I think Victor Fleming deliberately and quite subtly sets the tone of The Wizard of Oz early on in a way that is indicative of his overall successful rendering of the epic fantasy journey of Dorothy and her companions. The very first establishment shot in The Wizard of Oz is brilliant in its framing of a very particular kind of epic, one which, as a fantasy, is quite intentionally disorienting. Fleming effectively plays with cinematography at the very beginning of the film to set the scene (in sepia) for us to empathize with Dorothy’s whirlwind, confusing transition to (colorful) Oz.
Dorothy, running up from the bottom of the frame, breaks the fourth wall within the first couple of seconds, leaving us guessing at the antagonist (Miss Gulch, who we don’t meet until after the first musical number) and giving the strange impression that she is running from us, the audience. I think this is a pretty avant-garde method of setting up an epic journey. The shot of the Kansas landscape—home—and the road leading to it are classic in such an epic film, but the fact that a power struggle is immediately introduced in this way is original, and that we the viewers are subtly implicated in the struggle is clever, too. We are also introduced to the importance of the character of Toto, as the first dialogue of the film is one involving him. It is Toto, ultimately, who scampers over to the curtain to reveal the thematic punch to the gut, shattering the illusion of an all-powerful, healing, magic man. This scene also sets up the Yellow Brick Road as a fantastic extrapolation of the dirt road on which Dorothy runs home at the very beginning of the story. The role of the editor, the artist, and audience is thematically fundamental to the Wizard of Oz. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” has become its tagline. And it is this scene which is the strong aesthetic foundation for this theme, especially as Dorothy turns to acknowledge us, the audience, who is in its own way “behind the curtain.”