The Wiz

Song after song after song.
The Wiz directed by Sidney Lumet. Adapted from the musical by Charlie Smalls and William Brown.

A girl named Dorothy chases after her dog Toto, ended up in a new world. On the adventure she finds three new friends; Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion. Together they encounter many different and challenging events on their journey to the Wiz.

This movie was made in 1978, by then films were pretty advanced. The camera work was fair. There were many music scenes with dancers but in everyone, it was a medium long shot. It would have been nice to seen the dancers and the scenery in a 3/4 shot or even a medium close up. There was a little script, with such big actors such as Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, I would have expected them to have more parts than the tin man played by Nipsty Russelland the Lion played by Ted Ross. Micheal Jackson should have song more songs. This would have helped the movie alot, I really got tired of hearing Diana Ross sing song after song. The lighting was horrible. Throughout the movie everything was so dark and gloomy. Better lighting would have made everything pop. The acting was fair, a little over acted though. Dorothy was very underacted at times, she was very soft spoken and that did not help this movie. Micheal Jackson barely acted at all through the middle and end of the movie. The Lion wasn't supposed to have courage, yet he was the one doing things to protect the others. The special effects were fair also, but there were very few. One of the last scenes in the movie, where Glinda and the background singers are just floating in the sky. It's very obvious that they are connected to stings with a backdrop behind them. For this film to be a musical music scenes are expected, but the songs were just too long. So long that the movie doesn't capture your attention anymore. if the songs would have been shorter and not so many, The Wiz would have been alot better.

No, i wouldn't recommend this film to anyone. If anyone at all just people who enjoy music videos.

Altogether, this was not a good movie, it was fairly poor. Diana Ross was too soft spoken to play Dorothy. The songs were too long for a movie. This movie could have been alot better.