The Wiz: 30th Anniversary Edition

Based on star power alone, this 1978 Motown-influenced remake of The Wizard of Oz was deemed a must-see adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. But the stage spectacular that entranced theatergoers for years didn't translate well to the screen, and most of the blame fell on director and native New Yorker Sidney Lumet, whose efforts to transform his hometown into Oz resulted in something decidedly less than magical. At the time, casting Diana Ross as Dorothy must have seemed like a smart idea, but her performance was deeply flawed: clearly too old to play a 24-year-old Harlem schoolteacher, Ross overcompensated by acting like a petulant child. Worse, Richard Pryor turned the Wizard into a sniveling little fraud who was totally lacking in charm. Michael Jackson fared somewhat better as the Scarecrow; even then the future King of Pop's persona made him ideally suited to play a storybook character. Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man, Ted Ross as the Cowardly Lion, and Lena Horne as Glenda the Good Witch all had fine moments as well, but there was no getting around Lumet's fundamental miscalculation: capturing recognizable New York City locations on film in grainy color-desaturated images made Oz seem drab and seedy rather than bright and colorful. Some of the musical numbers are staged with verve, but on the whole The Wiz fails to cast much of a spell, and 30 years later remains only intermittently entertaining. DVD extras include a vintage behind-the-scenes featurette and a bonus audio CD featuring songs from the soundtrack. Optional. (E. Hulse)[Blu-ray Review—Dec. 21, 2010—Universal, 135 min., G, $26.98—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1978's The Wiz features a fine transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 audio. Blu-ray extras are nearly identical to the previous DVD release, including a “Wiz on Down the Road” making-of featurette (12 min.), and trailers, with the newly-added BD-Live function. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray debut for a big-budget musical misfire.]