Originally published in The Baum Bugle, vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 1979), pg. 23
Citations
Chicago 17th ed.:
Tobias, Pat. “The Wiz.” Baum Bugle 23, no. 1 (1979): 23.
MLA 9th ed.:
Tobias, Pat. “The Wiz.” The Baum Bugle, vol. 23, no. 1, 1979, p. 23.
“The Wiz! The Stars! The WOW!” proclaim advertisements all over the country. The giant advertising campaign is promoting a very expensive motion picture. Universal spent an awesome amount of money putting “The Wiz” on the screen. That, plus a couple of major tactical errors, including the choice of Sidney Lumet as director and the casting of Diana Ross as Dorothy, makes “The Wiz” a very expensive mediocre picture. When Hollywood spends about $30 million to make a mediocre film, that film is bound to fail.
The opening credits set the mood for the rest of the film. They are painted on a ghetto wall. The reality of city life pervades the entire film. Even the most fantastic moments in this supposed fantasy are only nightmarish views of modern city life. Sidney Lumet had proved repeatedly that he is a fine director, but he is sadly out of his element with “The Wiz.” It really seems odd that Universal would give him such an expensive film as a guinea pig for him to test his musical comedy skills upon. Especially when one sees the results. The blame for the film’s pretentiousness must be shared with screenwriter Joel Schumacher, but Lumet draws out the supposedly “meaningful” scenes until they become tedium.
The other major difficulty with the film is Diana Ross. This talented singer-actress is totally inappropriate as Dorothy. Perhaps the problem is that Dorothy’s just getting too old. She started out as a child; in the 1939 film, she was a young teenager played by a 17-year-old; on Broadway, she was 15 or 16. Now according to the screenwriter Schumacher, she’s 24, played by a woman who is over 30. This time they’ve gone too far.
As if it weren’t bad enough that Dorothy is 24, the character has not really aged since she was a small child. We are told that she is now a schoolteacher in the big city, but to watch her on the screen, one would think she was hardly old enough to attend school. Perhaps Lumet and Schumacher were trying to retain Dorothy’s innocence, but they just made her ridiculous. It’s hard to accept a 24-year-old schoolteacher who spends most of the film in wide-eyed terror. Although some people may accept it, many audience members are finding it downright foolish.
Despite these troubles, there are some lovely moments in “The Wiz.” The Munchkins are actually graffiti on the wall in Munchkinland. When Dorothy kills the witch, they start popping off the walls. It’s a clever introduction to Oz. The Munchkins then put on the first production number, using skateboards, frisbees and hula hoops to great effect. Tony Walton’s costumes are pleasant variations on Geoffrey Holder’s stage costumes (although Holder is never given credit), and one of the nicest touches is the Scarecrow’s nose—a Reese’s peanutbutter cup. Much of the dialogue is black street slang, used to witty advantage.
The casting of Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as the Tin Woodman and, of course, the use of Ted Ross from Broadway as the·Cowardly Lion, almost saves the show. Russell has never been used as well, and he shows talents that most people who see him on television would never guess he had. Ross, too, is a new entity and his Lion is one of the joyous moments, particularly in his first scene as a New York Public Library Lion coming to life.
The sets, by Albert Whitlock, are stylized, humor-filled depictions of The Big Apple. And in one of the nicest moments, it is a big apple that rises over the city in the morning in place of the sun.
Musically, Quincy Jones’ arrangements don’t add much to the original score by Charlie Smalls. The only really popular song, “Ease on Down the Road,” gets its best play as the closing credits are rolling over the screen. Russell’s version of “Slide Some Oil to Me” and Ross’ ‘Tm a Mean Ole Lion” are two of the film’s highlights, mostly because of the talents of the performers.
Whether children should see “The Wiz” is a question most parents won’t think of asking, but it’s a pertinent one. There are many moments of questionable taste in the movie. Where the witch in the 1939 film was frightening, think how much more frightening it could be for today’s children to see a subway station come to life with monsters (whose purpose is never really explained) made out of trash cans. Additionally there is a lot of sexual connotation in the dialogue, and some of the costumes are rather explicit.
The rest of the cast, Mabel King, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor, are wasted. Each has a few precious moments on film, but hardly enough to satisfy the audience’s appetite.
“The Wiz” is a mixed film. Some of it is fun, some is bawdy, some is boring. But none of it is worth what has been spent on either its production or its advertising.
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