EDITOR’S NOTE: This story comprises spoilers for the new film “Wicked: For Good.”
For anybody who loves “Wicked,” it’s simple to get swept up in the magic, the music and the sisterhood between the central pair of star-crossed friends at the coronary heart of the story.
But it was additionally arduous to disregard the first film’s political underpinnings, which shine even brighter in the comply with up “Wicked: For Good,” in theaters now.
In the first half of the cinematic adaptation by director Jon M. Chu, which was nominated for greatest image eventually year’s Oscars, themes of racial rigidity had been the backdrop to the story – which imagines an origin for the Wicked Witch of the West made well-known in the 1939 traditional movie “The Wizard of Oz,” and explores her relationship with Glinda the Good. Woven into the premise are questions on how we embrace (or reject) these we really feel are Other, as we see Glinda (Ariana Grande) at first denigrate green-skinned Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), earlier than warming as much as her.
Their fragile bond is examined, nonetheless, after they come to find that the feared and revered Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) is, in actual fact, a grand manipulator who intends to make use of Elphaba to realize his purpose of silencing the enchanted animals of Oz, who’re seen having their rights more and more stripped away and shedding their skill to talk. The Wizard works with Elphaba’s trainer Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) to plot propaganda all through Oz about Elphaba, thereby bestowing on her the id of a “wicked witch.”
The concluding chapter raises the stakes and leans arduous into one other scorchingly scorching political matter: immigration.
In one scene, Boq (Ethan Slater) from Munchkinland goes to the practice station to satisfy his need to journey to the Emerald City and profess his like to Glinda. However, when he will get to the station, he is horrified to see that animals and Munchkins have been restricted from touring and want a allow to take action. The coverage was orchestrated by the newly appointed Governor of Munchkinland, Nessarose Thropp (Marissa Bode), who pines for Boq.
The scene depicts dramatic, harrowing moments by which the enchanted animals are blocked from having the ability to transfer about freely. Later in the movie, some animals are seen hidden in a basement inside the Wizard’s palace in Emerald City, locked away in cages.
The scenes bear eerie resemblance to acquainted photos seen and tales heard from these affected by the Trump administration’s unprecedented crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Cities and areas throughout the nation – from Charlotte, North Carolina to Chicago – have been left on edge as immigration raids have taken place there. In Charlotte, companies closed in the wake of federal brokers descending upon the space and greater than 200 people have been arrested since what the Department of Homeland Security known as “Operation Charlotte’s Web” began final weekend.
The Trump’s administration continues to say its enforcement is concentrating on criminals and gang members. In June, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin advised NCS that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targets “the worst of the worst,” including that “in President (Donald) Trump’s first 100 days, 75% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges.”
McLaughlin didn’t reply to a request at the time to make clear the nature of these convictions or pending fees.
Countless cases contradict the administration’s claims. Internal authorities paperwork obtained by NCS this summer season confirmed that solely 10% of migrants booked into ICE custody since October 2024 had been convicted of critical violent or sexual crimes.
In the world of Oz, the Wizard additionally highlights teams that he phrases as unsafe, at one level saying, “The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.”
That enemy is the animals, a notion that Elphaba wholeheartedly rejects. And in “Wicked: For Good,” we see her actively intervening in opposition to the Wizard’s actions, disrupting development on the Yellow Brick Road and trying to unfold the phrase that he is mendacity to the folks of Oz and inflicting the animals to flee in worry, which we see them try to do through an underground tunnel beneath the Yellow Brick Road.
“Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel on which the films and Tony-winning Broadway musical are primarily based, is, of course, a darkish textual content itself.
Philip Lightstone, who served as a swing and dance captain over two runs of the official “Wicked” nationwide touring manufacturing in the US, stated he thinks the films have benefitted from having more room to indicate varied sides of Ozian society which are described in the novel, parts that the long-running musical was by no means capable of delve into.
In “Wicked: For Good,” the notion that political energy quantities to who has the energy to disseminate data – even when the fact behind stated data is questionable – involves a head.
“The backdrop really is this political, propaganda, whose truth is real, kind of thing,” Lightstone stated. “Whoever’s in control gets to say what the quote-unquote truth is, what’s real.”
The weightier scenes in “For Good” will probably in equal measure hit house and stir some backlash, simply as the first movie did.
But those that take concern with the movie for getting political, frankly, have enormously missed the level of the work in all its kinds.
Lightstone recalled that the tour’s directorial crew led by Joe Mantello and choreographers led by Wayne Cilento would usually use political occasions to assist the firm connect with what was occurring on stage.
“They were always talking about connecting whatever was happening politically – even if there was something super specific, travel bans or this or that – to be able to have the cast connect with that,” stated Lightstone, who toured with the present from 2006-2013 and once more from 2016-2020. “People have to be able to relate to something that they understand politically for the show to work.”
The similar goes for the films.
Another scene on this weekend’s “For Good” exhibits Elphaba standing over the gap in the Yellow Brick Road resulting in the underground tunnel. It received’t be misplaced on many who Erivo additionally portrayed slave liberator and Underground Railroad determine Harriet Tubman in the 2019 Oscar-nominated movie “Harriet.”
NCS has reached out to “Wicked: For Good” director Chu, together with writers Winnie Holzman, Stephen Schwartz and Maguire for remark.
Releasing simply in time for award season to kick into excessive gear, “Wicked: For Good” is in stable politically-charged-film firm this year.
“One Battle After Another,” directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and already at the forefront of the Oscar conversation, follows a down-and-out former revolutionary whose daughter turns into a pawn in a battle with a demented and racist previous foe who is related to a nefarious underground community. Other buzzy entries which have additionally hit on political themes this year embody Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” a treatise on the pandemic and much more, and Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” which angered the Pentagon because of its commentary on the US’s nuclear capabilities and dealing with of its weapons.
Escapism will all the time come into play for vacation moviegoing, however the prospect of a film – even one set in the magical land of Oz – inspiring dialog about critical, real-world issues affecting tons of households this season could be a change for, effectively, good.