Review of The Wiz (1978) by Carol H — 24 Mar 2013

I have to admit that my memory of this film is worse than what it actually is. And, in fact, after viewing it again after many years, I thought the film was quite fun and enjoyable. While "The Wiz" is supposed to be an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, it's actually quite different from the stage production. In fact, the stage production, story-wise, is even more faithful to the source material than the 1939 classic film "The Wizard of Oz." The movie musical "The Wiz" sets everything in a more urban setting and makes Dorothy a 24 year old school teacher from New York rather than a 12 year old girl from Kansas. Freeing itself from the classic Midwestern confines of the story and bringing Oz into a more urban setting made for some really interesting concepts. For example, some of my favorite scenes include the Munchkins having been trapped as graffiti, the poppies being represented by a den of iniquity and the fabulous Emerald City sequence. While the film does veer from the stage production, it still has the fantastic music with some very wonderful performances. I loved Thelma Carpenter's Miss One and Lena Horne's Glinda the Good. But, while Diana Ross gets a bum wrap (and, I'm still not necessarily convinced she was the best choice), I do have to admit that her rendition of "Home," with just the camera focused on her face with just a black background, brought tears to my eyes.

The only reason why I can't give this 5 stars is because there are some problems with it, primarily in the art direction. Some of the film is really dark and, while I understand this is a more contemporary urban film, if you're going to do a film about Oz, make it magical. The biggest example of this is in the Munchkin village. I cannot see what's going on. Nobody pops out in that whole sequence. It's very hard to see Miss One who, I felt, should have been bright colored and wonderful in this scary land that Dorothy just entered. And, if it weren't for Thelma Carpenter's over the top, fabulous performance, I might have just completely forgotten this sequence. Also, the costumes for the four principal characters, especially Dorothy, are very drab and mute for what they should have been. I just would have liked to have seen them pop in all the sequences they were in.

Other than that, I thought this film was not only a fun film, but a great adaptation of L. Frank Baum's work.