Wow. After reading these threads the past week or so I think Roberta might be my new BFF. Such a voice of reason and fresh air and reality. Subject at hand worries me...
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Wow. After reading these threads the past week or so I think Roberta might be my new BFF. Such a voice of reason and fresh air and reality. Subject at hand worries me...
Kids it’s only a movie nothing major. Some like it, some don’t. Life isn’t going to crash because someone gives an opinion you don’t like. Ignore it and push on.
Roberta, you are SO out of order here. Your hostile response to Marv's comment on when he first saw the play was totally out of order.. Think about it and take a break. I'm letting you slide on this one only because of your longevity here.
It seems to me, Roberta, that you aired out everything you dislike about Marv in one posting. Just give it a rest, please.
I think Michael Jackson's involvement is the biggest draw, but people are going to be especially interested when you throw in Diana and Richard Pryor and Lena Horne, three absolute legends [[four, counting Michael) in one movie. And I think aside from a minority of folks still feeling some type a way about Diana Ross' casting and some of the other questionable filming decisions, most of that 1970s controversy means nothing today, especially considering, as I mentioned before, that there is a whole generation of children who grew up with The Wiz and now that generation has children who are growing up with it.
Remember also that when the original movie was released in the 30s, nobody was screaming about it's greatness either. It wasn't until it was shown on television that The Wizard of Oz began to resonate with audiences. I would say The Wiz followed in it's footsteps in that way.
I think most people understand your point Vgalindo. That initial 24 million was on the table because Diana Ross was doing the movie. Had another actress been given the role [[and I don't think Stephanie Mills had a chance in hell), there's every belief that the initial budget for the film would have not been so exorbitant. The movie studio was banking on Diana Ross putting butts in the seats in the same way she did her first two films. Her name, and at that time to a lesser extent the name of Michael Jackson, certainly brought folks out to see it but once people left going "what the hell was that crap" and telling anyone who would listen, the studio didn't have a prayer in recouping the budget and making a profit.
I would say this pretty much sums up how The Wiz is viewed today in 2018. As you state a whole new generation have grown up with this film and view it quite differently from the expectations of a 70's audience.
For me the music is that good it transcends any shortcomings the film might have.
I particularly enjoy the moment when there is a glimpse of Diana Ross and not Dororthy. It is when having killed Evillene she is about to climb onto a motorbike and flashes Michael a huge Diana grin.
Odd man out here
I love it
watch it every year. Its funny as hell to us, especially the miss one scene...."What's a wiz ? Whats a wiz...Honey he is the ultimate ,,,!!!! and the splatter of the first witch and the toilet scene. The movie is a hoot and will live on better today than when it was made. Michael Jackson walking around and rolling his eyes at the lion has me dying with laughter. Diana Ross dancing in "Brand New Day " without a double is outstanding especially the cartwheels. I can feel them having a good time so yes I could feel a Brand new day. I can't remember the monkey with the bad breath and stank. Sorry the movie was hilarious to me.
Here you are, name-calling again. Suggesting someone is not a good person and not intelligent.
How odd - I recently posted several corrections to your inaccuracies and not once did you respond with the above platitude that, according to you good and intelligent people do.
Personally, I think the wiz is atrocious. I only like Thelma Carpenter in it and snips of others .......
i dont blame the actors because they were doing what the director wanted. As AWFUL as ross, MJ and Richard Pryor are with every spoken word, it is what Lumet wanted. We all know that Diana and Richard Pryor can give much better performances than what they did in this film…… Michael simply just cannot act. The film was ill conceived with the hideous screen play…… Visually it’s annoying…… It’s edited horribly…… The sound is bad...And why people under 40 love it now I have no idea.
As for the $33 million budget, I do not believe that. That figure was only used in jet magazine which was nothing more than a glorified national Inquirer. Every other source uses the $24 million budget and it is the one that I believe is correct. The IMDB source is as accurate as any for the film industry. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078504/
Jet Magazine was for many years a major source of African American news related to politics, life and entertainment. The magazine was highly respected in the community and for good reason as it spotlighted major issues affecting the Black community, issues that were often not reported on in other major news sources. It was also a great source for features on Motown artists from the 60s on, many of whom made the cover. I realize that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there is no way I'm going to allow a equation between such an esteemed publication as Jet and that shitty ass rag called the National Enquirer stand without a counter viewpoint. I'm hoping you've mistaken the magazine you meant to mention. People Magazine perhaps?
I feel had they had a different director, least one that knew how to produce film musicals, The Wiz would've been salvageable overall. But as noted, it's become a film classic that still plays on TV and people still buy its DVDs for. Clearly great things DID happen with the film: it brought MJ together with Quincy Jones and they ended up making history together.
You're not the odd man out. I actually DO like the film but the way the directing was, some scenes were shot too far especially the first Ease On Down sequence. How they gonna do all that choreography and the camera scales back. We see what the road is and all of that. That was one thing to used to really annoy me. Other than that, I felt everyone did play their roles right in a sense. I was always fixated on MJ though. He proved he had acting chops. Now if only he was allowed to do more films. :/
Oddly enough that scaled back camera shot of Diana and Michael easing on down the road is an iconic image.
I enjoyed The Wiz the first time I saw it in the theatre. But I really do believe they had the wrong director. The film was way too dark and the sets looked really cheap. And the look of Diana was all wrong. I really think they were trying to make her look too mature and plain looking. I hated her look. I can now barely watch the whole thing on DVD. some of the scenes are too long and they become boring. However The music, singing and performances are fantastic. It's a great movie for the big screen but not so much on TV.
[QUOTE=RanRan79;463518]Jet Magazine was for many years a major source of African American news related to politics, life and entertainment. The magazine was highly respected in the community and for good reason as it spotlighted major issues affecting the Black community, issues that were often not reported on in other major news sources. It was also a great source for features on Motown artists from the 60s on, many of whom made the cover. I realize that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there is no way I'm going to allow a equation between such an esteemed publication as Jet and that shitty ass rag called the National Enquirer stand without a counter viewpoint. I'm hoping you've mistaken the magazine you meant to mention. People Magazine perhaps?[/[QUOTE
You are absolutely right - it’s been so long since I saw an Enquirer, I forgot it was the type to run headlines like “Aliens Inhabit The Soul Of Jayne Mansfield” several of my buds got Jet so I saw it every week for about 15 years and while I took some of its editorial with a grain of salt, it was an important magazine. Every single black friend I had got Jet delivered every week to their homes. It WAS more like People, but sometimes they ran articles that seemed very close to press releases I had read. Been years since I’ve seen one - do they still print them?
The "failure" of The Wiz [[an enjoyable film that could have been much better) is indeed mostly because of some choices made by the director Sidney Lumet. For a musical, the direction is way too detached from the performances, particularly because of the overuse of long shots. But perhaps even more important, the film is too damn serious, best exemplified by Diana Ross's performance [[but also by the others). Although I understand the criticism that Ross was too old, a much bigger problem is that Lumet didn't let Diana Ross be Diana Ross. Mahogany is far from a cinematic masterpiece, but the fun of the film lies in the vibrant performance by Ross; she literally has pizzazz [[as shown by the scene in which she tells Brian that he needs pizzazz!). That's totally absent in The Wiz. I think Donald Bogle summed it up nicely in his pivotal book on black actors in American film [[Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks): "As for Ross, she was much too hip and sophisticated for the timid little dodo she's playing. Here is a woman who rose to fame during her days as the lead singer with The Supremes as well as in her first two films by having such drive and daring that she always looked as if she could do anything. When she turns weepy and whiny, you want to shake some sense into her. Audiences have always both loved and hated her aggressiveness. But a nonassertive Diana Ross is not Diana Ross at all" [[p. 265).
Sooooo true, Jaap! So true. I always wondered how Diana REALLY felt about filming The Wiz. I can imagine Sidney yelling obscenities at her and all of that. I know that she had injured her cornea during a scene because Sidney made her look into the light too long in one of the scenes.
That would be the scene with the big Wiz head. Talk about unimaginative! Diana does have a sound stage named for her at Kaufman-Astoria Studios in Astoria, NY because The Wiz brought filming back to those stages. I walked by the plaque one day, never even knowing it was there!
I think an interesting performance would be Diana playing Dorothy as a very shy, awkward, lonely, childlike young woman who has been repressed so long she keeps all her drive inside. The Wiz could have been Dorothy transforming from Dorothy and into Miss Ross by the end. It would be amazing to go from socially stunted, shy, stammering womanchild to diva Diana who takes no stuff off nobody.