MovieChat Forums > Burn After Reading (2008) Discussion > Based on Wizard of Oz Characters?

Based on Wizard of Oz Characters?

posted 9 years ago by meekins-brian
10 replies | jump to latest

The characters, and to some extent the plot, seemed to be based on the Wizard of Oz (rather sarcastically, though).

Oz (Osborne) - Malcovich - the great and powerful, really just super-arrogant
Pitt - Scarecrow (no brain)
Harry - Clooney - Tin Man (no heart) - relationships about sex only (e.g. dildo chair)
Ted - Jenkins - Cowardly lion (most of the film he is a coward)
Linda - McDormand - Dorothy

Replace ruby slippers with the CD of Memoirs
Replace Dorothy's quest of returning to Kansas (something she had the power to do the whole time) with Linda's cosmetic surgery [returning to youth]/self-esteem, something that should also come from the inside.
Wicked witches are the wives.
Good witches are the clueless CIA (Simmons [love that guy] and Rasche)

In the end they grant Linda her wish (also Harry, kind of). Too bad about the rest!

Maybe I'm stretching to pull it together. Great movie, though.

[–] DaveBowman2001 9 years ago

Interesting. You might be onto something..at least in a rough sketch sorta way. What about Toto? :-) Now if it syncs with Dark Side of the Moon...definitely.

[–] meekins-brian 9 years ago

Hilarious. Now I'll have to try to synch Burn after reading with Dark Side - maybe it's off by just a couple songs...

[–] gleamy-jog 9 years ago

I like this! Maybe more the OZ books than the movie. Book was introduced at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago - Palmer deBakey Smith

Linda wears blue/white when she meets men just like Dorothy wears in the movie

Linda-Glinda

mechanical inventions like Harry's contraption (well, not like that, but mechanical)

In political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Washington, D.C. is the Emerald City.

Harry's wife writes children's books.

I'd have to give it some more thought, but I'll bet there are a lot more allusions.

Are they slow? Yeah, they're dead.  They're all messed up. 

[–] Robbmonster 9 years ago

I'm about to watch the film. I'll keep your theory in mind :-)

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[–] Robbmonster 9 years ago

Yeah, I think you hit on a pretty good point.

The similarities are there in a fundamental kind of way.

Well spotted!

Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
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[–] jadegreengirl 9 years ago

I think this is a spot on interpretation, and really quite brilliant! The movie is showing now on HBO, I haven't seen it in years, but you are so right.

People missed out on this movie, all of the actors bring their A game with performances so subtly ridiculous that they deliver laughs throughout.

[–] Jakezen 8 years ago

interesting, thought provoking but the wicked witch of the west wanted the ruby slippers as a main element in the Wizard of Oz story so not sure how that ties in with your theory. Coen Brothers used the Iliad as a basis for O Brother so it would not be out of the realm of possibility for them.

[–] sussman8454473 8 years ago

Pitt - Scarecrow (no brain)

His character's name Feldheimer = someone at home on the field.

[–] ficoce 7 years ago

Brilliant! Makes total sense. I wonder if this was a detail inserted into the story, or a writing tool used to aid story development itself? Say you were writing a screenplay with multiple characters from scratch. Do you spend a lot of time developing each unique character down to the smallest detail and refer back to notes every time that character responds to a situation? This would be difficult to do with multiple writers working on the same project. The Coen's work as a team and without a well known character foundation it seems like time would be wasted. However, if they just used characters from another well known story they could write independently from each other and it would fit pretty well when they combined ideas, especially when working on multiple projects at once. Like saying - hey, lets use the characters for OZ and insert them into the plot of a totally different movie, and change the genre at the same time. Then instead of spending time tying the story together and figuring out how some unique character would react, they could think about dialog between characters - making a better product.

There's something about the house on Olive street in Georgetown. All the characters that died, died there. It seems to be a focal point used in the plot.