Tin Man - 2007

I've only seen the first two-thirds of this, so this is in a sense an incomplete review--but what fun this is! Over the years, I've found myself growing less and less fond of the 1939 "Wizard of Oz". Perhaps it was the "20/20" interview with Yip Harburg a number of years ago in which he presented himself as the greatest thing in the history of music and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as the greatest song every written. Perhaps it's the relentlessly perky, folksy tone. Perhaps it just that I'm sick to death of Judy Garland--great voice, a complete wreck as a human being, same damned performance in every film she ever made. (Yeah, I know that someone will try to pull my gay card for that remark.) In any case--an O.Z. with a steampunk castle for the wicked sorceress, who by the way dresses like a dominatrix and has her winged monkey equivalents tattooed on her bust? A consistently dark tone, more Brothers Grimm than Louis B. Mayer? As other have noted, lots of clever parallels to other films as well as the original? I can't claim greatness for "Tin Man", but taken on its own terms it's a heck of a lot of knowing fun--without a single note of "Somewhere over the Rainbow"...

• Part 1

• Part 2

• Part 3