The Wiz (1978)

Quincy Jones updates the Wizard of Oz with an uplifting disco-soul soundtrack, but director Sidney Lumet bungles the innercity finding-yourself musical set against racial themes and New York City landmarks. Diana Ross, Micheal Jackson, Richard Pryor, Lena Horn…, the film showcases a legendary cast and one of the greatest musical talents of our age (Jones appears briefly in a nod to Cab Calloway as a piano player in the Emerald City), but Lumet robs the film of all empathy or excitement by shooting scenes wide and long from across the parking lot. It’s almost as if he is afraid to get too close to his Black performers. What would otherwise be a sparkling Motown musical as great as MGM’s original Wizard becomes a tinsel race-card curiosity.