The Colour of Miracles

A Comparative Analysis of Stalker and The Wizard of Oz

Abstract

The similarities between Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) are, as of now, under-discussed. Both films use colour as a method of communicating the difference between the ordinary world and another, more fantastical world, and both films use this contrast to make an argument about the nature of fantasy and reality; the known and the unknowable. Due to the similarities in theme and execution between both films – and, more importantly, the differences in their operation -- I argue here that Stalker takes The Wizard of Oz as a thematic and ideological base which it subverts to make a counterargument. Using comparative shot-by-shot charts, I analyze specific moments in both films and compare their uses of framing, mise-en-scène, sound, and duration as a basis for my analysis of their uses of colour. I use colour in both films as a grounding point for my argument that The Wizard of Oz positions fantasy as unsustainable and ultimately undesirable while Stalker makes a claim for the dreamlike as a force that permeates the presumably logical world.