He was great. As creepy as The Wiz was, he was great. I should rent that movie again. Diana Ross was waaaaay too old, but the whole concept was pretty cool.
It IS sad. But I recommend watching GSN and catching him on one of the shows he did on TV. They'll be doing a retrospective soon I bet.
But may I say, from experience and Carlos will back me up on this, time seems to lessen our response to The Wiz in ways it doesn't other films. Don't Look In The Basement, for instance, was rotten and if I saw it for rent I certainly wouldn't. But the music of The Wiz is SO AWESOME one allows oneself to be lead down that primrose and crab-apple path to utter disappointment all over again. The movie sucks like a hoover with herpes. The "concept" has nothing to do with ANY of its source material. Rather, the "concept" was to get every black entertainer together in one vehicle. Well...that, um...happened anyways. It woulda been nice to SEE Ted Ross's FACE during "Mean Ol' Lion" but kiddies, we never do. And we never will. And Michael Jackson's inexplicable replacement song for "I Was Born on the Day Before Yesterday" called "You Can't Win" should serve as advice for all who think they might give this ubertrash another chance. Please invest in the OCR, if you haven't yet, and listen to it. Get a script of the PLAY and read along. But do not, for the love of GOD, view this film again.
And so you know I'm not crazy, I met William Brown, book-of-the-musical author, while I worked at The York Theatre. I told him what I thought of how they'd butchered his work. His wife SHOUTED "Amen!" and he said "Yes they did, didn't they?"
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2005-10-04 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-04 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-04 06:58 pm (UTC)But may I say, from experience and Carlos will back me up on this, time seems to lessen our response to The Wiz in ways it doesn't other films.
Don't Look In The Basement, for instance, was rotten and if I saw it for rent I certainly wouldn't. But the music of The Wiz is SO AWESOME one allows oneself to be lead down that primrose and crab-apple path to utter disappointment all over again.
The movie sucks like a hoover with herpes. The "concept" has nothing to do with ANY of its source material. Rather, the "concept" was to get every black entertainer together in one vehicle. Well...that, um...happened anyways.
It woulda been nice to SEE Ted Ross's FACE during "Mean Ol' Lion" but kiddies, we never do. And we never will. And Michael Jackson's inexplicable replacement song for "I Was Born on the Day Before Yesterday" called "You Can't Win" should serve as advice for all who think they might give this ubertrash another chance.
Please invest in the OCR, if you haven't yet, and listen to it. Get a script of the PLAY and read along. But do not, for the love of GOD, view this film again.
And so you know I'm not crazy, I met William Brown, book-of-the-musical author, while I worked at The York Theatre. I told him what I thought of how they'd butchered his work. His wife SHOUTED "Amen!" and he said "Yes they did, didn't they?"
Can't get better proof than that!
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:I was the Scarecrow...have pics to prove it!
From:no subject
Date: 2005-10-04 07:14 pm (UTC)Always have.
Diana Ross should not be there. That's clear.
But I always loved that movie. But I should get the original cast recording, you're right.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-05 01:38 am (UTC)