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The Wizard of Oz Most 'Influential' Film of all Time According to Network Science:
The Wizard of Oz, followed by Star Wars and Psycho, is identified as the most influential film of all time in a study published in the open access journal Applied Network Science.
Researchers at the University of Turin, Italy, calculated an influence score for 47,000 films listed in IMDb (the internet movie database). The score was based on how much each film had been referenced by subsequent films. The authors found that the top 20 most influential films were all produced before 1980 and mostly in the United States.
Dr. Livio Bioglio, the lead author, said: "We propose an alternative method to box office takings—which are affected by factors beyond the quality of the film such as advertising and distribution—and reviews—which are ultimately subjective—for analysing the success of a film. We have developed an algorithm that uses references between movies as a measure for success, and which can also be used to evaluate the career of directors, actors and actresses, by considering their participation in top-scoring movies."
Applying the algorithm to directors, the five men credited for The Wizard of Oz are all in the top eight, with Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick ranked third, fifth and sixth respectively. When the authors used another approach to remove the bias of older movies—which, because they were produced earlier, can potentially influence a greater number of subsequent films—Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma occupied the top spots instead.
When applied to actors, the algorithm ranked Samuel L. Jackson, Clint Eastwood and Tom Cruise as the top three. The authors noticed a strong gender bias towards male actors; the only female in the top ten was Lois Maxwell, who played the recurring role of Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise.
[...] The authors suggest that their method could be used for research in the arts and by film historians. However, they caution that the results can only be applied to Western cinema as the data on IMDb are strongly biased towards films produced in Western countries.
Explore further: Automated method beats critics in picking great movies
More information: Livio Bioglio et al, "Identification of key films and personalities in the history of cinema from a Western perspective", Applied Network Science (2018). DOI: 10.1007/s41109-018-0105-0
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday December 02 2018, @04:37AM (7 children)
Wizard of Oz was shown once a year, on Sunday night. Dad was a religious fanatic, we went to church Sunday morning and night, and Wednesday night. I really wanted to see the movie, but had to go to church. I got to be about 10 and started asking questions. Got answers like "Well, ya gotta believe". I didn't believe, hence the questions.
Long story short, Wizard of Oz showing up on TV 1 night a year was a big step in my becoming an atheist.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday December 02 2018, @06:22AM (2 children)
It was shown once a year in the 70s too. I remember it well. My parents weren't religious fanatics so I got to see it. Things like that kept Oz alive in our consciousness. It even got to "go viral" with that Pink Floyd mashup. Oz references worked their way into the popular culture. Frank Baum set out to create an American fairy tale, and he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. I can't really dispute the algorithm on this one.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 03 2018, @02:50AM (1 child)
Frank Baum did not write the move version you know and love.
I highly recommend watching the more true-to-the-book version produced a few years earlier than the color version. It's a black and white, silent movie called The Wizard of Oz. Not only is the story completely different, but it shows what an absolutely amazing transition the movie industry took in less than a decade. Look at the silent, B&W 'Wiz movie as the before, and the technicolor version as the after, and no friggin wonder it was such a mega hit. (Besides being an absolutely flawless example of the Hero's Journey long before anyone even knew it as the 'Hero's Journey'.)
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Tuesday December 04 2018, @05:46PM
Movies are almost never faithful to the book. That's a given. The most noted difference is the movie's ruby slippers. In the book they're silver. This feeds into the notion that the story was inspired by the politics of the time in which it was written. I believe this was something that Baum denied, but I'm too lazy to look it up. IIRC, the main reason for changing the color of the slippers was to show off Technicolor. It's hard to argue with the results. I have no problem with the power of screenwriters taking license, even though it doesn't always work out so well.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday December 02 2018, @08:06AM (1 child)
- to church. I was five years old, it wasn't a Sunday School Class, but it was a church group for five year olds.
But Mom and Dad both told me I absolutely _had_ to stay home. I was bitterly disappointed but did not protest.
Then Dad turned on the TV as Mom called Jeannie into the living room. I have to miss church to watch TV? I was incredulous.
While my family had a Black and White TV, because Dad was an Electrical Engineer, he kept our TV in mint condition. From time to time he'd bring a small suitcase home from work, but inside there was no space for clothes. "It's a tube tester," Dad would say, but I did understand. Dad always cautioned me to stay well away from our television when he was testing its tubes.
Even so, the poor images on the screen were far, far worse than for example the news from Vietnam, or Jeannie's and my Saturday Morning Cartoons.
The screen was all grey, I didn't understand the images I was seeing.
Then I heard a calm voice saying some numbers, slowly and steadily counting down. From time to time there was a loud beep. I didn't understand that beep either.
But I understood full well when those mysteries grey images stopped shifting, and that calm voice stopped counting. He paused for a little bit, then just as calmly said:
"Tranquility Base Here. The Eagle has landed."
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @12:39PM
I can remember the (just) 5 year old me watching on our old B&W telly, my father might have been a communist and no great supporter of the US, but when it came to those things they did which advanced Humanity he was behind them.
The first time I listened to this song on an album I found on a quasi-random trawl of the interwibblez those memories came flooding back (with some tears as well for times and people now gone, I'm not ashamed to say)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWx8V4I8sis [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @11:00AM
What divine wisdom [theosophical.org] have you subsequently found?
Is there good reason [wikipedia.org] for the continued popularity?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by deadstick on Sunday December 02 2018, @01:38PM
I was a kid long before that, and I was an early reader. My mom, Dr. Seuss and L. Frank Baum, in that order, taught me to read, and by the time The Wizard came to town, I'd read my way through five or six books of the Oz canon. Needless to say, I was really hot to see it.
It was a disaster. A few minutes in, I found that MGM had turned my favorite gripping adventure story into a frothy, brainless musical. And the worst was yet to come: at the end, they tacked on a silly-ass "It was only a dream" ending.
So that's where I learned what Hollywood does to literature.