So I've recorded but not yet watched Tin Man, the Sci Fi Channel take on the Wizard of Oz. I was only mildy interested in it at first--I saw that it had Alan Cumming in it and thought I'd take a look. (Aside on Alan Cumming: Jesus, am I ever glad I didn't have to go through seventh grade with that name. Hoo boy. Also, he was the best thing in the second X Men movie. Why wasn't he in the third one? Finally, I remember hearing a while back that he was going to do some kind of new, gay version of Hart to Hart. Whatever happened to that? It's such an awesome idea!)
And then I read the onslaught of negative reviews, most of which were kind of affronted that anyone would dare mess with The Wizard of Oz. This critical outrage immediately made me want to see it. Now, it might or might not be any good--like I said, I haven't watched it yet--but I'm certainly not offended by the concept, and I found other people's offense kind of curious. I mean, it's only a movie, people. It's a great movie, sure, but it's not some sacred text that can never be messed with. Nobody gets outraged when someone does a modern adaptation of The Odyssey or a Shakespeare Play--nor should they. Those things are in the public domain, meaning that they belong to all of us now. And so is the Wizard of Oz. (The book, anyway--I guess the movie has a few more years, or maybe a lot more years. I still don't understand if anything can ever pass into the public domain under the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, or whatever they called the last copyright overhaul). It's lasted long enough that it's now deemed to be everybody's property, which means that anybody can mess with it, and they should, because interesting stuff comes of such messing around. (Like O Brother Where Art Thou, or She's The Man!)
I remember similar outrage greeting Return to Oz, a dark, weird, and really good movie that came out in the 80's. Seriously--it's really good. It's just nothing like the 1939 movie, which is fine. I don't remember any outrage about the Wizard of Oz stuff in Wild at Heart, but the Wizard of Oz parts were just weird and didn't really make any sense. I know, hard to believe in a David Lynch movie, but there you have it.
I'll make sure to write my thoughts on Tin Man after I actually watch it. Now that I've publicly defended it, watch me not even like it. Even still, I'm not bothered by the concept, which most of the critics I read were.
