A breakdown of The Wizard of Oz (1939)

This is a breakdown of the classic film The Wizard of Oz, using the terminology of screenwriter extraordinaire Michael Arndt. His terminology is described in his videos posted to his pandemoniuminc.com site. (See also this post and that post of mine.) For the breakdown using the five point breakdown, see this thescriptlab.com post, and for the breakdown using the sequence method, see this scriptlab.com post. For the breakdown using Blake Snyder’s method, see the savethecat.com post. Scott Myers has a nice post to his Go Into The Story blog on the character types in The Wizard of Oz. As of this writing, the script is available online - just type "The Wizard of Oz script" into your favorite search engine.

Act 1: In act 1, we learn a young Kansas farm girl Dorothy (the protagonist) has a dog Toto that she loves dearly. However, a mean neighborhood lady has gotten a written order to take Toto away to be “destroyed” (apparently Toto bit the lady, so she went to the police). Dorothy’s aunt and uncle (her parents are dead) are not supportive, nor are the three farmhands. To save her dog, Dorothy and Toto run away. (Many call this event the inciting incident of the story.) Soon they meet a traveling magician who convinces her to return home. She does but the incoming tornado has already arrived and she’s locked out of the storm cellar. As she hides in her bedroom, she’s knocked out by flying debris. Then she dreams that her house is carried away by the tornado, landing in the dream world of Oz. I’m going to argue that this is the inciting incident. My “proof” is based on Michael Arndt’s assertion (eg, see this post) that the inciting incident must

1. disrupt the protagonist's plans for the future,
   
2. change their sense of self,
   
3. change their sense of the future
   
4. be unforeseen,
   
5. visceral,
   
6. (hopefully) involve an action piece enacting this worst fear,
   
7. involve the worst possible thing that can happen.
   

IMHO, Dorothy “waking up” in Oz after being knocked out cold fits these criteria better than (temporarily) running away from home. None-the-less, both support the viewpoint that Dorothy would prefer to escape from her problems than to confront them.

Once in Oz, Dorothy now has (in Arndt’s terminology) a global goal: Dorothy wants to go home to Kansas. (This is also called an external need by some writers.) Her internal need is that she wants to find a place that she can call home, where people love her and support her. I argue that her philosophical need (some might call this a character flaw) is that she wants to be able to (1) confront her problems instead of running away from them, (2) tell good people from bad people, tricksters from honest friends. (3) She wants to learn what courage really means, what love really means, what intelligence really means -- basically to mature and grow as a young girl.

After landing in Munchkinland, Dorothy learns her house accidentally killed the Wicked Witch of the East. To the Munchkins she’s a hero. She meets the Good Witch of the North. They tell her she must see the Wizard to get back to Kansas, who lives at the end of the yellow brick road. The Wicked Witch of the West arrives, furious that her sister (Wicked Witch of the East) has been killed. This witch threatens Dorothy but can’t do anything because the Good Witch is protecting her in Munchkinland. Dorothy’s new expectation for the future is that if she walks to the end of the yellow brick road then Wizard will send her back to Kansas. Therefore her short-term goal is to meet the Wizard. This goal meets Arndt’s criteria: the short-term goal must be a clear, pass/fail objective, seemingly easy to achieve, and (hopefully) have a ticking clock attached. There is no explicit ticking clock, but Dorothy does want to get home ASAP. This point is where the act 1 break occurs.

Act 2: In act 2, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow (with no brain), the Tin Man (with no heart) and the Cowardly Lion (with no courage). She also runs into the Wicked Witch of the East again, but escapes harm. Now, their expectation of the future is that the Wizard will help Dorothy go home, give the Scarecrow a brain, the Tin Man a heart, the Lion courage. According to Arndt, the midpoint should

1. change direction,
   
2. deepen the stakes,
   
3. provide all exposition needed to solve the problem,
   
4. recognize an new inner flaw,
   
5. have new obstacles (because every change in direction requires a new set of obstacles), reversals in as close proximity as possible.
   

Some say the midpoint is when Dorothy, at the end of the yellow brick road, falls asleep in the field of flowers. Others say (and I agree) that the midpoint is after Dorothy and her trio of friends enter the Emerald City, talk to the Wizard, but he demands they must bring back the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West before he will grant their wishes. (Note: they don’t actually meet the Wizard but a projected image of him.) This meets (a), (b), (c) and (e). I’m not sure about (d) - does Dorothy recognize a new flaw (maybe she realizes she’s too trusting?). I’m not sure about (f) either. Certainly, the Wizard demanding the WWW’s broom is a reversal.Other twists (ie, reversal) are: (1) WWW capturing Dorothy and saying she will die soon, (2) Toto and the trio rescuing Dorothy, (3) when Dorothy defends her friend the Scarecrow as he’s lit on fire by the WWW, Dorothy accidentally kills the WWW with the pail of water (“I’m melting!” the WWW screams).

According to Arndt, the act 2 brake should

1. achieve the short-term plan,
   
2. there's a setback in the protagonist's global goal, and things look bad again,
   
3. the protagonist must fail internally, externally, and philosophically.
   

There are differing opinions as to where this occurs. I argue that the act 2 brake is after Dorothy and her friends return to the Emerald City for the second time. They give the WWW’s broom to the Wizard, but he (or rather the projected image of him) refuses to grant their request. To me, this satisfies (a), (b) and (c). The failure of her philosophical girl is she doesn't know what's right, what's wrong, what's real and what's trickery. Nor has she confronted her main problem, which is to convince the Wizard to send her home.

Act 3: After the Wizard refuses their request, we start act 3. With this interpretation, act 3 is very short. The climax occurs almost immediately, where the protagonist embraces her values. (The love and devotion to her friends, no matter what, seeing others for who they really are.) In the climax, her ally (Toto) comes to the rescue (pulling aside the Wizard’s curtain, revealing him for who he really is), leading to the decisive act, the epiphany. In the epiphany, the protagonist must face up to the viewpoint of the antagonist, confront it, overcome their flaw and become a better person as a result. Dorothy’s epiphany arises when she confronts the Professor (who’s disguised himself as the Wizard).

She tells him honestly what she thinks of him. He then agrees to honor his promises. They all (Dorothy and the trio) become better and wiser as a result of this epiphany.