The Wiz

The Wiz (1978) is a fantasy musical directed by Sidney Lumet — watch it online on iFILM. Diana Ross plays Dorothy, a shy Harlem kindergarten teacher swept by a blizzard into a magical world paved with yellow bricks. Michael Jackson is the Scarecrow. Richard Pryor plays the Wiz himself.

The film reworks L. Frank Baum's classic story through the lens of Black American culture, with the Emerald City rebuilt as a neon-lit vision of New York and the entire journey unfolding through elaborate sets constructed across real city locations. The source stage musical ran four seasons on Broadway and won seven Tony Awards before Universal greenlit the adaptation with a budget north of twenty-four million dollars.

Quincy Jones arranged the score — the same collaboration that would soon produce Michael Jackson's Off the Wall. Seeing a twenty-year-old Jackson move through a full Hollywood production, alongside Ross and a cast of veteran performers, is reason enough to watch. Stream The Wiz (1978) online on iFILM.