Review of The Wiz (1978) by Jordan W — 20 Sep 2012
An adaptation of the popular Broadway Musical, which itself is based on The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by L. Frank Baum, The Wiz fails on both fronts to be all that entertaining a film. While a handful of songs and elements from the book work, it is a mishmash of garish set pieces that lack the charm of the 1939 film, poor makeup design (alarmingly, the film was one of the first worked on by legendary makeup and SFX artist Stan Winston); and overly long at a doddering 134 minutes.
People say this was the movie that killed the blaxploitation subgenre of movies, it's not hard to see why. I adored Syndney Lumet for Network, a film that remains just as relevant today as it was then (with the advent of the internet, reality TV and Fox News); but The Wiz is hopelessly dated to excess of the late 1970s in film, exemplifying the worst of that decade.
This review of The Wiz (1978) was written by Jordan W on 20 Sep 2012.
The Wiz has generally received mixed reviews.
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