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CULTURE SHOCK:IN RELATION TO James Cameron’s film Avatar, which now looks certain to triumph at the Oscars and at the global box office, it is worth thinking for a moment about The Wizard of Oz.The two films have a great deal in common. Both are fantasy movies offering escape from an economic depression. Both feature an earthling catapulted into an alien world and trying to make sense of its unfamiliar ways. (Dorothy’s line about not being in Kansas anymore is used at the start of Avatar.) Both are products, not of a genius auteur, but of an industrial studio system. (The Wizard of Ozhad a total of four directors and 10 scriptwriters.) Both were conceived as gigantic commercial blockbusters.
Now consider the obvious contrasts. Oz, even now, is enthralling and charming, funny and moving. It is not just that it has a narrative potency and a brilliantly constructed dramatic architecture. Even in its special visual effects – from the realistic twister that hits the farm to the fantastically scary flying monkeys – have a timeless quality to them. And Avatar? None of the above. It has no charm, no sense of humour and no emotional power. Its narrative is clunky, its drama mechanical and unsurprising. What a falling-off is there.
