The Wiz (1978)

Trying to recapture the feeling and wonder that the original 'The Wizard of Oz' had, is by no means an easy feat. It's actually rather astounding that other films tried to do just that. Granted, the sequel 'Return to Oz' stuck a lot closer to the books and is in all its creepiness a great film in its own right, but that is one of the few times it worked.

'The Wiz' is not really based on the books, but more on the Broadway musical. More than that, it is probably the first film with a complete African-American cast and only Motown music. The names attached to this production are not the least either. Quincy Jones oversaw the music; it stars Diana Ross, Rychard Pryor, Michael Jackson and other big black music stars of the time and Sidney Lumet was picked to direct. In fact, probably the only non-black contribution comes from Joel Schumacher, who wrote the screenplay. So as you can see, quite a lot of top notch people were in on this project.

Why is it then, that this film fails on so many levels and is a very bland picture that hardly has any memorable moments?

There are good things to be found, for sure. The songs are good to great, which feels logical considering this has the Motown backing. You can do a lot worse and songs like 'Ease On Down the Road', 'You Can't Win' or obviously 'Brand New Day' are catchy as heck and just sound plain great. Casting Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow is another wonderful idea and he is by far the most memorable character. He shines in the role and is a true joy to see each time he is on screen. Current jokes and controversies aside: the guy was a huge star and his starpower comes through on every venture.

But then, alas... Much of the rest falls enormously flat. Diana Ross is a great singer, but she has to play Dorothy as a scared little rabbit instead of an inquisitive and fairly strong woman and that gets annoying. Seriously, nearly every song she sings is about how scared she is. The Tin Man has great make-up but is annoying as fudge (remember the 'Teeny Teeny Teeny' and shudder), the sets are more urban New York-ish, which could be a good idea, but it does away with the magical feeling of a completely different dimension and the villain, well... I'd say she was underdeveloped, but that would be an injustice to the word itself. Great themesong, though.

No really, the Wicked Witch of the West, who was integral to the plot of the original and who regularly came back to haunt Dorothy is relegated to about five minutes of screentime here and she is barely even mentioned. And don't get me started on the fugly flying monkeys, who now ride motorcycles.

Yes, I know. That last bit sounds awesome, but it probably looked better on paper.

Richard Pryor is totally wasted, too.

But my main issue here is the cinematography. Sydney Lumet was clearly not the best man for the job. I am not detracting the work the man has done, because Lumet is an excellent director, but he obviously wasn't cut out to capture the look and feel of a musical. Most of the dance numbers are done in wide shots, which makes sense if you want to capture action on a soundstage like in a musical, but for a film that becomes tedious and boring. You often only see the great choreography from afar and in this fashion it lacks investment and above all: movement. Pretty necessary for a musical, wouldn't you agree?

Most egregious of this is the first rendition of 'Ease on Down the Road', where Michael Jackson and Diana Ross dance along the yellow brick road and everything is shot in a wide shot and you only see their backs for three minutes. I am not joking. Whoever saw this in the dailies and thought it was a good idea?

I guess the stageversion was too tricky to adapt to the screen, but probably the main problem was that Sydney Lumet had no clue how to do this kind of grandeur. That makes sense, because 'grandeur' is not the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of his filmography. Diana Ross is a wonderful singer, but acting clearly wasn't her strong point and all in all this film has way too many misses and blandly boring parts to enthrall.

Too bad. I always really want to like this film a lot more, but when I watch it, I always get that creepy realization that - in point of fact - this film pretty much sucks.