Please. The Wiz ( 1978) G | 133 mins | Musical | 25 October 1978 Cast: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell [ More ] Director: Sidney Lumet Writer: Joel Schumacher Producer: Rob Cohen Cinematographer: Oswald Morris Editor: Dede Allen Production Designer: Tony Walton Production Companies: Motown, Universal Pictures (An MCA Company) HISTORY DETAILS I have to admit that The WIZ is waaaaaay too long for me & is a bit of a chore but the visuals are cool in that wonked out seventies way & that subway scene is truly nuts. We can't see enough of him to get to know him. Those of you who know me probably know that I am obsessed with dogs. call me names." Other authors have create their own names for the witches. Sidney Lumet was chosen to direct primarily because of his reputation for finishing his pictures on time and within budget. I wasn't complaining then and I'm not complaining now. However, it also helps the audience to realize that even though his title makes him seem superior to other characters in the show, showing signs of weakness are simply part of the journey to Oz. Ive never seen The Wiz either or maybe I started watching it and fell asleep I fall asleep in lots of things especially musicals. This was the first film shot at Kaufman Astoria Studios when it was reopened in the 1970s. Some of the dancing and the Poms sequence with the Munchkins (it cut from them going down the stairs to some of them doing acrobatics). The first song that Michael Jackson sings, "You Can't Win," was originally written for the stage version for the Winkies to sing to Dorothy about the futility of escaping from Evillene. Theres an instrument that can make the sounds you want. just stay with me a little while and talk. The puppets are indubitably the scariest of the bunch. When erstwhile Harlem kindergarten teacher Dorothy (Diana Ross) finally reaches The Wiz, the flimflam man said to be the solution to all her problems, he's not the all-powerful wizard she anticipated. In the original Oz novels, L. Frank Baum, they were unnamed. A less obvious problem was that during filming, Lumets wife at the time, Gail Jones, daughter of Wiz star Lena Horne, had approached the director on set and asked for a divorce. Im not quite sure how my love for dogs got started, but I dont mind it. When Harlem schoolteacher Dorothy (Diana Ross) tries to save her dog from a storm, she's miraculously whisked away to an urban fantasy land called Oz. None of which was really in the script., The Wiz has its timeless qualities, especially the lovingly rendered scenes to Lumets home city, prominently showing landmarks such as Coney Island, Shea Stadium, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Relive all of the magic of this beloved musical when Dorothy is whisked away to the enchanting. You can talk to me crazy. R. Eric Thomas is a columnist for ELLE.com, where he skewers politics, pop culture, celebrity shade, and schadenfreude. To Aunt Em; Glinda and Aunt Em are the most wise and maternal figures in Dorothy's life throughout the course of the musical. 1/The Wiz/Soundtrack Version] Quincy Jones 2:33 2 Overture (Pt. The simple, cheap special effects used in it actually make it eerier to me. That a twenty-four-year-old schoolteacher should be too sophisticated to consort with cowardly lions and scarecrows and men made out of tin. Jones made his move on the set. When this movie debuted on CBS, the network trimmed several scenes to fit in a 3 hour block with commercials. Cohen recalls glumly. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Later, Jones called his new friend and listened intently as MJ explained he could hear fully formed songs in his head and needed someone to help write them down. An adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" that tries to capture the essence of the African-American experience. Scorsese? I remember having fever dreams that someone was going to steam press me. Alla Nipsey Russell! The movie became the most expensive ever shot in New York City at the time. The usually exuberant Lumet became despondenta quality that came out distinctively in the film, recalls production designer Tony Walton. The red sequence had to be shortened due to a lighting error, and there was no time to re-shoot. Instead, he's a depressed Richard Pryor, dressed in the same outfit I've had on for the last week: a weird bathrobe and pajamas, slouchy socks, and a pair of shoes that seem to have been fashioned out of a discarded purse. This earlier production of The Wiz could have been so much better. Best remembered for its role in Ghostbusters, this building is known for its stone lions adorning the front steps. Michaels a star., Lumet was harder to convince. Along comes Miss One, the Good Witch of the North (Thelma Carpenter), who apparently runs a gambling racket. I can write anything down on paper, the veteran arranger said. The original director, John Badham ( Saturday Night Fever ), withdrew once Ross was cast. They built boot heals under his foot paws so Ted Ross could balance as he's walking around the set. When Dorothy first arrives in Oz, and the Munchkins pop out of the walls and begin shambling towards her, hands outstretched, and repeating nothing other than "Toto" in high pitched voices. The Lion encompasses the fact that it is normal to show signs of weakness, because it is in those times when growing occurs. Must have been a set, no subway was that clean in 1978. The classic 1939 movie has its witch and flying monkeys. A run-in with a roller coaster. A reimagining of L. Frank Baum 's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz featuring an all African-American cast, the film was adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same title. The WIZ A remake that is different enough to stand on its own talented batch of "Pros" who make the familiar story work: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Mabel King, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne, Ted Ross etc New score 1939 is rural based, 1978 version is suburban There are parts that do not work, but those are small complaints. And this also makes me think about the subway in Silent Hill 3. It may represent the part in the book where Dorothy and company are pursued by the Kalidahs, a kind of bear-tiger chimera. He's been sleeping even though it's the middle of the day, and he has a desperate, frantic energy about him: sad to be discovered but clearly grateful for human contact. Astroland at Coney Island was used for the Tinman scene with The Cyclone as a backdrop, while the World Trade Center served as the Emerald City. He is also the author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a memoir-in-essays. Diana Ross's Dorothy is played at a level of near-constant nervous breakdown that rivals Charlotte Gainsbourg in Melancholia. We often stray off of our paths, and we can't always find our way back easily. I will be sharing them with you, to hopefully create a sense of comfort and happiness in times that you are seeking courage, feeling a bit silly or simply needing to take a trip home. The Scarecrow is seeking a brain, as you all know. 2/The Wiz/Soundtrack Version) Quincy Jones 2:00 3 The Feeling That We Have (The Wiz/Soundtrack Version) Theresa Merritt 3:30 4 Can I Go On? The Scarecrow, described in one review as looking like he escaped from an especially creepy. In his book "Making Movies," Sidney Lumet admits that filming the Emerald City sequence on the plaza at the World Trade Center had to be cut short because of wind and scheduling. He has nothing but straw encompassing his head and crevices of his body. Quincy Jones was skeptical of Jackson, too, but Cohen arranged a meeting, flying 19-year-old MJ to New York. On the set, Michael took extremely seriously his choreography sessions with Louis Johnson, whod been a pioneering African-American ballet dancer over years of punishing Hollywood racism. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital There are no shortcuts to getting back home safe; it takes the time that it takes. The Tornado Ballet has a frightened Dorothy get flung through the air while storm clouds, lightning, and funnels appear in the background. Maybe because it hedges its bets by wanting to be sophisticated and universal, childlike and knowing, appealing to both a mass audience and to media insiders. The basic storyline is the same, with Dorothy being taken from her home by a large storm and being dropped down in Oz, surrounded by colors, sights and sounds she has never experienced before. "The Wiz" is a more soulful take on the famous classic "The Wizard of Oz". (The Wiz/Soundtrack Version) While Pepper, on the other hand, is occasionally a little mean and aggressive. that someone will find out that I'm a fraud. Gonna have to get some coffee and check this out! We don't really understand why Dorothy's such a mope at her aunt's dinner party, and, after she and her dog Toto are whirled away by a snowstorm, the scene in the playground really drags. Finally, at the very end of the journey, there's Richard Pryor as The Wiz, coward at heart, filled with doubts, hiding behind the electronic gadgets he uses to enslave the Emerald City and keep Evillene at bay. Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called. Is the movie a match for the 1939 Judy Garland version? Just as black music, despite brief exceptions such as Motown and disco, had been for black radio stations and white music for white radio stations. Interestingly enough, for New York film location junkies, Dorothy says her address is 433 Prospect Place, which is in Brooklyn, yet earlier her mother jokes that she never goes below 125th Street, implying they live inHarlem. I've spent the last week workshopping a talk show with my succulents and dreaming of the day we can safely and sanely meet each other in public again. Quincy Jones was always present. Hes so pure! Lumet exulted. In the film, Michaels most impressive steps are with Diana Ross, as he clumsily learns to walk after being imprisoned by crows on his scarecrow pole. I live here all alone. This movie changed Dorothy's shoes from ruby slippers back to silver slippers, as in the original L. Frank Baum story. Mabel King was then starring in What's Happening!! We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Tinman: The genius who created me only took care of my dashing good looks, my razor sharp wit and my irresistible attraction to the wrong women. When The Wiz began filming in New York, the 27-year-old producer moved Michael and La Toya into a Manhattan apartment, and Michael was on his own for the first time. The speech delivered by Glinda the Good Witch at the end of the film, and the song "Believe in Yourself", are particularly laden with est-ian concepts. It was like, I want him. . I was a lil tyke at a cousins house and it just happened to be on TV. J. Walker, star of TVs Good Times. Joel Schumacher's script for The Wiz was influenced by Werner Erhard's teachings and his Erhard Seminars Training ("est") movement, as both Schumacher and Diana Ross were proponents. The Wiz also has 2 two good witches, Addapearle and Glinda, like the original book, not the 1939 film. 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