Wicked

Wicked is one of the most boldly political movies relevant to our current climate that I’ve seen. I haven’t read the book, but given what I’ve heard about it and what I know about the Wizard of Oz lore, I don’t think the movie took leaps and bounds away from its source material. It bravely drives home hard to tackle themes like ostracization, political awareness, mass apathy, belief in long -held power structures contributing to a feeling of helplessness, racism, and silence. Both voluntary and forced.

The way I personally identify with this movie is held mostly within the political outcry. As a weirdo outside the pulse societally I have certainly felt ostracized, have had moments like the dance scene where I felt obvious and large and Looked At, but politically watching Elphaba be put in her “place” time and time again and believe she must be wrong because she’s the only one who outwardly thinks the way she does, well, that hits me right about center. Not ignoring the underlying racism that fueled her early awareness of being Other (this is not my belief but a reflection of the movies tone), we took different routes to reach a similar conclusion. Unless you’re in with them, there’s no one coming to help. Often even if you are in with them, if they view you as “too extreme“, there is no one coming to help.

I cried during the dance, of course I did, and I felt righteous anger when they dragged away Doctor Dillamond. I felt the revolutionary change in Elphaba as she stood in a room full of people who would do nothing, and chose to be the person that does something. Still believing in the larger authority at play, she takes action regardless, finally aware that the adults in the room might be wrong. This one small act is a chain in a string of events that leads to, well, that’ll be another post when the second movie comes out in November of this year.

Someone said at our discussion of the movie afterwards that none of us are main characters. That Elphaba and Glinda are too large to aspire to, and the best we can aim for is the crowd. I wish I’d pushed back at the time, I didn’t have the words, but after sitting with it I can confidently say that’s not true.

Elphaba and Glinda are warnings. What it means to stand alone and what it means to hang on to a failing system. Glinda herself is the crowd, the slightly more aware head of the people who believe the propaganda put forth by the state because it’s the comfortable route. Elphaba is the revolutionary that centrists love to caution us against, the lone wolf loping into the night seeking huge reform with big ideas that aren’t necessarily bad, just big. I think whatever you take from the two of them, who are stronger together, is okay. There’s something to be said about reform in this country following mass mobilization of peaceful protest alongside militant organizing. The civil rights protests led by Dr. King made much of their progress alongside Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. The two go hand in hand, which I personally feel is a lesson the movie is trying to teach. I don’t know if that’s what the author or the director were aiming for.

This movie was something I wanted to share with my friends. It evoked emotion and action in me in ways that were simmering before and finally boiled over. I made everyone brunch and sat them in my living room, and the conversation after is what sparked an idea. Why not keep watching political (but entertaining) movies and talk about them? Is that not radical action? Is that not something we can do? I didn’t do discussion questions for this one, but I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences in the comments.

Keep an eye out for the next one, JoJo Rabbit, which will have discussion questions!

Thanks for reading

AF