{"id":9884,"date":"2024-12-10T23:35:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T04:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9884"},"modified":"2024-12-10T23:35:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T04:35:15","slug":"the-wiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/10\/the-wiz\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wiz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Wiz <\/strong>(1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Musical-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 135 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated G (scantily clad dancers, scary moments)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sidney Lumet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joel Schumacher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Charlie Smalls\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Oswald Morris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 24, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor, Stanley Greene.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $21M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hiring Sidney Lumet to direct a musical makes about as much as sense as hiring John Huston to direct one. Wait a minute, that did happen. In Huston\u2019s defense, he didn\u2019t make as big a mess with Annie as Lumet does with The Wiz<\/strong>, a dull adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. It\u2019s essentially a retelling of The Wizard of Oz with an all-black cast. That, in and of itself, is fine. I can see how that would actually work. Apparently, the people responsible for this flat-footed flop don\u2019t. Musicals aren\u2019t supposed to be this lifeless, am I wrong?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The story is basically the same; the difference is in the details. Instead of a teenage farm girl from Kansas, Dorothy Gale is a 24YO schoolteacher from Harlem. She\u2019s played by singer Diana Ross (Mahogany) who\u2019s clearly older than 24. Extremely shy and introverted, she still lives with her aunt and uncle and has never been south of 125th<\/sup> St. She and her little dog Toto are transported to Oz after they venture out into a severe snowstorm. During their crash landing, they smash through a neon Oz sign which lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her and freeing the Munchkins turned into graffiti for daring to deface the walls of her playground. All freaked-out Dorothy wants to do is return home. The Good Witch of the North (Carpenter, The Cotton Club), after gifting her with the dead witch\u2019s silver slippers, tells her to follow the yellow brick road to Emerald City to see \u201cThe Wiz\u201d (Pryor, Stir Crazy), the only one with the power to send her back home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Dorothy goes off to see The Wiz, picking up three travelling companions on the way- The Scarecrow (singer Jackson), The Tin Man (Russell, Wildcats) and The Cowardly Lion (Ross, Arthur). They too have requests to make. Scarecrow wants a brain, Tin Man wants a heart and Lion wants courage. It\u2019s a long, strange trip that takes them through fantasy\/nightmare versions of Harlem, Coney Island, the NY subway system and Manhattan until they reach Emerald City, possibly a prefiguring of Atlantic City as the Las Vegas of the East Coast*. After an elaborate prolonged number, The Wiz, in the form of a giant, fire-breathing metallic head, grants them an audience in his chamber at the top of the World Trade Center. He\u2019ll only grant their wishes if they kill the Wicked Witch of the West (King, What\u2019s Happening!!).<\/p>\n

\u00a0As you all know, I have a special place in my heart for bad musicals from the 70s and 80s like Lost Horizon, Lisztomania, Can\u2019t Stop the Music, Xanadu, The Apple and Grease 2. Hell, I even get a kick out of Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band. All of them are fun in their own way. The Wiz<\/strong> is just plain bad. It\u2019s so boring! It starts with an awkward number around the family dinner table at Thanksgiving and doesn\u2019t get much better from there. At 135 minutes, it\u2019s WAY too long. It\u2019s dreary looking too. While the sets are pretty cool, a dark pallor hangs over the whole movie. It\u2019s not pretty to look at. Shouldn\u2019t a musical aimed at families be bright and vibrant? Speaking of which, if kids were scared of The Wizard of Oz, they\u2019ll be positively terrified of The Wiz<\/strong>. Some of it is just creepy and weird. It features actors outfitted in freaky-looking crow and monkey costumes. King\u2019s Wicked Witch, who reigns over a sweatshop that makes sweat, terrorizes her frightened slaves and tortures Dorothy\u2019s friends. Don\u2019t even get me started on the killer trash cans. How in the world did The Wiz<\/strong> get away with a G rating? Who is it even for? It\u2019s too scary for children and too silly for adults. That just leaves the masochists.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The songs, for the most part, are bland and utterly forgettable. Other than \u201cEase on Down the Road\u201d, \u201cMean Ol\u2019 Lion\u201d and \u201cA Brand New Day\u201d, I couldn\u2019t even hum a single bar of any of the others. Some, like \u201cIf You Believe in Yourself\u201d, are just awful. The so-called choreography looks more like a failed experiment in crowd control. For all the energy put into the numbers, it certainly doesn\u2019t come through in Lumet\u2019s hands. The Wiz<\/strong> is just flat. The only time it really comes to life is when Ross and the others rejoice the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West with \u201cA Brand New Day\u201d. It\u2019s a decent number; why couldn\u2019t the rest of the movie be like this? Also, it\u2019s nice to hear Lena Horne sing even if the song isn\u2019t so good (a reprise of \u201cIf You Believe in Yourself\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u00a0I am so not surprised that Ross\u2019 acting career was effectively ended by The Wiz <\/strong>(save for a couple of TV movies). She\u2019s not only horribly miscast as Dorothy; she can\u2019t even find it in herself to pretend she\u2019s having fun. She looks and acts neurotic throughout. Jackson, on the other hand, is sweet and innocent as Scarecrow. Russell simply plays Russell. Same goes for Pryor as The Wiz. Ted Ross, looking like he\u2019s wearing an animal skin rug, tries and fails to maintain his dignity. King hams it up mightily in her role.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I wanted so much to have fun with The Wiz<\/strong>, but I couldn\u2019t. Although laughable, it\u2019s not even a good bad movie. It\u2019s impossible to have a good time when nobody else looks like they are. I can\u2019t rightly say I hate The Wiz<\/strong>, but I think it could have been a lot better under a different director. No doubt Lumet was a gifted filmmaker. He made many great films in his career. His legacy includes great dramas like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Prince of the City, Running on Empty and Q&A. He was NOT the right choice for The Wiz<\/strong>. His approach is too heavy-handed. The material requires a lighter touch. That\u2019s really what it all comes down to. Here\u2019s a thought. What if they took Michael Schultz off of Sgt. Pepper and had him direct The Wiz<\/strong> instead? I think they would have had something.<\/p>\n

*= The first Atlantic City casino opened in summer \u201878, only a few months before the movie\u2019s release.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wiz (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Musical-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 135 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated G (scantily clad dancers, scary moments)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sidney Lumet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joel Schumacher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Charlie Smalls\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Oswald Morris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 24, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor, Stanley Greene.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musical","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/The-Wiz-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10201,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9884\/revisions\/10201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}