I really wish this were a better movie, it has a great soul score and some inventive visuals but Diana Ross' interpretation of Dorothy is dreadful. She behaves like a 10-year-old for much of the film, whines and cries at every available opportunity and is about a decade too old.
What really ruined this for me though was the atrocious cinematography. Big musical numbers are shown for extended periods in long shots that are way too far away to even make out what's happening. This would be understandable if this was only done when there are a large number of performers in the scene, but it's also done when there are only two. It makes no sense.
Michael Jackson's peanut butter cup nose was very distracting too.
“Ease on down, ease on down the road.” Blaxploitation comes to Oz with The Wiz, a Motown interpretation of L. Frank Baum’s classic fairy tale. Based on a Tony Award-winning stage musical, the story follows a Harlem kindergarten teacher who’s swept up in a blizzard and lands in a fantastical urban city called Oz that’s full of strange and magical people. Starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne, and Richard Pryor, the cast is quite impressive. And with Quincy Jones arranging the music, the film would seem to be in good hands. However, most the music is rather poor and doesn’t carry the exposition very well (the way a musical should). Also, despite a lot of interesting set and character designs, on the whole the film as a very grungy post-apocalyptic look that’s rather off-putting. The Wiz is a novel take on The Wizard of Oz tale, but it doesn’t quite work.
Too long and not very appealing.
Don't watch this movie on the premise of it being just like the Wizard of Oz or you will be highly disappointed. It is massively different! The songs are different, the cast are different and it's set in an American suburb. It has lost it's magic, and it's very confusing in my eyes. Not the best musical.
I think that part of my problem with this movie was that I was expecting the Wizard of Oz, (which is one of my favorite movies) and the only things thus movie somewhat maintained were the characters. They didn't change or adapt the original songs to a motown style, they completely did away with them and its a whole new script and music. The good witch was a bag woman and the wicked witch the owner of a sweat shop. And while it's all okay, with such an awesome cast I was expecting to be blown away and I wasn't. It"s a good movie with a good message, just don't try to compare it to the original because they really don't compare at all.
Shout by f a t i m a <3BlockedParent2023-08-30T07:06:00Z
Best movie in the world. If you write a fuck ass review on it except me to reply