The Wiz (1978)

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Richard Pryor, Mabel King, Lena Horne, Thelma Carpenter, Theresa Merritt, Stanley Greene. [G]

Big, busy movie musical version of The Wiz, adapted from the Broadway musical by Joel Schumacher, is an overblown near-disaster, as lavish as it is crowded, and its dancing shoes are full of lead. Diana Ross is embarrassingly miscast as a twenty-ish schoolteacher in a New York tenement who gets transported to a dirty, urban dystopia called Oz. Sidney Lumet has no touch for musical fantasy, and the gassy narrative, beholden to garish set pieces, goes on forever. Behind unconvincing makeup, young MJ is Scarecrow, Nipsey is Tin Man, Ross the Cowardly Lion; Pryor, meanwhile, is “The Wiz”, and it’s one of those occasions where the comic works so hard to spark life into dead material, he comes off as spastic and panicky (see also: Superman III, Critical Condition, The Toy, etc.). Some find the soundtrack redemptive—credited primarily to Charlie Smalls, with contributions from Quincy Jones and Luther Vandross, among others—but it’s a real mixed bag, since most songs are uninspired, the double-entendre-laden “Slide Some Oil to Me” only encourages snickers, and the “Brand New Day” number, which is catchy, goes on forever, sapping away any joy it initially conjured; “Ease on Down the Road”, reprised multiple times, is the only one that works without reservations. Playing Glinda the Good Witch, Lena Horne makes her final film appearance. Quincy shows up as a pianist in the Emerald City.

37/100