The recent wave of music biopics has dramatized some of the most influential artists of the 20th century, including Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen, but the sub-genre appears to be culminating in a grand cinematic event this April with the release of Michael, the story of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Drawing mass attention from audiences due to the subject’s overwhelming popularity and complicated legacy (something we’re not entirely sure if the film is allowed to touch), Antoine Fuqua‘s biopic will be inherently entertaining thanks to the presence of Jackson’s music and his nephew and striking look-alike, Jaafar Jackson, who is portraying the star in the film. In an alternate world, Jackson, if he weren’t the most prodigious pop star in the world, could’ve been a mainstay in movies. Before recording Thriller, Jackson, in his only feature film role, starred in a bold and strange adaptation of the Broadway show, The Wiz, an unlikely reimagining of The Wizard of Oz.
Why Michael Jackson’s Scarecrow Is the Heart of ‘The Wiz’
On the cusp of his legendary solo career away from The Jackson 5 in the late 1970s, Michael Jackson took major strides in his career not just by being cast in The Wiz, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Diana Ross as Dorothy Gale, but and forming his invaluable partnership with producer and driving force of the project, music mogul Quincy Jones, who would go on to produce his record-breaking albums, including Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. As a musical, actors who could carry a tune were a must-have, but even so, casting the raw and movie-inexperienced Jackson was quite a gamble. His turn as The Scarecrow in this alternative take on the story of Oz and a girl named Dorothy on an odyssey left a seismic imprint on a film with an ever-growing cult appreciation.
The film, like its source material, mirrors the plot of The Wizard of Oz, with New York City replacing Kansas and Dorothy being a lonely schoolteacher rather than a neglected farm girl. The Motown-inspired musical numbers and ornate production design of Oz in The Wiz make Victor Fleming‘s classic 1939 film look grounded. Ironically, though, one would’ve expected that a Wizard of Oz remake by Sidney Lumet would’ve been a gritty, stripped-down character drama. Best known for his New York-set crime thrillers and social dramas like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network, Lumet was a bizarre choice to direct a glossy, family-friendly studio musical, to say the least, especially since the story revolves around the Black experience in America. Other creative talent behind The Wiz also includes Joel Schumacher as its screenwriter, long before his pair of Batman movies featured a similarly garish and ostentatious production design as the musical.
Michael Jackson’s immense wealth and tight schedule would’ve prevented him from a steady film career, but The Wiz is a bittersweet reminder of what audiences could’ve received if he decided to moonlight as an actor. From his initial introduction as the Scarecrow, there was no doubt that he was going to become the world’s brightest star in just a few years. The worst thing The Wiz had going for it was the all-encompassing legacy of The Wizard of Oz, but its performances are distinct, particularly Jackson as the Scarecrow, who modernized Ray Bolger‘s turn as the man made of straw who is desperate for a brain. His sensitive, soft-spoken demeanor—heard in his music and seen in his public persona— paints the Scarecrow as the ultimate tragic figure. The film, which has its fair share of slow-paced sequences, springs to life whenever Jackson gets to sing and dance. At his highest and lowest, the Scarecrow is the heart of The Wiz, as his journey underlines both the wonder and heartbreak of Oz as a dream world.
How ‘The Wiz’ Blends Musical Spectacle With Gritty Drama
The Wiz is a confounding, messy, yet eternally fascinating film that endures today, as its growing cult status has recently led to its inclusion in the Criterion Collection. There’s no studio musical quite like this, with the glitzy and magical visual aesthetic starkly contrasted with Sidney Lumet’s eye for character drama. Lumet, responsible for some of the medium’s finest performances in history by Al Pacino and Paul Newman, allows the film to thrive as much as an actor’s showcase as a musical spectacle, even if he preferred to keep everything in wide master shots.
To the dismay of many audiences looking for a modernized Wizard of Oz, The Wiz is perhaps the saddest musical ever projected on-screen, as the Oz quartet spends more time crying than singing or dancing. On an intellectual level, this makes the film rewarding on rewatch, as the themes of alienation and loneliness tap into the heart of L. Frank Baum‘s text and the hardships of the Black community in the late ’70s. As Michael Jackson’s legacy endures on the big screen, The Wiz will consistently find new audiences.
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