The Wiz is a 1978 American musical contemporary fantasy film directed by Sidney Lumet. Adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical, the film reimagines the classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum with an African-American cast. Dorothy Gale, a 24-year-old teacher from Harlem, is transported to the magical urban-fantasy Land of Oz. While on an adventure in order to seek help from the Wiz, Dorothy encounters a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, a Cowardly Lion and a Wicked Witch.
Produced by Universal Pictures and Motown Productions, filming took place in Queens, New York City, from July to December 1977, with a cast starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson (in his only feature film role), Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor. The story is reworked from William F. Brown's Broadway libretto by Joel Schumacher, and Quincy Jones supervised the adaptation of songs by Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross. A handful of new songs, written by Jones and the songwriting team Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, were added for the project.
The Wiz was theatrically released the following year on October 24, 1978, to critical and commercial failure. Some critics unfavorably compared the film to its source material and took issue with the casting of Ross as Dorothy, while others criticized the direction of Lumet, who was considered a poor choice for directing a musical. Despite its initial failure, critics have become more favorable, and it has become a cult classic among audiences, Ross's fanbase, Jackson's fanbase and Oz enthusiasts. The 2015 live television adaptation The Wiz Live! is influenced by the film.
Plot A crowded Thanksgiving dinner brings a host of family together in a Harlem apartment, where 24-year-old elementary schoolteacher Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. She is teased by Aunt Em for having delayed moving out to start her life as an adult. While Dorothy cleans up after the meal, her dog Toto runs out the open kitchen door into a snowstorm. She retrieves him but finds herself trapped in the storm. A magical whirlwind made of snow materializes and transports them to the land of Oz.
As Dorothy descends from the atmosphere, she smashes through an electric "Oz" sign which falls upon and kills Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East who rules Munchkinland. As a result, she frees the Munchkins who populate the playground into which she lands. The Munchkins' main benefactress, Miss One, is the Good Witch of the North, a magical "numbers runner" who gives Dorothy Evermean's charmed silver shoes. Since Dorothy is far from home, Miss One urges her to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and seek the help of the powerful "Wiz". After telling her never to take the shoes off, Miss One and the Munchkins disappear and Dorothy is left to search for the road on her own.
The next morning, Dorothy happens upon a scarecrow made of garbage and saves him from being teased by humanoid crows. The Scarecrow hopes that the Wiz will give him the one thing he feels that he lacks: a brain. They discover the yellow brick road and begin their journey to the Emerald City. They eventually meet a man made out of tin in an abandoned amusement park and a cowardly lion who was banished from the jungle. The Tin Man and Lion join them on their quest to find the Wiz, hoping to gain a heart and courage, respectively. En route, the foursome escape from a haunted subway station and a group of prostitutes known as the "Poppy Girls", who seduce the Lion. The Lion feels ashamed of leading Dorothy into a trap, but she and the rest of the gang cheer him up.
Finally reaching the Emerald City - depicted as a rendition of the World Trade Center plaza, the quartet are granted an audience with the Wiz, who appears as a giant fire-breathing metallic head. He proclaims that he will only grant their wishes on the condition that they kill Evermean's sister, Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, who runs a sweatshop in Oz's underground sewers. Before they can reach her domain, Evillene learns of their quest to kill her and sends out her army of Flying Monkeys to capture them. As revenge on Dorothy for killing her sister, she dismembers the Scarecrow, flattens the Tin Man, and hangs the Lion up by his tail to make Dorothy give her the shoes. When she threatens to throw Toto into a fiery cauldron, Dorothy nearly gives in until the Scarecrow hints to her to activate a fire sprinkler switch. The sprinklers put out the fire and melt Evillene. With Evillene dead, her spells lose their power, resulting in the freedom of all her sweatshop workers and prisoners.
The Monkeys give Dorothy and her friends a ride back to the Emerald City. Upon going in the back entrance, they discover that the Wiz is actually Herman Smith, a washed-up politician from Atlantic City who came to Oz by accident in a hot air balloon. The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are distraught that they will never receive their brain, heart, and courage, but Dorothy makes them realize that they already have had these things all along even as she fears she will never find her own way home. Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, appears and implores her to use the magic of the slippers. After thanking Glinda and saying goodbye to her friends, she reminisces about home. She clicks her heels together three times and discovers that she is back near home with Toto in her arms.
Cast
Soundtrack
All songs are written by Charlie Smalls, unless otherwise noted.
Production Pre-production and development The Wiz is the eighth feature film produced by Motown Productions, the film and television division of Berry Gordy's Motown Records label. Gordy originally wanted the teenaged R&B singer Stephanie Mills, who had originated the role on Broadway, to be cast as Dorothy Gale. When Motown star Diana Ross asked Gordy if she could be cast as Dorothy, he declined, saying that Ross—then 33 years old—was too old for the role. Ross went around Gordy and convinced executive producer Rob Cohen at Universal Pictures to arrange a deal in which he would produce the film if Ross was cast as Dorothy. Gordy and Cohen agreed to the deal. Additionally, the casting of Diana Ross as Dorothy was due to the fact that she was a well-known star, which guaranteed more funds. Pauline Kael, a film critic, described Ross's efforts to get the film into production as "perhaps the strongest example of sheer will in film history".
After filmmaker John Badham learned that Ross was cast as Dorothy, he decided not to direct, and Cohen replaced him with Sidney Lumet. Of his decision not to direct The Wiz, Badham recalled telling Cohen that he thought that Ross was "a wonderful singer. She's a terrific actress and a great dancer, but she's not this character. She's not the little six-year-old girl Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz." Lumet's hiring was met with skepticism, for he was known as a dramatic filmmaker with no previous musical directing experience.
Although 20th Century Fox had financially backed the stage musical, it exercised its first refusal rights to the film production, which gave Universal an opening to finance the film. Initially, Universal was so excited about the film's prospects that it did not set a budget for production.
Writing Joel Schumacher's script is influenced by Werner Erhard's teachings and his Erhard Seminars Training ("est") movement because both Schumacher and Ross were "very enamored of Werner Erhard". "Before I knew it," said Rob Cohen, "the movie was becoming an est-ian fable full of est buzzwords about knowing who you are and sharing and all that. I hated the script a lot. But it was hard to argue with [Ross] because she was recognizing in this script all of this stuff that she had worked out in est seminars." Schumacher spoke positively of the results of the est training, stating that he was "eternally grateful for learning that I was responsible for my life". However, he also complained that "everybody stayed exactly the way they were and went around spouting all this bullshit". Regarding est and Erhard references in the film, The Grove Book of Hollywood notes that the speech delivered by Glinda the Good Witch (Lena Horne) at the end of the film was "a litany of est-like platitudes", and the book makes est comparisons to the song "Believe in Yourself". Although Schumacher had seen the Broadway play before writing the script, none of the play's writing was incorporated into the film, a fact that was noted and heavily criticized after release.
During production, Lumet felt that the finished film would be "an absolutely unique experience that nobody has ever witnessed before". When asked about any possible influence from MGM's popular 1939 film adaptation titled The Wizard of Oz, Lumet stated that "there was nothing to be gained from [the 1939 film] other than to make certain we didn't use anything from it. They made a brilliant movie, and even though our concept is different – they're Kansas, we're New York; they're white, we're black, and the score and the books are totally different – we wanted to make sure that we never overlapped in any area."
Casting Michael Jackson, a former Motown star and close friend of Ross, was cast as the Scarecrow. At the start of development, he and his brothers The Jacksons (with the exception of Jermaine Jackson) had departed Motown for Epic Records in 1975, after the release of their tenth album Moving Violation (although Michael had not released a solo album since Forever, Michael). Cohen, head of Motown Productions, thought that Jackson would be perfect for the role of the Scarecrow, and approached Gordy with the idea. Gordy agreed, although Lumet was harder to convince. Lumet wanted Jimmie Walker, star of CBS-TV's Good Times, telling Cohen, "Michael Jackson's a Vegas act. The Jackson 5's a Vegas act."
Quincy Jones was also skeptical of Jackson, but after Cohen arranged a meeting, flying 18-year-old Jackson to New York, Lumet and Jones saw the qualities that Cohen saw. Jackson's father Joseph was wary of the project and saw it as a threat to the Jacksons group cohesion. Cohen moved Michael (and his sister La Toya) into a Manhattan apartment, allowing him to be on his own for the first time. During production, Jackson became a frequent visitor to New York's famous Studio 54. Jackson was dedicated to the Scarecrow role and watched videotapes of gazelles, cheetahs and panthers to learn graceful movements for his part.
The long hours of uncomfortable prosthetic makeup by Stan Winston did not bother him. During production, Jackson asked Quincy Jones who he would recommend as a producer on his yet unrecorded solo album project. Jones, impressed by Jackson's professionalism, talent and work ethic, offered to be the producer of what became Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987).
Ted Ross and Mabel King were brought in to reprise their respective roles of the Cowardly Lion and Evillene from the stage musical, while Nipsey Russell was cast as the Tin Man. Lena Horne, Lumet's mother-in-law at the time of production, was cast as Glinda the Good Witch, and Richard Pryor portrayed The Wiz. The film's choreographer was Louis Johnson.
Filming