Apocalypse Oz
Terminate the Wizard...
It’s strange how the smallest of things can not only set the tone of a film but also tell you exactly what to expect. Apocalypse Oz opens – brilliantly – with the music of Pearl & Dean which transported me straight back to the late 1970s and early 80s when this short snatch of sound announced that the main feature would be along right after the dodgy commercials.
It was a nice touch that really put me in the mood to appreciate the sheer brilliance that followed.
And then onto the film, which tells of Dorothy (Alexandra Gizela), a delinquent Vietnamese-American teenager who flees the black-and-white home of her abusive Auntie Em (Amy Lyndon) and Uncle Henry (Don Deforest Paul). After a knock to the head she finds herself… still in Kansas.
But this is a bright and colourful Kansas and Dorothy is looking for a mission. Then, as if summoned by the pink bubble of gum, Glinda (Tammy Garrett) arrives and she has a mission for Dorothy: Find and terminate The Wizard.
Dorothy accepts the mission and, after staling a bright red car (licence RUBY), she sets off along the Yellow Road to find The Wizard.
Apocalypse Oz is not a spoof or a parody and certainly isn’t a remake. What writer/director Ewan Telford has done is pull together the scripts of Apocalypse Now and The Wizard of Oz to create something new and original – a strange and colourfully surreal road-trip of a film which cheerfully acknowledges its source material.
The film moves along at a cracking pace and is never less than gripping and even if you weren’t familiar with either – or both – of the parent films, you could probably appreciate it as a slightly strange road movie.
But the real strength of this film lies in its recognition and reworking of the themes common to both films. Telford takes characters, scenes and musical clues with which we are so familiar that they need no explanation and remixes them to tell a new story that comfortably incorporates themes from both of the parent films.
The result is completely familiar and utterly different.
Wednesday 28 Feb 2007 | Paul Pritchard | Action
