The Wiz is a 1978 American musical adventure fantasy film produced by Universal Pictures and Motown Productions and released by Universal Pictures on October 24, 1978. A reimagining of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz featuring an all-black cast, the film was loosely adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name. It follows the adventures of Dorothy, a shy, twenty-four-year-old Harlem schoolteacher who finds herself magically transported to the urban fantasy Land of Oz, which resembles a dream version of New York City. Befriended by a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion, she travels through the city to seek an audience with the mysterious Wiz, who they say is the only one powerful enough to send her home.
What can I say, The Wizard Of Oz meets MOTOWN... WHO KNEW IT WOULD BE SO GOOD?!?!
Plot:
In November 1978 a crowded Thanksgiving dinner brings a host of family together in a small Harlem apartment, where a shy, twenty-four-year-old elementary schoolteacher named Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry ("The Feeling We Once Had"). Extremely introverted, she is teased by Aunt Em for never having been south of 125th Street, as she has delayed moving out to start her own, independent life as an adult ("Can I Go On?" - written for the film).
While Dorothy cleans up after the meal, her dog, Toto, runs out the open kitchen door into a snowstorm. She succeeds in retrieving him but finds herself trapped in the storm. A magical whirlwind made of snow – the work of Glinda, the Good Witch of the South – materializes and transports them to the city realm of Oz. Released by the snowstorm, as Dorothy descends from the atmosphere she smashes through an electric "Oz" sky sign, which falls upon and kills Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East who rules Munchkinland. As a result, she frees the Munchkins who populate the playground into which she lands; they had been transformed into graffiti by Evermean for painting the playground walls.
Dorothy soon meets the Munchkins' main benefactress, Miss One, the Good Witch of the North, a magical "numbers runner" who gives Evermean's pretty charmed silver slippers to her by teleporting them onto Dorothy's feet. However, Dorothy declares she does not want the shoes and desperately just wants to get home to Aunt Em. Miss One urges her to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and seek the help of the powerful "Wiz" who she believes holds the power to send Dorothy back to Harlem ("He's the Wiz"). After telling her to never take the silver shoes off, Miss One and the Munchkins disappear and Dorothy is left to search for the road on her own ("Soon As I Get Home").
The next morning, Dorothy happens upon a scarecrow made of garbage, and is friends with him after saving him from being teased by a group of humanoid crows ("You Can't Win"). They discover the yellow brick road and happily begin to follow it together ("Ease on Down the Road"). The Scarecrow hopes the Wiz might be able to give him the one thing he feels that he lacks – a brain. Along the way to the Emerald City, Dorothy, Toto and the Scarecrow meet the man made out of tin in an abandoned early 20th-century amusement park ("If I Could Feel" / "Slide Some Oil to Me") and a lion named Fleetwood Coupe DeVille, a vain dandy who hid inside one of the stone lions in front of the New York Public Library after being banished from the jungle ("Mean-Ol' Lion"). The Tin Man and Lion join them on their quest to find the Wiz, hoping to gain a heart and courage, respectively. En route to the Emerald City, the adventurers must pass through a subway controlled by a crazy peddler (a homeless man) who controls evil puppets. Other deadly monsters all awaken and try to kill the group such as trash cans that try to crush the Scarecrow by his arms, a fuse box electrocuting the Tin Man, and the pillars that try to crush Dorothy, but the Lion bravely rescues his friends by fighting off the monsters. They narrowly escape the subway, only to encounter flamboyant prostitutes known as the "Poppy" Girls (a reference to the poppy field from the original story). They attempt to put Dorothy, Toto and the Lion into an eternal sleep with magic poppy perfume, but the Scarecrow and the Tin Man manage to save the two. The Lion feels deeply ashamed of leading Dorothy into a trap, but she and the rest of the gang cheer him up ("Be a Lion").
Finally reaching the Emerald City, the four friends gains passage into the city because of Dorothy's ownership of the silver slippers. They marvel at the spectacle of the city and its sophisticated, fashion-forward dancers. They are granted an audience with the Wiz, who lives at the very top of the Towers and appears to them as a giant fire-breathing metallic head. He will only grant their wishes if they kill the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East, Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, who runs a sweatshop in the underground sewers of Oz. Before they can reach her domain, Evillene learns of their quest to kill her and sends out the Flying Monkeys (a motorcycle gang) to keep them at bay ("No Bad News").
After a long chase, the Flying Monkeys succeed in capturing their targets and bring them back to Evillene. Vengeful for Dorothy having killed her sister, she dismembers the Scarecrow, flattens the Tin Man, and hangs the Lion up by his tail in hopes of making Dorothy give her the silver shoes. When she threatens to throw Toto into a fiery cauldron, Dorothy nearly gives in until the Scarecrow hints to her to activate a fire sprinkler switch, which she does. The sprinklers put out the fire but also melt Evillene, who is allergic to water. She is flushed down into her throne, the lid of which slams shut like a toilet. With Evillene dead, her spells lose their power: the Winkies are freed from their permanent costumes (revealing attractive humans underneath) and their sweatshop tools disappear. They break into song-and-dance ("Everybody Rejoice") and praise Dorothy as their emancipator. The Flying Monkeys give her and her friends a triumphant ride back to the Emerald City.
Upon arriving, the quartet takes a back door into the Wiz's quarters and discovers that he is a phony because the Wiz is actually Herman Smith, a failed politician from Atlantic City, who was transported to Oz when a balloon he was flying to promote his campaign to become the city dogcatcher was lost in a storm. The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are distraught that they will never receive their respective brain, heart, and courage, but Dorothy makes them realize that they already have had these things all along ("Believe"). Just as it seems as if she will never be able to get home, Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, appears and implores her to find her way home by searching within and using the magic of the silver slippers ("Believe"—reprise). After thanking Glinda and saying goodbye to her friends, she reminisces about home ("Home"). She clicks her heels together three times. She looks up and discovers she is back near home with Toto in her arms and walks into the apartment repeating the phrase "There's no place like home!"
Production:
Filming took place in Queens, New York from October to December of 1977. Produced by Rob Cohen and directed by Sidney Lumet, the film stars Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor. Its story was reworked from William F. Brown's Broadway libretto by Joel Schumacher, and Quincy Jones supervised the adaptation of Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross' songs for it. A handful of new songs, written by Jones and the song writing team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, were added for the project.
Release:
Upon its original theatrical release, the film was a critical and commercial failure, and it marked the end of the resurgence of African-American films that began with the blaxploitation movement of the early 1970s. Despite its initial failure, it became a cult classic among black audiences, Jackson's fanbase, and Oz enthusiasts. Certain aspects influenced The Wiz Live!, a live television adaptation of the musical, aired on NBC in 2015.
{This soundtrack is way better than the "cinema changing" original from 1939 - I really urge you to listen for yourself (Ease On Down The Road #1 and Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News are the best ones}
Music:
All songs written by Charlie Smalls.
* "The Feeling We Once Had" - Aunt Em and Chorus.
* "Can I Go On?" - Dorothy (Diana Ross)
* "He's the Wizard" Miss One and Chorus.
* "Soon As I Get Home / Home" Dorothy (Diana Ross)
* "You Can't Win, You Can't Break Even" Scarecrow (Michael Jackson) and The Four Crows
* "Ease on Down the Road #1" Dorothy (Diana Ross) and Scarecrow (Michael Jackson
* "What Would I Do If I Could Feel?" Tin Man (Nipsey Russell)
* "Slide Some Oil to Me" Tin Man (Nipsey Russell)
* "Ease on Down the Road #2" Dorothy (Diana Ross), Scarecrow (Michael Jackson) and Tin man (Nipsey Russell)
* "I'm a Mean Ole Lion" Cowardly Lion (Ted Ross)
* "Ease on Down the Road #3" Dorothy (Diana Ross), Scarecrow (Michael Jackson), Tin Man (Nipsey Russell) and Cowardly Lion (Ted Ross).
* "Be a Lion" Dorothy (Diana Ross), Scarecrow (Michael Jackson), Tin Man (Nipsey Russell) and Cowardly Lion (Ted Ross)
* "Emerald City Sequence" Chorus
* "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News" Evillene (Mabel King) and the Winkies (Chorus)
* "Everybody Rejoice / A Brand New Day" Dorothy (Diana Ross), Scarecrow (Michael Jackson), Tin Man (Nipsey Russell), Cowardly Lion (Ted Ross) and Chorus
* "Believe in Yourself (Dorothy)" Dorothy (Diana Ross)
* "Believe in Yourself (Reprise)" Glinda the Good Witch (Lena Horne)
* "Home (Finale)" Dorothy (Diana Ross)
My Review:
Personally, I cannot wait for The Wiz to come to the Empire Theatre in Liverpool City Centre. As soon as it does you can bet I'm going to go and watch it! This is how I get into musicals, I listen to the soundtracks - since that's what musicals mainly consist of - and if I like it I watch the film or go watch it in theatre, if not then I just listen to the soundtrack. I was pleasantly surprised upon watching this film, by how good the production/props/setting is and how many bops are in this masterpiece. Honestly, this movie is better than The Wizard Of Oz (1939) - that's right I said it - however, unlike Return To Oz (1985) {I'll mention this film in a later review} it's not accurate to the source material by L Frank Baum, like the 1939 one.
I'll admit Diana's portrayal of Dorothy is quite annoying at times, due to her whininess and cowardly she is - heck she's more cowardly than the lion. But as the movie progresses her performance gets better.
Michael Jackson as Scarecrow was a good choice, his dance moves help him bring the whole floppiness and ragdoll/puppet movements to the character.
Mabel King did an outstanding job as Evilene (aka The Wicked Witch Of The West), even though she looked and acted very cartoony and goofy, her powerful voice really made her quite terrifying - especially when she almost burned Toto to a crisp - then again though she was quite stupid not gonna lie; she works as a manager in a sweat shirt factory and she's defeated by Dorothy turning the sprinkler system on {like why would you install a sprinkler system if it's your destroyer?}.
How they gave Oz a New York look was really creative, although that one scene when they are in the subway and are being chased by wall pillars and bins with sharp teeth was strange, to say the least.
There was a lot of choreography in this film, which it makes sure you get a good view of - when there's dancing involved they tend to zoom out at a long distance so you can see everything. Which isn't bad it just takes you out of the atmosphere for moments at times.
Other than that though it is a very creative and unique film and I applaud it for being so bold with it's choices.
Overall, I do recommend you give it a watch, I give it a 6.5/10.
I'm sorry but ya'll need to listen to the bops that are Ease On Down The Road #1 and Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News, if you're gonna listen to any listen to these.
Yorumlar