MISS DIANA ROSS IN THE WIZ

The movie is shit on screen. Diana looks horrendous.

I will play Dorothy in the white remake.

Star casting!!!! Killing Broadway & movie industry.. hell I’d add opera as well. You’re guaranteed an audience with stars but cast truly talented actors perfect for a role and you just might get a true artistic and commercial success

Once the producers decide to make a blockbuster, then everything gets bloated and heavy. Every choice has to have importance over and above what is needed to make the best film. It all becomes about promotion. and publicity and box office. Not about making a good movie. Beware the "important film."

Michael would have made a better Dorothy.

The nail in the coffin of her film career.

It has some great moments and the soundtrack is excellent, but making Dorothy a 30-something woman made her seem like she was one crying spell away from being in a mental hospital. Maybe not the tone you want for a family friendly musical. Even Return to Oz seemed lighter and more family friendly than The Wiz and that movie traumatized just about every kid that saw it.

The number in the sweatshop is brilliant and I remember as a kid loving the spooky subway station sequence with the terrifying paper puppets, but overall it's a sinister disaster.

"The nail in the coffin of her film career."

Even Barry Gordy was embarrassed by Ross' high pressure campaign to get the starring role.

When a carnival barker/hype master like BG says the hype is/was too much, believe him.

Miss Ross was still better than Stephanie Mills would have been. Can you imagine seeing that face on the side screen. Nipsey Russell did a great job. Too bad it was in this movie.

Also have to add that a lot of black families love this movie.

There is a tradition of casting women too old to play Dorothy.

Even Garland was too old. In the book, Dorothy is described as being a little girl, not having the hairiest pussy in Kansas.

Why did they show Diana's sweat stains under her arms during the Brand New Day number?

The real question is: who thought Sidney Lumet was the right director for a musical?

The re-setting of the story in Manhattan was Sidney Lumet's bright idea, I mean, "concept." Utter disaster.

Miss Ross was originally going to play Glinda but then decided she wanted to play Dorothy. When she guaranteed Michael Jackson’s participation if she got her way the part was hers. On the plus side they employed hundreds of Black NYC singers and dancers who, at that time, were normally shut out of movies.

Diana was a bit long in the tooth to be playing Dorothy, no?

She was running around the entire time like a neurotic speed freak. It terrified me as a child. Call Me Miss Ross says she Used her influence with Berry to basically rewrite the script

It was shit and it is remembered that way.

Funny, my younger brother and I went to see it in the theater (I would have been about 12) and we loved it! Two little white boys. I can still remember parts of it - some throne that was a toilet or something and someone got flushed?

This movie should have been flushed

I remember watching this movie when I was in middle school and finding it stupid. I’m glad I am not the only one that despised this movie. Diana, as talented as she is/was, was way too miscast as Dorothy. “Ease on Down the Road” is a catchy tune though. We performed it one year in chorus for our high school variety show.

I want to believe that had the Razzies existed at the time of this movie’s release, “The Wiz” would have taken the honors.

I love the song Brand New Day but the choreography is so fucking terrible in that scene.

R16: God knows I love Diana Ross, but at this point, in her life, a more, "glammed up", Auntie Em would have been a better choice.

I saw it in the theater on Broadway the movie opened at. It was a mid-morning showing and the theater was packed with a very enthusiastic crowd...they woke me up numerous times with their cheers.

I liked it when I was a kid. I didn't know there was a "black version" of The Wizard of Oz, a movie I loved, until I caught this on VH1 one day.

I went to see this with the class as a student. I loved the scenes with Lena Horne, the Twin Towers and the final dance scene, "Brand New Day". As a child, some of the scenes were frightening and others sailed over my head.

Miss Ross looked frumpy and anorectic to me even back then. Hated her hairstyle and costumes.

I think Mabel King and Nipsey Russell turned in the most successful performances.

I am a huge Diana Ross fan but my God, she is horrible in this. Her ego completely took over and she really didn't understand Dorothy or what this film was about. The horrible hair, the frumpy clothes, the shrieky voice, acting neurotic and on edge.

Funny enough, Ross criticized Lumet in her autobiography, writing that he directed the film like a play and he could have made it more cinematic. She has a point, but neither Lumet nor Ross were well-suited for this film.

The supporting cast is very good, and Lena Horne sweeps in for three minutes and steals the film.

Everything is wrong with this movie - it should have been high-energy and joyous, but the setting is grim, the lead is a miscast drip, and the director didn't have a clue how to film a musical number.

But the miscasting of Miss Ross as Dorothy is the single biggest problem with the movie . The Dorothy in "The Wiz" should bring light and youthful energy into a weird and scary setting, instead, she's a whiner and a drip and middle-aged! She didn't have a clue how to even begin approaching the role, I'm actually surprised that they finished filming with her being that bad!

I love it because I saw it as a kid, back when you just accepted that this was the version they meant to make and it must be good because 'professional adults' actually made the movie.

If you love it as a kid, you still love it MAJOR flaws and all.

i love it too, did then and do now. Love when she sings "Home" and goes home at the end

The problem with the Wiz is that black people are not going to criticize it because “the culture” and white people aren’t going to criticize it because they don’t want to be seen as racist.

The Wiz, based on its historical value, what it means to black people, alone DO make it an important film. But, like many said, Diana (though I love her rendition of Home) is too old and manic in the part. As a result the Wiz never got the film it deserves. With that in mind, I still love it.

[quote] DO make it an important film

DOES make it an important film

Lumet should have insisted on ebonics.

The extras, who were probably paid nothing gave their all and made these scenes

The new songs written for the movie by Ashford and Simpson are duds.

I'm watching Sounder to pay my respects to Miss Tyson, and now I understand Diana's hairstyle in The Wiz.

It was an homage to the poor sharecropper that lives in rural country Dorothy's heart even though she was now from Harlem.

it

all

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back

Shit

now ya'll are making me watch The Wiz again.

My only critique I had as a kid was that I wanted more Witch.

One scene wasn't enough. I wanted her presence felt in the land of Oz with her popping up along the way like in the original.

But even as a kid I knew no broom could support the weight of Evillene for expedient air travel to and fro.

Nipsey Russell was a last minute replacement for Ben Vereen.

Whenever feeling down or beating myself up about something, turn to this clip from the Wiz, and by end am feeling much better about things.