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"The Wizard of Oz", Abraham, George C. Scott, John Huston, Noah, Peter O'Toole, Professor Dumbledore, Rainbows, Richard Harris, The Book of Genesis, The Deluge, The Movie "The Bible"
The 1939 movie, “The Wizard of Oz”, made the rainbow song part of our culture. The 1966 movie, “The Bible”, reminds us of the Genesis text where God promised Noah never again to cause a worldwide flood, and created a rainbow as not only a sign of this promise but as a memory-jogger for Himself : “As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant I have established between God” – that’s Himself He’s talking about ! – “and all living beings” (Genesis 9:16). Damned decent of Him to make the universal Deluge a one-shot deal, although believers must still have a problem with the tsunamis He makes, or at least allows to, happen. The rainbow as a multi-colored reminder to us of His promise is a nice touch. As a reminder to Himself, however, it does leave one wondering how any omniscient Supreme Being could forget anything . . .
But let’s take a moment to contrast the perception of the rainbow in these two splendid movies. The physics of the optical illusion which results from reflection and refraction was not in Dorothy Gale’s mind as she shared with Toto her own optimistic conviction that “way up high, there’s a land that I dreamt of, once in a lullaby”. But nor, very probably, was the biblical idea that it was somehow connected with a promise from God not to repeat His crime against humanity by flooding the Earth a second time. It was just a pleasant part of a charming children’s story. In the Bible, and in John Huston’s movie, the creation of the rainbow, like the devastating flood which preceded it, is part of a much more dramatic story told 2500 years ago to reinforce the faith of the Jewish tribes which identified themselves as God’s “Chosen People”, to make sense of the world in which they lived, and to inspire them to live righteously in accordance with the commandments He was believed to have given them.
“The Wizard of Oz” was dedicated to, and succeeded in, providing entertainment. “The Bible” set out to put on the screen the events, portrayed as real and historical, recounted in the biblical text. It too is entertaining, in serious, solemn fashion, illustrating the six days of Creation, the story of Adam and Eve and their descendants up until the appearance of Abraham and his miraculously conceived son Isaac. It clearly treats the Genesis story as history and is meant to impress and edify those who see it.
Half a century later, an added value of the film is the fun of seeing the young Richard Harris, better remembered as the original Professor Dumbledore, overacting as Cain, to admire the superb acting performance of the director, John Huston, as Noah, to recognize, in spite of the make-up, George C. Scott with the same voice and take-charge attitude of General Patton become Abraham, to find “Lawrence of Arabia’s” Peter O’Toole transformed into an angel, and the gorgeous Ava Gardner aged into Sarah, the barren wife of Abraham.
But what strikes one most in this depiction of the Bible, as in so many peplums before and since, is the deadly seriousness of the story told as history. No one would ever take “The Wizard of Oz” seriously, imagining there really is a wondrous land with yellow-brick roads beyond the rainbow. But I wonder how many viewers who see films like “The Bible” and the more recent “Noah”, with our own Russell Crowe, take them at face-value, when in fact they are just as fictional as the story of Dorothy and Toto. In portraying realistically the dramatic biblical events, in incarnating its heroes and villains in some of the best of Hollywood’s actors, in demonstrating the faith, fervor and fidelity of models like Abraham, the movie brings to life the best parts of the story of the Bible. Fundamentalists, neo-conservatives and traditional Christians find in such movies reinforcement of their faith. The rest of us can enjoy it as a fine, if dated, example of the Seventh Art, filmed in glorious Technicolor, with all the colors of the rainbow, but also as a reminder, not of God’s “promise” but of the credulity still alive and well even today.
RIDENDA RELIGIO