An adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" that tries to capture the essence of the African-American experience.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Stars: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor.
Carlton Johnson ... assistant choreographer
Louis Johnson ... choreographer
Mabel Robinson ... assistant choreographer
Watched online, ok print.
~20 songs in the Soundtracks; lots of reprises and/or versions.
Rated 5.3 by almost 12k voters.
Interesting that the stage play ran 1'75-1'79. Mabel King originated the role of Evilene (the bad witch), and Ted Jones, the Cowardly Lion.
If you thought DR (b. '44) was brave to appear drugged out and sloppy in Lady Sings the Blues ('72), here she's fresh-faced with no makeup and nappy hair. Tidy hair, but anti-glamorous. At least as Billie Holiday she got to look great some of the time. And she's playing 24, which is strange. She's a kindergarten teacher who's been teaching 3 years already. Precocious.
NR (TinMan) can dance; who knew? I'd seen him in a few race films, but I only remember vaudeville/burlesque-type humor, no dancing, or if there was, it was comedic. He also seemed to cry pretty well.
MJ stayed in character as Scarecrow, so his dancing was all wobbly-legged. Meh. Of course in the famous film, Ray Bolger's big dance number was cut (but appears as a dvd extra).
This is an ugly, cluttered version of Oz. The Munchkins live in a dark, ugly place. In fact, they were turned into graffiti by the witch Dorothy kills by knocking down part of neon sign, so they're just graffiti turned back to 3 dimensions. The Poppy Perfume factory is populated by women dressed as whores. When the flying monkeys chase the quartet, they're on motorcycles, and we're in some industrial ramp situation (perhaps a rollercoaster?) Then the alive evil witch is proprietor of a sweat shop (the sign says they produce sweat, but they have bolts of fabric and sewing machines), the workers are dressed in some ugly costumes, and the witch's dress is busy busy busy. I missed the simplicity of Margaret Hamilton's plain black dress with pointy hat.
The slippers inherited from the first dead witch were silver, as they are in the book.
The second evil witch again dies from water, in a clever modern way.
We don't get a denouement, only DR running back into her building from the street where she'd been swept up by a mini-tornado. I didn't see MJ or NR at her home, so we don't get the "only a dream" with local faces aspect as in '39.
Toto is a silver terrier, not black.
RP was ok as the Wiz who wuzn't.
Lena Horne is not onscreen enough, even less than was Glinda in the '39 movie.
And of course, the music is all new, not the music of the '39 film. In the lengthy end credits, I saw a lot of music getting Quincy Jones writer credit, but none in IBDb for the play. Don't know how much of the play music was used in the film (I'm too lazy to compare the song lists).
I recommend this as a cultural phenom, so see the "urban decay" version of Oz. But you cannot expect it to be MGM-glorious. It's a very different time, and a very different creative process/team.
Universal & Motown, dir. Lumet; 7-
