The Wiz

• Directed by Sidney Lumet
• October 24, 1978
• Based on the 1974 musical The Wiz by William F. Brown and the 1900 children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

A young teacher from Harlem finds herself magically transported to the Land of Oz where she meets a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion. I think I’ve heard of this story.

I go into most every movie wanting to enjoy it. Sometimes it is a curiosity of some type that piques my desire to watch. Regardless, I’m investing my time and/or my money because of that I want to have a good time in some way. My overwhelming desire is to enjoy those 90 minutes or more of viewing. I don’t want to be asking myself why I did what I did.

Ever watch something and feel that the people behind it were on some serious drugs when it was made? That’s the feeling I had when watching this version of the Wizard of Oz story. The Wiz is something else to say the least. Visually unique like a hallucination with an inexplicable feel like that of a variety show…on drugs. Very strong drugs.

At over two hours The Wiz doesn’t do too much that the MGM classic didn’t do. The difference is the MGM classic did it all so much better. This just seems to do it, well, weirder only. Flying monkeys on motorcycles. The munchkins are graffiti until the curse is lifted. Richard Pryor is the wizard (or ‘The Wiz). Things like that which keep you watching to see what comes next but not in a way that engrosses you in the film’s story.

The whole point of this version of the story is that Dorothy (Diana Ross) needs to learn a lesson of going out on her own. She’s a teacher and at the beginning of the film she’s at a festive family gathering and being pressured by her mother to take a new teaching position which will force her to move out on her own. And by going off to a magical land, she learns that. I just don’t know at what point that lesson comes. It just is so by the end.

This is filled with numerous musical dance numbers. Nothing wrong with that but some of them feel as if they are one on top of the other and all of them go on far too long. It is reminiscent of the Giant Chicken fights from Family Guy that stretched to the point you forgot what started it. Same here meaning those numbers broke the flow of the story.

The cast is a veritable Who’s Who of the day. There is the legendary Diana Ross, Michael Jackson (in his feature film debut), Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne, and Richard Pryor. The least expected is Michael Jackson. Not because he’s not primarily known as a singer but the number of films you can think that he’s been in can be counted on one hand leaving a finger or three free for other stuff.

There are elements that bother me since they feel thrown in for no good reason or poorly thought through. Evillene The Wicked Witch of the West (Mabel King) who hates Dorothy because she killed her sister here with a portion of an electric sign doesn’t care enough about the murder of her sister to come after Dorothy. She’s only perturbed when she finds out Dorothy is nearby and sends the motorcycle riding monkeys after Dorothy. 

There’s no economy of storytelling in The Wiz. Not with the musical numbers. Not with the overall narrative. This just goes on and on and on. And it takes its good old time getting to the end. Sidney Lumet and company put everything they wanted into the movie. I know nothing of the stage production so maybe this was a one-to-one translation. Or maybe with a movie budget they decided to go big without thinking of pacing.

The shots are exceedingly tight. It’s my understanding that there was some money put behind this so the tight shots I find a little confusing. Perhaps because they were doing location shooting or at least looked like they were for many moments of this and had to be careful not to get in stuff that would break the illusion. But it looks cheap when it was not.

The songs in and of themselves are not bad. “Ease on Down the Road” is one I hum usually when I am leaving work. The thing is at maybe four or five minutes a pop, the number of songs and the number of musical dance interludes becomes a bit tedious and they do nothing to enhance the story but rather bring it to a stop. 

There isn’t too much story here to discuss. After breaking the initial curse and changing the munchkins from graffiti back into living beings it’s basically a walking trip to the city of Oz to meet the wizard. And then she has a conflict with the wicked witch. 

Richard Pryor as The Wiz was Richard Pryor of the time courtesy of his heavy drug abuse. Pam Grier reportedly got a contact high from his…stuff it was so heavy. He had a certain style that made him famous and helped him to work very well on film. It was just great to see him.

I recall catching some of this either in 1980 or 1985 and I remember disliking it. I can’t say that opinion has changed at all. Decades later and the expansion of my film tastes has not allowed me to find anything good in this that makes it worth watching. I am honestly surprised. I made it to the end though but before the credits hit I was getting sleepy from boredom.

I wish I could point towards one good thing about The Wiz to make it worth watching. As it stands I found this a complete waste of my time. I would rather watch some paint dry. Skip.