Wicked Witch - unabridged notes, sources, further reading (Patreon)

Witches. If you’re a woman in hollywood over the age of 35 you have probably played one. In fact you’re probably in the process of playing a witch right now. This can speak to many facets regarding the way we view women but I don’t think all of them necessarily bad. In part I think it speaks to an increased interest in complex witch characters. No longer is the witch a one-note archetype. No sir, now she’s a complex figure with motivations and a backstory. From the simplistic archetype of the old hag to the more recent sympathetic of powerful witch-type characters we’ve seen emerge in pop culture, following the history of “witches” is, in a way, following the history of how we as society look at powerful women. With that in mind, who better to talk about than The Wicked Witch of the West? - arguably THE most famous witch of the 20th century and the template for a good 30% of halloween costumes. But you can’t really talk about the influence of Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West--and yes, sorry Baum fans, that was the influential ones, let’s be honest here--without talking about the history of the archetype of the old hag. http://upclose.unimelb.edu.au/episode/109-witch-depicted-images-and-iconography-early-modern-times http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140925-where-do-witches-come-from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_of_Endor Witch of Endor - King Saul of Israel goes to this woman to learn the future because God won’t talk to him Witches are a source of dangerous wisdom, such as MacBeth’s “weird sisters” The iconography of witches and the old hag archetype. Where did the broom thing come from? Hard to pinpoint exactly. First known visual depiction of a witch flying on a broomstick: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Champion_des_dames_Vaudoises_01.png Hexenflug der "Vaudoises" (hier Hexen, ursprünglich Waldenser) auf dem Besen, Miniatur in einer Handschrift von Martin Le France, Le champion des dames, 1451 Hooknosed old hag is even older - Almost everything that defines the European witch archetype relates to the perversion of the domestic. Women’s work of a domestic nature around the fire you’re supposed to use your broom to clean, not to fly around! That’s just wrong. Your’e supposed to use foodstuffs to cook, not make potions! That’s just wrong. You’re supposed to get married and have babies, not stay single and be shifty! That’s just wrong. Also cats have satanic associations for some reason. Now being a crazy old cat lady is a joke, back in the day it could get you burned alive for witchcraft. later stories focus on the figure of the witch - sexual, alluring figure, or naked, or old and ugly - as the focus in european culture moves more towards the fixation on witchcraft & the devil. The root of any folk villain tends to deal with some cultural anxiety. And the witch archetype is European anxiety about women straying from the very, very narrow box set for them. the wicked witch of the west is a distillation of all of these many hundreds of years into the ultimate modern archetype of the witch - originally a character for children, but over the last hundred years, has grown and expanded in many ways. But to keep it honest, we’re going to pretty much have to use the 1939 film as our bedrock here, not the original book. Which is an important distinction for one very important reason: The 1939 film is still under copyright, where L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not. With that in mind, let us proceed. original book We can’t discuss the land of Oz, or its chief protagonists, without discussing L. Frank Baum’s politics, which are very… there. In his writing. And Baum’s version of political allegory was way, way more on the nose than anything you’re going to see today, especially in children’s literature, unless you’re looking at the Rush Limbaugh ouvre If you learn about Oz and politics in history class, it was probably in relationship to Baum’s ideas on populism and American culture. There are entire books dedicated to political interpretations. Not that he was necessarily doing it deliberately--outside of the feminist stuff, that’s super up for debate, but reading politics into the world of Oz is super popular. Those ruby slippers? Originally they were silver slippers--thought to represent gold standard/Silverite sixteen. Yellow brick road = relation to dissolution of the gold standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz West = American west, winged monkeys = Native Americans? Eesh, problematic. This could tie into some of Baum’s more infamous attitudes on Natives: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/10/27/130862391/l-frank-baum-advocated-extermination-of-native-americans The world of Oz is one in which almost all of the power players, good and bad, are women. Baum was also a huge suffrage supporter, so, that’s not a coincidence. Feminism wasn’t above reproach or even making fun of - later Oz books included characters like general Jinjur and her all-female army. This is a very on-the-nose parody of the suffrage movement, of which Baum was a huge supporter. And yet the whole thing was a pastiche of every paranoid anxiety nightmare of anti suffragists of the time--women taking men’s jobs, forcing them to work in the kitchen and be all domestic, so… I’m honestly not quite sure what to do with that one. “I honestly find more worrisome the "LOL SPOUSAL ABUSE!" revealed in the 3rd book when you find out she's gotten married and beats her husband when he doesn't do things right and everyone down to Ozma and Dorothy are like "well, glad you are keeping out of trouble on your dairy farm!" . Like. Baum. Baum no.” - Nella Glinda’s also entirely-female army. - the novel idea of a sorceress character who’s a good guy. “are you a good witch, or a bad witch?” There were examples of morally grey or not-evil sorceress characters before Glinda--you’ve got the lady in the lake, the blue fairy, etc. But she’s the first modern example of a “good guy” female wizard-type that was in something really, really popular. Again, a shift in the way powerful women were perceived. It’s not any coincidence that these books came out during the height of the suffrage movement. In the grand scheme of Baum’s universe the Wicked Witch of the West isn’t a huge player - she’s only in that first novel, and she’s not even mentioned until towards the end when the Wizard gives Dorothy and her pals a murderquest. And the book’s version of the witch is nothing like what we’ve come to associate with the words, “wicked witch of the west.” She doesn’t have green skin, she doesn’t have a broom, she’s short and frumpy, the wizard doesn’t ask them to grab anything from her. Dorothy does wet her out of spite rather than trying to save the scarecrow, but is likewise surprised that water makes her melt. So--the witch is an obstacle that need be overcome, but at the end of the day not a huge player in the grand scheme of oz. Next! 1910 silent movie but…….it’s stupid short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWQ5-UBU22M I waffled as to whether or not to include this one as it is stupid short and not terribly influential, either as a film or as a piece of Oz arcana, but since so much of the film from this era has been lost it’s a miracle it even survived, so for that reason it’s… worth a look… animals what are you doing cow goes with dorothy for some reason In this version the witch is named… Momba? I must assume this is a variant on the name Mombi, who is the primary antagonist in the SECOND Oz book. 7:49 - well it’s kind of hard to follow but dorothy and her barnyard friend like… go to momba’s house. and brawl “dorothy learns that water is fatal to the witch” - she learns this offscreen somewhere. So where it’s an oopsie in the book and in the ‘39, here she’s a cold-hearted killer. There was also a movie in 1925 movie, but it didn’t have much in the way of witch in it, so, skipping that one. 1939 film Where the book is episodic, the film takes on a much more traditional Hollywood structure, setting up the wicked witch as the chief antagonist even before Dorothy goes to Oz. hamilton on mr. rogers - “she never gets what she wants.” “think of it from her point of view - she never got what she wanted, she was unhappy.” 3:51 - “lots of children are quite scared of her.” - compares to playing pretend/dress up. 5:55 - “just like a halloween costume” barbara walters - “we are fortunate no one ever dropped a house on her.” - ????? The influence of Hamilton’s wicked witch of the west can’t be understated. Gale Sondergaard was originally cast as the Wicked Witch when the film was more overtly influenced by Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The Wicked Witch wasn’t going to be a post-apple influence, but a sexy, intimidating pre-apple. Gale Sondergaard out, and in came Margaret Hamilton. Let’s get this out of the way from the outset-- this is one of the best movies ever made. Whether or not you consider it high or low art, it’s just Can't fault Mrs. Gulch on the whole dog thing Dressed like a suffragette caricature “only bad witches are ugly.” Funny, anti-suffragists said the same thing about women. "I had the measles once" AAAAAHHHHHH Margaret Hamilton gunned hard for the part She got burned real bad- no literally with fire Witch Shia le beoufs in the sky Lion has "witch remover" tin man goes in with a wrench The Wiz A whole ‘nother 40 years before another Wizard of Oz movie of note, the agonizingly long The Wiz. Written by Joel Schumacher so you know it’s going to be good. There’s much to be said about the stylistic… dissonance in this movie’s version of Oz. Industrial but not, otherworldly but not. Flying monkeys are bikers. I uh… I don’t think I like your lips Her name is Evillene, she appears to be the, uh, slavelord of a sweatshop. Which is kind of weird. She even has a whip. Which is also weird. She marches around in the most uncomfortable dress imaginable, and has eyeballs on her crown - maybe to reference her all seeing eye. Like Wicked Witch Prime this witch is barely in it, but unlike the Margaret Hamilton version she actually gets a song. Before she gets melted in perhaps the most non-melting melting scene of all of them. water also melts sewing machines. But then in the subsequent musical number we see that the Witch’s minions were all… sexy people. And they’re naked in the way that characters in skyrim are naked. When you steal all their clothes. Even though this movie is agonizingly long, the witch portions are among the better paced in the film. Even though… I’m not so sure about this witch. “WAR IS HELL” Ohhh kay. Wicked Skipping forward almost another twenty years, it is time for a reexamination of the classic witch archetype, and one of the most influential books ever on that topic, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked. Most of Gregory Maguire’s most well known books deal with popular stories and characters that just haaaaaaaappen to be in the public domain, and Wicked is no exception. The wonderful wizard of oz itself and its characters and concepts entered the public domain in 1956. MGM’s 1939 film, however, had not. Maguire’s book borrows from both. Elphaba - L. F. B - geddit? Conceptually, Wicked is purported to be a prequel to the Oz books, not the film-- it utilizes many book-only concepts such as the geography of the countries, the shoes being silver, etc. Maguire also introduces many of his own ideas--for instance, not only that the talking animals exist, but exist as a different type of person altogether, and that Oz operates even on something of an apartheid system. This being Elphaba’s main motivation for turning on the system as she does. ….. buuuhhhhhht There are some major elements that are very rooted in the ‘39 film, not in the original book-- Elphaba’s greenness not only isolates her within the world of the novel, it’s also a major plot point. So is the pointy hat, so is the broom. So one can argue that the most important influences from the ‘39 movie on Maguire’s book are aesthetic and therefore can’t really be subject to copyright law, which is probably true. But since the book got adapted into a very popular-still running musical... Well, they got away with it somehow. Wicked is kind of… Musical, the musical. Your mom loves it. And in a way, it’s the perfect broadway musical. It’s based on a familiar thing, but it’s still a new story so you’re not just watching a stage version of a movie you’ve seen. ahemahemahem Elphaba in the show is a sort of Proto-Elsa in many ways, not the least of which being originally played by Idina Menzel. Whose signature song is the proto-let it go. I think Gregory Maguire had really interesting ideas and worldbuilding, but I don’t much care for his writing. I like the book more in theory, prefer the musical in practice. Tin Man Why is this called Tin Man? "Come on, tin man, have a heart" Well, originally he was going to be the main character, but then it turned more into just a wizard of oz retelling and so now Doroth-... her name is DG comes to the O.Z. It’s called the O.Z. Well Tin Man was originally going to be the main character, and it was going to be like… a witch murder mystery. But then they decided it should be more of an analogue to the original book and DG is the main character but they kept the title anyway. And boy howdy is is a race to the bottom for who is the worst Dorothy. Concentrate, we’re talking about the witch. This also purports to be inspired by the public domain book, but of course there are many elements lifted from the ‘39 movie here, too. Much as they seem trying not to be. Police man named gulch - geeedddit - yeah, he doesn't come back No, the Wicked Witch in this version, is actually Doroth-.... DG’s sister, named Azkadelia. DG accidentally got Azkadelia possessed by… another witch as a child. They had a special hand holding magic thing, but DG ran away, Azkadelia got possessed, DG got raised by robot parents. (Zim) So it straddles this weird line between retelling and completely off in its own little world. Glinda is here, but she’s the mom - because these reboots do love them some familial things. They’re also descended from the ORIGINAL Dorothy gale, so again, it straddles this weird retelling-slash-own thing line. "He's like a psychic, but sees with his heart" um ein minute bitte The witch is not melted, but gets de-possessed by hand-holding magic. So that’s nice. In a lot of ways, Tin Man is the most interesting out of all of them, but I get the impression that this was written by people with imagination and THE STUDIO WAS LIKE NO people are stupid. Make it dumber. But interesting universe and unique backstory aside, we still end up with our least interesting witch. muppets in oz “witch of the west coming at you from my lair of evil” AGGHHHHH So this is the worst muppet movie. This one... again it is a race to the bottom for the worst Dorothy, and Ashanti and Zooey Deschanel are neck in neck. Sorry, I mean, keep focused but… people who shit on Diana Ross…. look at the competition. Since miss piggy is really the only female muppet of note--like, come on, janice stans, we all know she doesn’t really matter--muppets in oz takes the interesting and honestly I’m kind of surprised no one’s done this before approach of having all of the witches played by the same actress. well, “actress” This version has three witches, two of which are involved in the most horrifying scenes ever to involve a muppet. This (house crushing) and then the melting scene, which... Without getting into it too deeply, let’s just say that as a character, Miss Piggy is arguably something of a… problematic figure. With that in mind, the melting scene… is probably a low for miss piggy. Like first that she’s melting because she’s not bathing in bottled water. Such is her bottomless vanity. And then… bottled water, “got skinny” there’s nothing about this I don’t hate Then it turns into arc of the covenant-level horror show that I think is supposed to be funny. This movie suffers from growing pains. this was right after the Muppets were bought by Disney and way before the Kermissance. Piggy’s wicked witch is a sort of BDSM biker witch… which is a weird thing to steal from the Wiz. “the witch is in the house” “this is my scene” she said… explaining the situation. I miss the Wiz... by the time you get to the witch you’re longing for death so badly you don’t even care how awful she is. Which is good because halfway through the end battle this happens. It can’t get worse than this, can it? Oz the Great and Powerful ….*weeps* I was going to say that the worst thing about you guys choosing the wicked witch for this video was the fact that I had to watch this fucking movie again. But then I had to watch the Muppet version so, that did put it in perspective. Because there’s a lot here I can live with - I can live with the fact that Franco looks high all the time and the bottomlessness to how much he doesn’t care, I can live with the tired-ass shitty faker is deemed the chosen one and lies to everyone narrative (I haaaaate that plot.) I can even live with the fact that the studio took a universe that almost always had female protagonists--even in the other big pop culture adaptation of the day(wicked)--and gave it a male one. But I cannot take the reason why the wicked witch is wicked. It’s just. So. lame. Like, it’s second-hand embarrassing to watch. It’s like a layer cake of lame, you peel back one layer and it’s like, uugh. I don’t know what’s worse, that it’s ultimately that she’s a woman scorned, or the fact that she isn’t really so she has no agency in her wickedness. See it’s not HER fault she’s wicked…. but it kind of is… I dunno it’s confusing. It’s really the anti-Wicked. Where in Wicked she was an anarchic activist for the rights of animals, quite literally a social justice warrior, here she is a woman scorned who… isn’t really, because hey, it isn’t her fault she caught the evil, her sister gave her a thing. Which really she could have done under any pretense, she just so happened to do it under this pretense. So it’s kind of impressive that in a post-wicked world, any storyteller no matter how hacky could come up with backstory THIS weaksauce for the wicked witch. Even with the painfully obvious red herring in the form of rachel weisz. I’m … I think I might be saying that it’s… bad. It’s bad and I don’t like it. Disney having to be mindful of copyright ramifications plays an element here, let’s not kid ourselves, the most prominent of which… witch… which… was the look of the witch herself. Namely the shade of green that could not be infringed upon, or Margaret Hamilton’s iconic black dress. So if you were wondering about the decolatage, that’s sort of why. There are elements to this movie that aren’t the worst thing ever. In fact this movie might have just been boringly passable had it not done the thing, but pretty much every decision surrounding the wicked witch of the west is the worst they could have made. Except Theodora’s pre-green outfit. And her make-up is pretty rad. So if anything is going to make you appreciate wicked, it’s this. Next. TV - Once Upon a Time It’s not the wild west - it’s the wicked west - woooof Okay. It’s not as bad as the last two. Perspective. Perspective. Once again, so much is based on the ‘39 movie, you see the copyright side-stepping with the off-brand Margaret Hamilton. She’s got this weird-ass shade of green that makes her look like she’s sweating constantly, but her dress is pretty awesome so there is that. This show… … this show. I’m not sure how to sum it up concisely. Okay so if you’ve never seen this show this is like Disney’s great big domestic AU fanfic… some of the time. Something something spell something something now we’re in the normal world but sometimes we’re not because sometimes there is a curse -- this tends to change with the villain. It was Regina, the evil queen, who was the spell-caster for a while, but in this arc it’s the wicked witch of the west, but then it turns out it’s not… anyway she’s Regina’s half sister, because she’s always someone’s sister or daughter or something. And you’d be like man, who’s this badass lady that’s their mom, what’s it like… Maleficent or something--no, it’s just some basic bitch named Cora Mills and the wicked witch wants to take over Fantasia, so she is here to chew all of the scenery. But most of the Wizard of Oz isn’t a known Disney thing--why the wicked witch? It’s not til we get to her tragic backstory episode that… we actually get to see oz, the oz logo, the… wizard… himself… and it’s like oh…. oh now I understand why disney wants to integrate oz stuff into its fanfic show. I get it now. Oz the great and vertically integrated I THOUGHT I ESCAPED YOU, thinly veiled James Franco! “I’m a circus huckster, I’m a showman” oh my god, they’re just laying it all out there. So Wicked Elphaba’s green because of date rape drug, Great and Powerful because of… heart-killing drug, why’s she green? Yep. She literally turns green with envy. In oz the great and powerful: he dumped me. Here it’s everyone’s prettier than me I have some translucent powder for that… shine. Do you want to borrow it? She is also motivated by the desire to destroy her half-sister, the “Evil Queen”, who Regina despite being kind of an asshole literally did nothing to her. “What the hell did I ever do to you?” yes. “You were born.” Well okay then. “cora’s other daughter” - apparently. I found this out 30 seconds ago “ding dong” ughh For her evil plan, she need’s regina’s heart, whose brain? someone’s courage. and a baby. Snow White’s baby, because this show. So given when this aired, the year after Oz the Great and Powerful was released, we might be able to read this as something of a brand integration. Subtle, but distinctive. Buhhhht given that there’s been no real news on the OTGAP sequel in two years… they may just be hedging their brand bets. there’s something beautifully ironic for disney wanting to slip in there and wibble their way around all of the copyrights that MGM still holds for the wizard of oz, and yet what company is most responsible for the extension of the length of copyright… hmmm who could it be... --- To examine different incarnations of the wicked witch of the west is to examine our relationship to the iconography of the witch. She is the single most famous “witch” of the last century. The distillation of a trope, and a trope originator. In Oz there are powerful women, these witches both good and bad, that's how Baum wrote them. In fact, I can't think of a male character in Oz that wasn't broken in some way. Women have the power, and this is considered a good thing DEPENDING on how they use it, not that they wield it. As audiences and consumers of media, we’re just not interested in the idea of inherent evil anymore. The idea that a powerful, solitary woman is no longer as strange and perverse and terrifying as it used to be. Now it’s even sympathetic sometimes. Sometimes. I think maybe Disney should… keep its mitts off this franchise. There’s this episode of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood that featured Margaret Hamilton and she talks a bit about being the witch, and how children shouldn’t be scared, she was just playing make believe, and it’s the cutest thing, but there’s this one bit that sticks out - “I think she’s angry because things don’t go her way”. See, Maggie gets it. Even the wickedest of witches has their motivation. -----