy Garland as Dorothy? Well - when the movie version was adapted from Baum's book, the movie writers, producers and others involved with the film managed to take away most of the political leanings originally embedded into the story by Baum.

The original story is very much about commerce, believe it or not - and on Blake's THE 800 DAYS BLOG, for the Day 717 entry, Blake has placed a really interesting video on this whole topic. The video is called "The Secret of Oz," and it's not just some little mishmash of historical clips, heresay and opinion. The makers of this vid have produced a full length documentary-movie that goes step by step through tidbits in history of the Western commerce system, primarily American economy - ie: the times when America was being settled, "founded," through alleged liberation from Britain, etc., with a focus on the economic system, currency and laws governing currency that was/were - AND IS/ARE - in the Western/North American realms.

The Secret of Oz film runs an hour and fifty minutes in length and isn't for the faint of heart. After watching, I've been prompted to go into excerpts of Baum's original work to see more on what Hollywood movie makers left out. It seems Baum was very in-tune to politics and such in his day - and there are countless symbolic bits inserted in his books that I think might have been best displayed to a general public all along and especially today. I say this because these bits are IMPORTANT events, truths, that - if they were known by all - would cause people to think about their role in society and country very differently than they do now. There are truthful insights as to how large political entities and authorities undermined a general public ever since the founding of America, Canada, etc that Baum was placing in literature for all to see. These are quite absent in the Hollywood film version of Wizard of Oz.

For viewing over at the 800 Days blog, I strongly suggest that you bookmark the Day 717 post, prepare some snacks and set aside time for viewing this The Secret of Oz video. It will be time well spent, in my humble opinion! Although you're not likely to get a feelgood kick from the documentary vid like you might from the Hollywood version, Wizard of Oz, I'm sure that if you watch and listen actively, you'll come away from this vid presentation with something of great value...

The Day 717 entry is associated with Monday January 3 2011.