THE
WIZ attempted to be the grooviest movie musical ever. When looked
at in that way, its hard to see it as a big success. The Broadway
show itself is a simple piece presented with power and emotion.
So, it was destined to make a transfer to film.
Under
the direction of Sidney Lumet, the film had some interesting
choices made. First and most successfully is the use of New
York locations. This obviously had a big effect on the films
success as well as the budget. An additional advantage was in
the films casting. Involving the likes of Diana Ross, Michael
Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Sidney Lumet and Quincy Jones guaranteed
the film to get a lot of attention.
But
in some ways, the film is a disappointment. The film's tone
is so dark that it strips the show of much of the stage show's
original fun.
The
crows, the winkies, the munchkins, the flying monkeys and the
attacking bouncy dolls are the stuff that children's nightmares
are made of. These elements are surreal enough that the viewer
can't grow to attached and that hurts the film.
But,
musically, the film delivers, sometimes too much. Some of the
songs are redundant in most part due to a unnecessarily verbose
screenplay adaptation. So, the film has elements of success
but could've used a less distorted view.