The Schizophrenic, Obsessive-Compulsive Side of the Rainbow

Alphabetically-edited film version.

In the latest evidence that people have way too much time on their hands these days, someone has painstakingly produced a newly-edited version of the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. But this is not some George Lucas-style CGI-refurbishing, a Ted Turner-style colorization, or a Gus Van Zant-style shot-for-shot remake.

It is, instead, an alphabetical-chronological resequencing of every word uttered in The Wizard of Oz. This intrepid editor has recut every moment of the movie, from the opening credits to the final frame, so that each individual word appears in alphabetical order. Words that appear multiple times in the movie (such as "a," "an," and "the") are recut chronologically. Long instances of repetitive chronological reordering of common words give this version of The Wizard of Oz its only semblance of order amid the schizophrenic chaos throughout. Take a look yourself, if you dare (I could only get through seven minutes):



Though interesting, this is hardly my favorite edit of The Wizard of Oz. That honor goes to The Dark Side of the Rainbow, which strips all of the sound from the movie and replaces it with Pink Floyd's 1973 opus, The Dark Side of the Moon (one of my favorite albums). Popular rumor and urban legend claim that Pink Floyd intentionally designed the album to "sync" with The Wizard of Oz. The band, of course, denies this (drummer Nick Mason once told MTV: "It's absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with The Wizard of Oz. It was all based on The Sound of Music"), but of course they would deny it. You could once have watched the whole thing and judged for yourself, but copyright violation removals have since made that impossible.

Fortunately, since I once watched the whole thing, you can take my word for it and just watch by far the best (and most convincing) parts of the sync. They come near the beginning of the film (and early in the album's first loop through). While Dorothy is still in Kansas, she heads home as a tornado begins in earnest. As she makes her way home, the song "The Great Gig in the Sky" quietly begins; as the storm picks up, the powerful voice of a female vocalist begins to wail, and continues to do so as the tornado spins Dorothy's house in the air. The song calms down and ends just as Dorothy lands in Oz. And right when she opens her front door, as the movie shifts from sepia to technicolor, the ridiculously appropriate next song of the album comes on: "Money." As Dorothy meets the munchkins and they start dancing, their dancing at times perfectly matches the time signature of "Money." But enough of my describing it. Watch for yourself. This whole sync highlight reel is worth watching, but the scenes I describe appear from 1:25 to 3:51.


Finally, while I'm talking about Pink Floyd music-film syncs, I should mention my favorite one: the rumored "Echoes"/2001: A Space Odyssey sync. Again, the band denies it. But even if there were no conscious attempt to sync the two, they work incredibly well together. "Echoes" is Pink Floyd's 23-minute opus (my favorite song of theirs) that takes up the entirety of the second side of their album Meddle. As is typical with Pink Floyd, the song's lyrics are difficult to interpret. As best as I can discern, however, the song describes the spiritual transcendence of its subject as he or she ascends to another plane of existence. That happens to be the exactly what happens to the main character in "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," the final segment of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The segment is also virtually the same length as "Echoes." Anyway, enough of my explaining: The effect has to be experienced to be understood:


Echoes - Pink Floyd 2001 Space Odyssey from Jordi Bou on Vimeo.

Whatever you think of all these edits and mash-ups, one thing is certain: We humans are a creative bunch...and some of us (me included?) may have too much time on our hands.