Oz

(1976)

Johnny's notes:

The weekly Australian Classic has arrived a little early this week.

Oz (subtitled A Rock 'n' Roll Road Movie) is a rock 'n' roll infused road movie based loosely on The Wizard of Oz (well, loosely enough to not give credit...) about Dorothy (Joy Dunstan, in her one and only movie) who goes with her friend to the local dance hall to see a terrible band Wally and the Falcons play. Told to move on by a sleazy looking bouncer, Dorothy and her friend leave with the band. In the Kombi van, the friend starts making out with the drummer and the driver decides to have a look, only to crash the van. Dorothy gets out of the van and falls unconscious and wakes up in a mirror world where the van she was driving has killed a local thug to the joy of all in town. She goes to a shop and spies a pair of red high heeled shoes which the owner of the store, The Good Fairy (played as a highly camp man, viva la 1970s!), gives to her for killing the thug. She goes down the road looking for a ride to see The Wizard, a glam rock singer played by the lead singer of Wally and the Falcons and meets a dumb surfer dude (Bruce Spence) who gives her a ride. They stop off for something to eat and Dorothy is harassed by a big truck driver, played by the bouncer, who wants to have his way with her for killing his brother. After escaping the truckie, they stop off at a petrol station and are ambushed by a heartless mechanic (Michael Carman) who wants Dorothy all to herself. Also arriving at the station is a bikie (Gary Waddell) who acts all tough but is actually a big coward. All three bounders are the other members of the band. Eventually, they all have to rely on each other to get to Melbourne where Dorothy searches for The Wizard, finding his concert. But, she didn't get to see him. The truckie finds them and kidnaps Dorothy and attempts to force himself on her, only for Dorothy to use her red shoes to kick him in the balls so that she can get away. Eventually, Dorothy meets the Wizard and it turns out he is not what he is cracked up to be.

I don't know how they got away with not crediting L. Frank Baum, coz it follows his tale mighty closely, maybe because the Yellow Brick Road is never mentioned, but is that really enough? This reinterpretation is infused with music of Ross Wilson of Daddy Cool fame, but boy do they beat one song to death on the soundtrack, which gets rather annoying after a while. The film is pretty silly and highly contrived, but that's probably because time hasn't been kind to the film. It is very much of it's time. It's not all bad, everyone seems to be having fun and the performance by The Wizards is quite spectacular, but being bound to the Wizard of Oz template means the film becomes restrained with what it can do. An interesting piece of nostalgia, but not a good film.

Joy Dunstan film clips (collages below)