Wicked For Good By: Kaylani Clark

Goodness knows the wicked movie will come out in less than a few days. After the huge success of Wicked Part One, bringing in over 758 million dollars, the movie was nominated for musical of the year. Not only has the movie racked up a ton of money, but it has brought a community together. Now that Wicked Part Two is only days away from coming out, the community can band together once more. The movie has shaped the way society sees what is good and what is wicked. Challenging the views of how our society portrays our good and bad guys. In a time where people who are seen as different are basically shunned, the movie really highlights how not only people of color but also people with different morals are treated in society. The movie overall is astounding and one that brings our society together.  

We all know the original Wizard of Oz, where Glinda is good and obviously, the Wicked Witch of the West is wicked and evil. However, Wicked shows how the witch, Elphaba, was thrust into her wicked title. The movie also explores Oz as a society and how there is the destruction of animals, Discrimination, and how they all cover this up with a wizard who is all good. Oz soon uses Glinda as a distraction for what is really going on in their society. Hillgrove Junior Sydney Greer says, “Elphaba was labeled as wicked and Glinda's good, but it's like, y'all both did some, like, good and bad things. She's not completely wicked just because she first didn't mean to turn the monkeys into flying monkeys. And then for Glinda, I'm like, you're over here doing all this, like, crooked stuff, going behind her back, and you're not good.” All because Elphaba made a mistake that was turned into a way to paint her as the bad guy. Meanwhile, Glinda and the Wizard, who could do bad things, were painted as good. Which we can see in our own society today, how certain people who do bad things can be painted as the good guy, and people who speak out are painted as the bad guy. Hillgrove junior Liliana Clark says, “If you speak out or when not spoken to, it's seen as, like, kind of a taboo, especially as a woman and a woman of color, you know, so it's kind of like a big deal when someone does that because, like I said, it's considered taboo. And people tend to despise people like that because they don't do that.”  Since Elphaba was green and didn't have an “acceptable skin color” like the rest of the people in Oz, it was very easy for the wizard to paint her wicked because she was different.  

The movie also explores friendship and women's representation. Glinda and Elphaba were not friends in the beginning, and many would say it was out of jealousy. Glinda wanted the partnership with Madam Marble, but instead, Elphaba got it. On top of that, she was placed in the same room as her. But soon Elphaba and Glinda became friends, and they became closer together. Lilliana Clark says, “I feel like at first, they were very, like, complete opposites, but then they realized that some of the things that they felt were very similar, so they got closer together.” Their friendship was an important part of the whole wicked movie, how someone like Glinda becomes friends with Elphaba. After Glinda and Elphaba became friends, Elphaba became popular in school, but that soon went away when she was labeled as wicked by the wizard. Fans were glad Elphaba was played by a woman of color. Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, made fans relate to Elphaba even more. Many other women of color are seen as different and are forced to act the way society wants them to, and Elphaba showed that people should love their skin and everything different about them.  

The movie is one that shapes society while also teaching us valuable lessons and putting things into perspective . In society, women’s perspectives, especially women of color’s perspectives, are rarely ever shown. Seeing a woman of color’s perspective not only brought a community together, but also shifted the perception of how we view our society.