History Film / TheWiz

* BigRottenApple: This still being pre-Giuliani New York City, Oz is depicted as [[SceneryGorn the run-down]] WretchedHiveOfScumAndVillainy it was in the 1970s, full of dilapidated cars, crumbling buildings, a jagged skyline and graffiti everywhere. [[InformedAttractiveness This is magical??]]

* AdaptationalUgliness: In the original Broadway production, Evillene wasn't necessarily ''ugly'', just garishly dressed. The film makes use of [[UncannyValleyMakeup heavy prosthetic makeup]] to give her a more grotesque appearance.

* AdaptationalUgliness: In the original Broadway production, Evillene wasn't necessarily ''ugly'', just garishly dressed. The film makes use of [[UncannyValleyMakeup heavy prosthetic makeup]] in order give her a more grotesque appearance.

* AdaptationalUgliness: In the original Broadway production, Evillene wasn't necessarily ''ugly'', just garishly dressed. The film makes use of heavy prosthetic makeup in order give her a more grotesque appearance.

* DarkerAndEdgier: [[SceneryGorn From the post-apocalyptic New York setting and general decay of the architecture, to the costuming, to the casting of Dorothy herself]] [[DawsonCasting (changed from a young girl to an]] ExtremeDoormat [[DawsonCasting adult),]] the film version is a bleak (The Scarecrow is being tortured by the crows), but [[SceneryPorn sumptuously shot piece of work.]] The VillainSong subverts this, though - it is a [[IWantSong selfish ode to self]] done in the style of a [[LyricalDissonance Gospel number]].

Creator/{{Motown}} and Creator/{{Universal}} produced a movie adaptation of the Broadway musical ''Theatre/TheWiz'', an all-African-American retelling of the book ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', in 1978. It was directed by Creator/SidneyLumet and Creator/JoelSchumacher wrote the screenplay. In addition to the {{Race Lift}}ing, this added a further, big twist to the ''Oz'' tale: Instead of turn-of-the-20th-century Kansas, the story begins in modern Harlem and Dorothy is a shy schoolteacher in her 20s who has never ventured beyond it -- a change made to accommodate the casting of Music/DianaRoss (in her 30s at the time) in the role, as she [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wiz_(film)#Pre-production_and_development had campaigned heavily for it]]. It's a blizzard that sweeps her to Oz, a fantasy version of the rest of New York City. The Tin Woodman is now a forgotten amusement park robot, the Cowardly Lion masquerades as a statue outside the Public Library, the Wicked Witch of the West (here named Evillene) runs a sweatshop, etc. It remains notable for marking the end of {{Blaxploitation}} in cinema, and for its AllStarCast of African-American talent, from Creator/RichardPryor as the Wiz himself to Lena Horne as Glinda to a 19-year-old Music/MichaelJackson as the Scarecrow (his only major film role, not counting the anthology ''{{Film/Moonwalker}}'' and his cameo in ''Film/MenInBlackII'')[[note]]Jackson's casting in the film brought him to the attention of its music producer, Quincy Jones, who convinced Jackson to let him produce what would become his three [[Music/OffTheWall most]] [[Music/{{Thriller}} successful]] [[Music/{{Bad}} albums]].[[/note]].

* MessianicArchetype: How about a Madonna Archtype? Glinda resembles the Virgin Mary. If the matching blue robe and veil were not a giveaway, she even wears a crown of stars. Her army of floating space babies also resembes attendant cherubs.

* ScaryBlackWoman: Evillene, full stop. Not helping is her ugly, {{Gonk}}y appearance that almost makes her look like a [[UncannyValley broken doll]] with a lot of missing hair on its head.

* MalevolentMaskedMen: Mixed with EvilPuppeteer, as the peddler is seen donning an expressionless mask of fabric upon approaching Dorothy and her posse in the subway before unleashing two ghastly sentient puppets on them.

* NiceShoes: The Silver Slippers. As with the main source material, they are the one thing that can send Dorothy back home.

* OutOfTheFryingPan: The Scarecrow mutters that trope directly when he realizes that the Poppy Girls are up to no good.