The Wiz

1978
G
2h 14m

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

18K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer3:31

Pop Musical Adventure Family Fantasy Musical

An adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" that tries to capture the essence of the African-American experience.An adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" that tries to capture the essence of the African-American experience.An adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" that tries to capture the essence of the African-American experience.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

18K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,035

473

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 4 Oscars
- 2 wins & 11 nominations total

Trivia
In his book "Making Movies," Sidney Lumet admits that filming the Emerald City sequence on the plaza at the World Trade Center had to be cut short because of wind and scheduling. The red sequence had to be shortened due to a lighting error, and there was no time to re-shoot. The Port Authority would not allow more time to fix mistakes.

Goofs
Aunt Em comments that Dorothy has never been south of 125th Street in the Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem. However, Dorothy later gives her address as being on Prospect Place, which is in Brooklyn, miles southeast of Harlem.

Quotes
Scarecrow: Public office is the last refuge of the incompetent!

Crazy credits
Fitzstephens, Jack ... Music Editor & Guru

Alternate versions
When this movie debuted on CBS, the network trimmed several scenes to fit in a 3 hour block with commercials. Several omitted scenes includes:
The arrival of the baby and its family at Aunt Emme's party.
Some of the dancing and the Poms sequence with the Munchkins (it cut from them going down the stairs to some of them doing acrobatics).
Portions of "Mean Ole Lion".
The chase sequence in the subway platform omits how the Scarecrow and the Tin Man are rescued by the Lion.
The Poppy Girls close-up shot.
Dance portions in the Emerald City during the Green and Red clothing.
The entire Emerald City Motel sequence
Dorothy asking the guards of the gate how to get to Evilynn's. (It cut from RIchard Pryor peeking out to the time clock at the sweat shop).

Connections
Edited into The Arrivals (2008)

Soundtracks
You Can't Win, You Can't Break Even
Written by Charlie Smalls
Performed by Michael Jackson (uncredited) and The Four Crows (uncredited)

User reviews208

Review

Featured review

7/10

I dug it.

Really hard to understand the low rating. I really appreciated this take on a classic tale, and the clever adaptation from rural Kansas to urban NYC. Slow in some spots, but charming and almost haunting (the amusement park, the desolate streets, the street vendor with the scary puppets, etc) with some memorable songs.

look closely at the clever production values as well, especially the Scarecrow who is composed of very distinctly different pieces of garbage (peanut butter cup wrapper nose, mop hair, chicken bucket hat, garbage bag pants, etc.

I give it a 8/10.