Twister = Oz's Power - I respect both movies, now!

by Geoffrey Grant
(Munster, Indiana, USA)




This movie captured the danger of a twister of any size. I was at a Jellystone campground on a sunny day and witnessed a waterspout-like dust devil strip the surrounding shore of their retention pond of its beach chairs, coolers, umbrellas, blankets, towels and plastic floatation devices in less than 2 minutes. Like the farm equipment floating through the air, it was quite surreal and dream-like, the experience within 200' of the event. I saw it form and told my family to move away from the water body just in time.

Weather in Films


I enjoyed this movie, as it is slow to develop into a fast moving affair and gave me the respect that we all should have for weather events involving wind. Not all storms develop into twisters, but then again, twisters are not all identified before they occur - a great mystery to all weather buffs and farmers. The Wizard of Oz touches on the mystery of wind power and pushed fear into me as a boy.

From Barry - Thanks Grant. Interesting thought...Here's a way to highlight the shared theme of wind's raw, almost magical (and dangerous) power in Twister along with The Wizard of Oz. I start with

A comparison,

analyzing specific scenes, messages, or emotional impacts from both movies:

- Tornadoes are portrayed realistically and scientifically in some aspect at least, but certainly emotionally.
- The mystical, dreamlike tornado that transports Dorothy was more mystical, but still terrifying. We saw something magical and terrifying about the house spinning in the sky. A few years later, Twister stripped away the fantasy, showing tornadoes for what they are. The wind's uncontrollable force left us in awe.

Both movies played with our understanding of wind events. If I were to do so, spending a day at Jellystone campground could be like living out scenes from both movies. While the dust devil you mention wasn't a full-blown tornado, watching chairs and umbrellas dance through the air must've been something like walking through Oz, while its sheer speed and power echoed Twister. Whether on screen or in real life, wind can humble anyone.

In general, this Movie comparison (themes, feelings, specific scenes) gives us a chance to reflect on both films and nature, fear, and respect.



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Here's a strange twist
by: Barry

🌪️Yeah, there's a bit of power there. Thanks for posting this.
🌈Two epic tales of wind gone wild: Twister and The Wizard of Oz! Even a tiny twister can turn a day at the beach into a chair-flying adventure in Twister. What a surprise picnic spoiler! We also learn to respect the power of the wind, no matter how small the storm is.
📽️Then there's the classic tornado story, The Wizard of Oz. As kids, it made us all fear the mighty twister. Are Dorothy and Toto going to Oz? It's every meteorologist's worst nightmare! Wind can be thrilling and terrifying, a mystery that keeps weather buffs and farmers on their toes. You can't deny the wind's got some serious tricks up its sleeve, whether it's chasing twisters or following the yellow brick road!

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Thank you to my research and writing assistants, ChatGPT and WordTune, as well as Wombo and others for the images.

GPT-4, OpenAI's large-scale language generation model (and others provided by Google and Meta), helped generate this text.  As soon as draft language is generated, the author reviews, edits, and revises it to their own liking and is responsible for the content.