How "Wicked" Failed To Explain Wickedness
A Catholic perspective on the 2024 film and the nature of wickedness
I watched the 2024 movie “Wicked” with the expectation that it may explain something about the roots of wickedness. Being familiar with the original story of Oz, I thought it might somehow explain how the Wicked Witch of the West somehow became wicked.
After all, that’s what Gregory Maguire, the author of the book “Wicked” from which the musical came from seemed to have in mind. It is said that when he wrote the book, he was contemplating about the nature of evil.
Here are some spoilers though. The film has utterly failed to do so. There was no clear explanation about where wickedness ever came from. There's just a set of characters named like the original ones but are in fact very different, if not the complete opposite of the ones written by L. Frank Baum.
In this movie, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West was not wicked at all while Glinda the Good could hardly pass for someone truly good. Hence, to those who haven't read nor watched the original Oz works, the hero is actually the Wicked Witch and Glinda is nothing more than a popular and pretentious character.
Some people say that this movie is different from the original because it explores our mixed inclinations towards good and evil. But I have yet to see where that is in the movie.
Madame Morrible's horrible character wasn't explained a bit. The Wizard's tyranny and cruelty to animals had no profound background. Glinda's conceited and pretentious character wasn't given any deep cause. (Out of all the characters, Glinda could have been the one to show repentance and a true change of heart, but the spotlight wasn’t really on her.)
The spotlight was on the prejudiced Elphaba who wasn't wicked at all! She cared for the animals. She loved her sister. And she was kind to Glinda who treated her poorly.
Hence, there was no arc for anyone falling into the depths of evil or being redeemed from evil. Only Glinda had a slight change of heart, yet even that had a shallow treatment.
As a result, this story's revision of the original one merely assigned new characters who were good or evil, the same criticism often given to the old books of Oz deemed only for children.
It would have been good had there actually been a backstory connected to the original one. A story that tells us what motivated Elphaba to do all her evil deeds to Dorothy and her friends in the first Oz books series:
-sent wolves to tear them to pieces
-sent crows to peck their eyes
-sent bees to sting them
-captured Dorothy and enslaved her
These wicked deeds are no laughing matter. They’re not deeds we can easily forgive and forget. If we had been intended to be harmed that way, it would take a long process and a lot of effort and prayers to do so. But we all start by trying to answer this question: Why?
Why must someone do that? And how did she ever get to such a level of wickedness?
That would have been a very interesting story to know. After that, succeeding authors can further explore whether she has repented in the last moments of her life. What would have brought her to repentance? What would it take to realize your mistakes and perhaps maybe try to atone for them?
It would have been a great Christian story about a sincere contrition of the heart, telling us yet a deeper story, giving us hope that no matter how far we may have gone astray, it is never too late for us to choose what is right.
Instead of stories like the above, however, what Wicked came up with is a story that totally absolves Elphaba from her wrongdoings and makes other characters like Glinda look bad.
As an author myself, I can't imagine any of my stories being turned upside down, my characters totally deprived of the personality, motivations and backgrounds that made them alive and gave them purpose in my stories.
Now whenever people hear about Glinda, they will have this stereotypical image of a shallow girl who is concerned only with her ambitions. On the other hand, that which was wicked before has now been turned into a victim of prejudice and a hero for those fighting for the underdog.
Don’t get me wrong. Those aren’t ingredients for an awful story. In fact, a story about an outcast fighting for what she believes is right is indeed a beautiful story! But how I wish that they just made an entirely new one with that plot instead of adapting from L. Frank Baum’s classic book on Oz.
Can it not be done? Can this type of story not stand on its own?
Some may say, but wait, this is only part one.
Yes, it is. But from the way things are going and based on how it has substantially followed the theatre version of the musical, there isn't much that's going to change.
Elphaba wouldn’t seem to need any true contrition because she did not do anything profoundly evil. Any bad thing that may have resulted from her actions wouldn’t have been intentional, and some were only accidental. Even capturing Dorothy can be taken with sympathy and understanding because it would have been for something she felt she had to do for a greater good.
What happens now is that this story can’t help but have an effect on the old one, erasing the old, and giving it a totally different meaning.
Here is where confusion begins. Here, our perception of good and evil is being touched.
If we try to merge both versions of the story, we can easily fall to the wrong conclusions.
Now, whenever someone does anything bad, even something as evil as trying to send crows to peck out your eyes, any person can claim that you can just be mistaken.
That person who sent you those crows is not evil. That person is just misunderstood. Or they have just been victimized. Maybe there was just an accident that made it look that way. Maybe she was just forced to do it.
Meanwhile, those people who look good and are trying to help you change for the better may be seen as the bad ones, the hypocrites who have an ulterior motive.
It is not wrong to see the wider picture and to investigate things before you conclude. But what this creates is a new instinct. An instinct to see bad where there is good, and an instinct to see good in what is bad.
It makes you doubt your own common sense. To a certain extent, isn’t this similar to what gaslighting does? To make you doubt your own logical way of seeing things?
This reinforces the image of the bad guy who is cool and the image of the religious person as a hypocrite. It makes us ashamed for trying to be good people for fear that we’d be categorized as the pretentious and conceited ones.
“O, but if you’re the prejudiced one, can’t you not identify with Elphaba?”
I reply, “Which Elphaba? Not the first one. Perhaps the newly created one?”
What is certain, however, is that Christians like me can easily be categorized by the world now as the Glindas, the pretentious and law-abiding ones. Meanwhile, those who veer away from the Church’s teachings will see themselves as the merged version of Elphaba, the persecuted one. The new one who is fighting for what she thinks is right. And the old one, too, who may have just been misunderstood, because her backstory wasn’t properly written in the first books of Oz.
Even the lyrics of this musical’s most famous song are very enticing and easy to catch. (I used to listen to it again and again because I loved it!) It was only later on that I realized how this song caters to our rebellious spirit, our tendency to not abide by anyone’s rules, to defy even the gravity that holds the world together (without which, we’d lose even the very air we breathe).
There are so many good things in this movie including its captivating music and emotionally touching scenes (I almost cried watching them and this is the truth). But that is the same reason why it’s also so dangerous if no caution is taken.
How I wish they simply went with an arc of a fall and subsequent redemption. But how can there be any true repentance when there is no real sin to be guilty about?
To repent with a contrite heart, you first have to claim responsibility for your sins and admit that you intended and did something wrong. Otherwise, why do you even need to be forgiven?
St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church and the author of Confessions admitted his life of sin before he came to know Christ. He did not excuse or justify his actions. In fact, here is a quote from the saint that could enlighten us about the nature of wickedness:
“I became evil for no reason. I had no motive for my wickedness except wickedness itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved the self-destruction, I loved my fall, not the object for which I had fallen but my fall itself. My depraved soul leaped down from your firmament to ruin. I was seeking not to gain anything by shameful means, but shame for its own sake.”
If there is anything that this movie can teach us about wickedness, it’s that wickedness oftentimes starts small. It starts out as something that may be negligible and far from our notice to even detect. Then it gains more and more ground until it totally consumes you.
It is quite similar to the journey of this story about Oz. While it started as a series of books penned by L. Frank Baum, it has since undergone a long evolution.
This movie is already the fruit of what has started long before. It started with a revisionist novel and then a theatre musical.
Now what we have is a film that is the complete opposite of what has been originally written.
Isn’t this how light is darkened? It starts with some sort of doubt. It starts with questions like: “What if such and such are not really good? What if what looks like evil is something that is really good?”
When enough of that darkness is mingled with the light, it gains more ground until it eventually covers the light.
Much later on, the audacity of darkness comes to such an extent as to call itself light!
And that’s the real problem in our world. Ours is a world where people can’t see anymore the true difference between light and darkness, between good and evil.
People fight for evil as though they are fighting for something good. Meanwhile, they hate even those who want to bring them to the light.
In a world that has grown so dim, may Christ have mercy upon us and give us His Light!
“Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” - Isaiah 5:20 (DRA)
When There Is No Happy Ending
There used to be a happy ending
There used to be forevermore
There used to be a twist defeating what is evil
When the love of the hero conquers all.
But now everything is in shades of grey,
And the story ends as we all walk away.
Now the villain laughs, and the darkness wins
And no knight comes to save the day.
There used to be a wizard,
And there used to be a witch
There used to be a fairy
And we could tell which is which.
But now the bad guy is the hero,
And the prince is a monster in disguise,
Now we’re afraid to face the prophets,
Because of all the darkness that they hide.
We should be happy now,
We should be satisfied,
When everything has fallen,
Like the world we feel inside.
But I guess there is no ending
That can satisfy our hearts,
When what's broken can't be mended,
And what's dark can't be put to light.
We need to face the shadows,
And we need not fear the night,
We can still defeat the monsters,
If we fight with all our might!