Welcome to the podcast. This is the slog the podcast where we talk about movies that totally
suck the life out of you. I am your host Brandon stables. Welcome. Wait, hold on. Hold on. Yeah.
Okay. Actually, this is the polarize pod. I'm just kidding. We're not too well. We're definitely
still talking about a movie that could be described as a slog. But this is the polarized
podcast. This is a podcast about polarizing movies polarizing movies in the sense of rotten
tomato score. Critics love it. And audiences hate it or vice versa. Today we're talking about the
hashtag slog the whiz. Yes, like I said, I am your host Brandon and this movie, just get the
percentages and all of the stuff out of the way is 41% critics 65% audience. So not really too
spicy on the audience. And I could probably understand why you got some this is 1978 classic
starring the classic or it's probably that but this yeah, starts Diana Ross and the first on
screen performance of those those. Sorry, the timing was good on that one. Continue. We're
not working out. We're working it out. But yeah, the on screen for sunscreen performance of Michael
Jackson, young 20 year old buck, but he's covered in a bunch of makeup. So you can tell what age he
is really. So you know, he's got that going for him. Um, yeah, this is a movie, a musical, and
we're going to get into it. Now I'd like to introduce my co host. We also like to call him
the forever guest, my confidant in movies that are sluggish. Mr. James Lindsay, how's it going?
Yes. Hello, I am James Lindsay. I am the the co host of forever guest. I'm back yet again. And
Brandon just was getting up on down the road. And then he he picked me up along the way. Now we
talk a little bit about a movie. This is a movie. This is a podcast. Yes, it is. polarizing movies.
We do on this one. No. Yeah. But sometimes you and me agree on the movies on at least how we feel
about it. And sometimes we spoiler alert, I feel like it's a lot. But you know, and then we
polarize ourselves. I think more. Yeah, it's safe to say more often than not, we agree with one side
or the other. And then that's the that's the journey we go on is to get to which side do we
typically agree with and do we agree together as hosts on movies that we talk about. So this movie,
the whiz James, I had never seen this movie before, definitely had heard about it for sure. But
had never seen it. I will just preface to the people that we have been in this Motown universe,
because we previously had done mahogany, which is stars Diana Ross, again, also directed by Barry
Gordy. This movie is similar in that it stars Diana Ross. This time it is not directed by Barry
Gordy, but produced by Motown produced by it.
As adjacent to Barry Gordy as you could possibly be, but his name is absolutely anywhere to be seen.
I don't think he's credited anywhere, but no, but Motown is prominently featured as like, as it
being a production. So yeah, but you're right. Yeah. His name has been removed. You know,
probably well after mahogany, if anybody hasn't listened to that episode, I implore you to do so
because that's a crazy fucking movie. And this is equally as nuts. I found out even more because we
are doing another podcast with our good pal Corey about music producers. And I was reading a little
bit more of Barry Gordy's book. And yeah, that was like a tumultuous time between him and Diana Ross
and their relationship. And in how we described it seemed like like the final nail in the coffin of
their relationship. So much so that they fought at the very end of it where they only had like a few
things left to shoot for continuity and some transition scenes or whatever. And they got in
a huge fight and she like smacked him and left and said she was done. And then he had to like get
some someone else to like use her arms to pretend to be Diana Ross in some of the scenes. Which
I just if anyone had never heard of mahogany or didn't listen to the episode last week is another
movie by Barry Gordy, who is the big big papa of Motown himself and for him to jump into the world
of movies that we thought it'd be fun to do a little crossover series of our own here. And the
the whiz is something that I think everybody I don't know a lot of people have heard of. I've
never talked to anybody who's seen or got in gotten into it. I've never seen it or seen of it. I feel
like I don't I don't see any merchandise or anything lasting or I've never saw it growing
up on on TV really. And it was just something that I heard of. But here we are. And I see it
in all in everything. Like I saw the movie and it's and it's a movie. It is a movie for sure. Well,
it's a musical movie. So let's yeah, we've done some musicals on this podcast. It's been fun.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, this is the but you know, yeah, maybe not this one. But yeah, musicals
have been, you know, previous to this podcast were kind of something that I was like, yeah,
I like these. But having now seen more of them, it's been really wonderful to kind of get to know
some of these musicals that we've done and just kind of really appreciate musicals as a genre of
film. This is not what I would recommend to people if they would like to get excited about musicals.
And yeah, I think we're kind of bearing the lead. But I'm trying to think if there's anything else
to say, oh, something that I thought that was really interesting about this is that not only
did this kind of kill my spirits watching it, but it also ended the blaxploitation era films, which
I thought was pretty interesting because this is like I would argue is like a poster child for
blaxploitation, where there was a period of filmmaking during the 70s, where it would be
like the black version of something. And I just know, you know, doing research into that, because
I've seen some blaxploitation movies, you know, your shafts or whatever. But it's so I just found
a particular thing so interesting about it is that at first blaxploitation was obviously used
as a negative connotation by the black community, because it was promoting like,
not it was promoting terrible stereotypes. But then it was co-opted by the black community within
the same decade that they were making the movies, because people turn around and go like, well, yes,
these are so there's a lot of like, racy like, stuff in this in the sense of like violence and
sex and whatever, and some bad stereotypes. But the thing is, is that they featured
black leads. And, you know, wasn't it was a shift of the black person being, you know, in the film
being the bad guy, he was, you know, he or she was now being the star of this, just like this being
Diana Ross and this movie being the, you know, it seems kind of a weird thing to say nowadays in 2023.
And I'll just denote that. But like, yeah, it's like this is the black version of
the Wizard of Oz. And I think, you know, that idea and concept, it made sense why this movie
got made because the Wizard of Oz is obviously a story that is, you know, a classic story,
you know, something that is, I think, obviously, since there's so many remakes of it, you know,
it's always kind of there sitting there and potentially, you know, the
could be redone and to just kind of spark again some of the core tenets of what the story is about,
because those are relatively timeless and to then, you know, co-opt those timeless, like
plot points of the story or themes of Wizard of Oz and then update it with in this case, like,
you know, we're talking about, you know, where are we? We're in New York, Queens.
And then, yeah, to have Diana Ross be the main character in the film, you know,
Diana Ross be the Dorothy character, I think all of it made sense on paper and everything.
On paper, this movie seems like it's going to be a home run. And I was excited and looking forward
to seeing it as well. And I think it was something that was always in my mind that like, I should
check that out. I mean, look at that cast of people. And Wizard of Oz is always something nice to
revisit every now and then the magic of that movie and the lasting power of it all is something
that still remains. And there's still like side things like Wicked or whatever. And I believe
that's being made into a movie right now as well. And with how what's her face? Ariana Grande,
I believe. OK, yeah, I feel like I heard that. Yeah. Yeah. And that's and it's cool to expand
on that universe. You can use this structure in a very almost like Odyssean way or like Story of a
Hero in terms of someone being left taken from their home and put on this journey and having to
come home with this newfound knowledge all can resonate within a lot of different forms.
So there's there's just so many things going for this and so much so much potential.
But to start off the bat, like the beginning of this movie and the end, I'll just say right
right away, the prologue and epilogue, some of like the most satisfying elements, I feel like,
of Wizard of Oz in some ways is like the. Pre Oz and with, you know, obviously without the color,
that's that's a huge thing. But not only that, but seeing the real life versions of all the characters
she's about to encounter in her adventure and seeing the the parallels between them and
the duality of it all is really fun and satisfying. And it made me think of a movie that we love to
reference on this broadcast. Like it's it's like imagining back to the future where they just
immediately go, you know, back in time without anything of the the the mastercraft of that movie
and for, you know, for leading things in and not giving it away right away,
but leading the path for you to follow and then having a satisfyingly pay off at the end
in the third act. And yeah, I just we love back to the future. But in this one, it's the song around,
the song around, you know, the fam, the family dinner is nice. I like that as an idea and
everyone gathered around and everything. But I just a simple thing is like having Michael Jackson
be there, too, and having, you know, like real life versions of everyone there and having a little bit
more of, yeah, who she is in that in that moment apart from just that one scene. And then at the
end, she just goes back inside and that and that's it as well. Instead of like, and you were there and
we don't need every not everything has to be exactly the same. And I don't want to go down
that path so early as well. They didn't do this like the original. Like it doesn't have to be
exactly the same. But that's just something narratively within the story that would I don't
know, would just be an easy, obvious sort of thing to include as far as a beginning and an end.
But that was that's kind of the beginning. And then, yeah, transition, transition getting into
the world is kind of just like, I don't know, it's the trippiness is kind of fun, but it's so
it's so out of nowhere and not connected to anything in reality, like a tornado or something
like that. It just cuts to like space and she's got a tornado like in her hand. And there's like
the babies, the star babies. It's pretty trippy. And there's a lot of trippy stuff. But just to
backpedal a little bit, if it's OK with you, I think it would be really helpful, at least for me
to just briefly talk about some of these plot points and then I mentioned like the plot that's
happening and then we can talk about it because for me, this was like a fugue state. So it might be a
little bit helpful. I don't know if you're OK with that. If I just. Oh, that's fine. I mean,
how we start the differences from the original is kind of like how I like to think of it, because
that's just so familiar to me. But yeah, we can. Yeah. Yeah.
So the start of this movie is at a Thanksgiving dinner table.
There's a family that is having Thanksgiving dinner. A 24 year old elementary school teacher,
Dorothy Gales, who's played by Diana Ross and lives with her aunt and uncle.
You should teach middle school. You should teach us. I like the kids and they keep practicing.
I like the kids and they keep pressuring her to teach us like whatever she likes.
I'll mention. What's the big deal?
And I just write and I there was a lot of questions I had right off the bat because
I just didn't understand. Like it just for me, it I didn't understand people's motivations and what
like her Dorothy's problem is because I feel like in the original, it is so clear as to her
frustrations, her wanting to leave, like all of these things of like, you know, trying to escape
this little town in Kansas and then being transported into this fantastical area, you know,
world where then she realizes how wonderful she has it and appreciative of all these things,
yada yada. But like, yeah, she's extremely introverted. She's teased.
And then the they're trying to hook her up with this like cousin of theirs or whatever.
And she's just a super weird about it. And yeah, so I just I don't know for me,
it just doesn't we don't start off on a good foot with this movie because I just don't know.
Like, OK, so. I guess it's she doesn't want to go like, I don't know.
Yeah, why doesn't she want to become a middle school teacher?
But, you know, or at least she is a teacher and yeah, I don't understand.
So is her getting the courage? Maybe is the setup of this of like needing to stand on her own two
feet and that what we're getting trying to get solidified here, but it just wasn't really
effective for me. I felt just very confused to the point. Yeah. I just I my notes saying,
I'm like, I'm not sure what's going on with Diana and what she said about why she's shy.
So I just yeah, from the get go, I'm yeah, already like, hmm, what's going on here?
Like, what is our problem? You know, what is. Yeah, but I but I agree with you.
So then, yes, Dorothy cleans up after the meal. Her dog, Toto, runs out
the open kitchen door into a snowstorm. She succeeds in retrieving him, but finds her
trapped in the storm in a magical whirlwind made of snow, materializes and transports her to the
realm of Oz, which is depicted by dystopian version of New York City, which yes. So the
trippy stuff I was into, I really enjoyed, especially when she gets there, what happens
and I'll mention the Munchkin land and all that. But yeah, it reminded me so much of.
See, I do a little bit and Zardoz, especially like the head of the whiz and everything like that
reminded me of like and others. There was one big scene of like when they were, I think, after the
scarecrow and it was a big building with like farmland and it just looked like a trippy
watercolor painting that was kind of cool before she she actually gets transported, which is just
by this space Glinda with a hand tornado and star babies. And she crashes through a Z sign
for whiz. She does her there kind of which the music also is by Quincy Jones, like everything on
everything on the page is like great. But this is this is the somewhere over the rainbow version
of or like the parallel like the analog analog. Yeah. What they just give a little taste.
I just I feel like I'm saying this early on in the song. It's not nothing wrong with it,
but there's nothing really going on with it. That's great either. There's no hook
in a lot of this stuff. There's nothing like grabbing.
Something tells me that it's more than I can deal with sleepy.
Though I know, right. It's relaxing.
Yeah. So I mean, that's actually a good point because we're supposed to be kicking off this movie
venture and this is a total snooze fest. It's it's it's there's a lot of a lot of this
where it's aimless. It's just kind of aimless floating around. And then even some of the more
high octane energy stuff also feels like they're throwing everything at the wall and not. Yeah.
Right. Boiling down the essence of the song in a way that's more clean and palatable. It's
that for the for the like a movie coming from Motown, the audio mixing and the songs are
unfortunately not anything you can really hang your hat on. Yeah. And then I was noticing I
I listened to a little bit after I watched the movie, I was like, let me get a little taste of
the music just to remind myself. And it was kind of better when I didn't have to look at the visuals
on some of it and when I was like, oh, like it's I mean, it's not great. But when I was like having
to look at the crows and that whole set of where the scarecrow Michael Jackson was, I was like,
is upsetting and just just not it's just boring to look at. Everything was just so boring
and stripped down and no for a movie that's like notoriously known for color. The color is
is kind of fucked in this movie, especially like we're getting into Munchkin Land and the coloring
in that is so fucking dark. You can't even see what is going on. And that was upsetting. It was
blue and just dark and I can I can tell what was happening. I could barely hear or see. And so I
and so I think when I watched this movie, it was kind of like it wasn't too late at night, but it
was at night an hour in, I just had to like call it and go to sleep because it was just I think it
was depriving my senses from me. You said fugue state. Yeah, I did. Yeah, absolutely. Oh my
goodness. Yeah, it's funny how the yeah that how it's effective in that, right? You know,
because this is a fugue state for her as she's yeah, theoretically transported to like she's
dreaming this whole time or something to that effect. But yeah, so speaking of Munchkin Land,
so as Dorothy descends from the atmosphere, she smashes through the Oz sign falls upon and kills
Evermeen, the wicked witch of the East. It's an Oz sign. OK, that makes more sense. I was like for
Wizzy with the Z's and O with the Z in the middle. That's Oz. OK, that makes sense. So the wicked
witch of the East who rules Munchkin Land as a result, she frees the Munchkins who populate
the playground in which she lands. Dorothy soon meets the Munchkins. Yeah, they got turned into
tunes. They said, well, the wicked witch of the East turned us into tunes on the wall. And I was
like, oh, and they just like pop out of the wall. We're no longer like a Kip Haring or whatever
that artist's name. But yeah, everybody kind of comes out of the wall in these. Yeah, like
murder chalk drawings in a big like space that looks like it's just like an empty, dark space
that has like a slide in the middle or something like plague. And then it's all this graffiti and
everything. And then a lot of the sets in this movie are the stadium. And later on, when we see
the Tin Man, the roller coaster and then whatever that courthouse set. But and then the wicked witch
warehouse, all these like big, imposing sets with like sometimes a lot of people, sometimes no one.
And it feels very empty and wide shots and like interesting pacing and editing of those shots as
well. But there's these like wide shots they hang on a lot and just have things kind of happen
as if filming like a stage play on stage. And there's just they haven't I don't know,
they didn't figure out with this one how to make a musical exciting on on a visual element. And we
us watching enough musicals on this broadcast to it's that's kind of been hit or miss as far as
how people are successful in bringing bringing that across. But yeah, so they leave Munchkinland,
then she she meets up with Scarecrow. And oh, yeah, the benefactor was an interesting thing.
I want to touch on that because I was I just was so curious as to what her business is, because
I mean, that's so she's like the voice of the Munchkins, right? So she comes in.
Is that Glenda the good the good witch? Is that when she comes in?
Hmm. Oh, yes. Miss one the good witch of the north. Right. Yeah. Yeah. She's a good witch.
A magical numbers runner.
Who gives who gives her the charm silver slippers.
You know, what was so funny is I just like I mean, yeah, she looked she looked great.
It was very dear elite.
Everyone around her. Yes. But she was she had a good outfit.
So, yeah, that's that's how I felt.
Never going to get old for you, but not for us.
But yeah, I registered to follow the yellow brick road to the road to the Emerald City,
the yellow brick road. Cool concept. We saw it in the trailer for. Yeah.
Always check us out. Check us out on Twitch. But yeah, it's like it's really
where it slowly like pans up like they're like looking down the ground. They're like,
wait a minute, there's a little there's some yellow bricks. There's a little bit more.
And then it's just panning up. They're like, oh, my God, it's right there. And it's like,
no, it was there in front of you the whole time for us as the camera. Yes, we had to like look up.
But for you, you just had to open your eyes. It was right in front of you.
It's like, how did that just appear in front of you like that?
They were just looking down at the ground the whole time.
Wait a minute. Look. Oh, then they get on down the road. That's a good song. The scaracos
song was like, oh, cool, Michael Jackson. He's here. He's he's a magnetic performer. And then
the first thing that he has to do is just be still on this thing as a scare. I know.
But it's like, man, get get him dancing early. You got to get him down from there. You got to
get him dancing quick and early. Like, because any anytime after that, I was glued to this glued to
his performance on screen, even if it was just walking around. Like, do you notice all of his
scarecrow isms? I thought that it was just amazing because it was kind of random and chaotic in some
ways. Like it wasn't predictable exactly what he would do. He kind of had this bow legged sort of
hop, skip and jump. But then every every now and then he would just eat shit and like fall and then
do like a topple and jump back up. And then like, and he would always be kind of like slipping and
uncoordinated and clumsy. But then like when he had to do a dance or whatever with like a group
of people, it was always so quick on and on top of it. And he would actually add little flourishes
in between as a scarecrow. But yeah, all that got to get got to get him dancing. And then Diana Ross
is a goofy dancer, too. I love totally a goofy dancer. I love her physicality. Yeah, because she
really like like feels and throws it in there and like really like makes it snap and like has all
this like, yeah. And it's really just throw her hands up and start spinning around and her and
and very expressive eyes and she dances with her face, which is great, too, in a musical where you
can see the expression in the back row. Yeah, I so much so that I heard that Sydney Lamed, the director
who what a goat that guy is so many director awards. But yeah, she was so expressive that he
didn't even have to turn the camera on in order for her image to be put onto the reel.
Oh, I was laughing already.
But yeah, I was speaking to Sydney Lamed now that I mentioned it is like, yeah, so that's I it's just
it's kind of crazy to me that this movie is so uninteresting in its direction for a guy who
is a well known director, I guess, like 12 Angry Men isn't necessarily something that's got a lot
of kinetic directing to it. It is a lot of just, you know, putting the camera on people when they're
talking in a way that just makes sense and pretty. But I don't know, I guess. Do you have any
opinions about like, I guess the directing and 12 Angry Men doesn't like totally stand out to me.
But it's not to say that he hasn't done other movies that are like, yeah, really good movies,
you know, because you also have Dog Day Afternoon Network, all like, you know, movies. So 12
Angry Men 57, really, then, yeah, it's crazy that. Yeah, I don't know that they picked him,
though, I guess is something I would say about that. It's like that they landed on him. I know
that you were showing a little bit about potentially Baron Samity, the guy who plays him doing being
the director, right? Possibly. Yeah, it was just one of the things that I was thinking about.
Possibly. Yeah, I was just watching that video for the first time with you before this kind of
looking at some behind the scenes stuff and looks like he had a big part in the musical as well. And
what creatively the creative process and creating everything in line with the stage play. And then
they went in a different direction and did their thing. And then at the last minute, right, when
the movie was about to come out, they reached out to Baron Samity again, the guy who played Baron
Samity from Live and Let Die, a movie that we both love. Love it. Love it. Love it. Black
Splatoon as well. Yeah. And and they reached out to him to try and fix whatever they felt was was
wrong with the movie, which is kind of kind of telling. And it's I don't know, none of these
movies really. It's really hard to compare them with The Wiz because they're so vastly different.
And I mean, for you to be able to direct a movie that all takes place within within one room and
have it be entertaining and and keep the pace and momentum that that speaks that you are a really
great director. But yeah, I mean, to be honest, I haven't seen Dog Day Afternoon or Serpico. And
these are my 70s blind spot, I feel like some. I know we've talked about it because I yeah,
I'm aware of these films, but I haven't seen them either. You know that again. Yeah, I feel like this
is another you know, this being brought up again is another reason why maybe we should
not really get into 70s. Yeah, even just as like a little thing for me. And yes, like a little
mini series of just like classics because I even picked up a little want to be film nerd myself.
I picked up Tarantino's book and a lot of it is about 70s cinema and the movies that he grew up
watching. And I kind of wanted to use that as kind of like a guide piece to watching some of those
movies. And he has a chapter on each one and then kind of read a chapter, watch a movie,
sounded kind of fun to me. So I might be doing that. Watching Mahogany was was cool. And then
even before that we did was it Lady Sings the Blues, which I mean, to even just to just to speak
to that again, I think we talked about it last episode, but Diana Ross's performance as Billie
Halliday was legendary and such a good performance. But should we just talk about the Tin Man and the
Lion Man and I want to mention that the screenplay is by Joel Schumacher. I think. Yeah, that's crazy.
I saw that. That's an interesting little factoid because that guy's an insane person. I put in our
general chat a picture of Joel Schumacher. He looks like he's a legend. Yeah, he looks like a plastic
person. And yeah, he total legend for being. Yeah, I don't know. It just seems like a guy who's done
a lot of cocaine in his life and has made some crazy movies. I mean, Batman, Robin is one of my
favorite movies. We did Phantom of the Opera on this this year podcast. So it's he was he was
involved in. So maybe maybe that's why he was in charge of Phantom of the Opera was was his
involvement with with this movie and in musicals and everything. There's something about Batman
and Robin where it does feel like you're watching like a stunt spectacular. Yeah. Like on stage or
something like that. So I don't. Yeah, it's it's it's an interesting time for movies and something
that maybe us were like, yeah, like we're just saying we're not as familiar with. However,
yeah, it's it's based on a timeless movie. And so you're inevitably going to draw comparisons
to the original, which you can't beat. But to do your own version of I would hope that like
there's some some tenants and some some things within the music that I could hang my hand on and
remember like a song besides just he's on get on down, get on down road like that. That's just
like the one that I that I remember. And that's unfortunate for such a strong music driven
movie on a on a base level. Visually, it's upsetting. And this tin man's song I thought was
just like unsettling. Yeah. And his whole his whole way of being I know if it's like a what kind of
affectation he's trying to draw on like I was like a Bing Crosby or something like that. Like he's
just enunciating everything and just really slow and enunciating every every word like a current
crooner sort of sort of song and not not my favorite, not my favorite. I was unsettled. And
then the lion was just the where I think I had to stop my first half of viewing where I was just I
can I can go anymore. Yeah, yeah. He was like doing that licking thing too. And he like later,
I don't know maybe that was later on. But he was like, he's doing a lot of like actual cat stuff.
He's doing like a lot of licking and snarling little snarls and stuff. I guess it's fine.
And then I don't know the whiz. There's the big Xardas kind of head
and Emerald City. Anything to say about the three color songs and Emerald City? Everything still
felt blue. I know it was green, but I was like, how does it still like feel like blue and dark?
It's dark, like so dark and big, open, dark spaces.
It was. Yeah, the whole situation was so fucking bizarre because instead of getting there and my
recollection of the original is not. It's pretty foggy. But like, you know, you get there and it's
like a city. It's like the ladies come in. Yeah, that's that's before. Yeah, the poppies,
the girls, the prostitutes, because that's that's how when they are getting in the original,
it's like the flowers and shit. Right. Opium.
But yes, so like the Emerald City is like a place where all of the like elitists are,
you know, all the people that are well taken care of. And then, you know, this movie does that as
well. We're like where we met the scarecrow is in this like abandoned building that stands alone by
itself run down. He's being hassled by crows. The ten men in the cowardly lion are met in this
abandoned amusement park. So all of these analogues to the original where these like deprecated,
dilapidated like city analogues to what they were in the original, which the lions like
turned into a little statue thing like a gargoyle lion thing. Yeah.
And banished from the jungle. The tin man's a carny old carny broken down at like Coney Island
Rolls-Royce. He's got the his little cane and stuff like that. And then that set too is just
like there's like some scant little patches of little things they just threw on the ground and
it's just like trash. Everything is trash. It's a lot of trash. Scarecrow is made of trash.
I know, right. And there's some really gruesome stuff towards the end here where we get to the
like factory that the Wicked Witch. Yeah. Yeah. Is that it is like really fucking crazy. That's
on like this scene. Terrifying to children. Oh, yeah. If I saw this as a kid, I'd have
fucking nightmares for sure. Nightmare, nightmare fuel in this where yeah. Yeah. What is it? It's
like scarecrow or the tin man is just getting disembodied. Now, the tin man gets pressed
and then gets completely flattened. See that scarecrows get disembarked. Yeah. Oh, God. Some
really fucking wild ass shit in here. But yeah. So the Emerald City and then Richard Pryor
as the Wizard of Oz, I just I, you know, this it's one of those things where it's not a good
sign for me when we get to the Emerald City and I look at the time I stopped the movie and go like,
oh, wait a minute, we just fucking got because I know the story where it's we meet the wizard
the first time and he's behind the curtain. Then they have to go out to the Wicked Witch,
come back and then have that. After the and I'm like, we are just now getting to the Emerald City
to talk to the the fake dude. And it's like an hour, all the songs, hour 20 instead of like
into it. Getting to Emerald City, you get one song, you get three different ones about, oh, no, now
reds the color reds the color we wear now, whatever, whatever, how it goes. Oh, gold's the color.
I am in the same boat. And then you get you get back and you see Richard Pryor and
it's by that point, I'm so drained. The Wicked Witch scene really, really drained me because
it was just screaming the whole time. I don't want any bad news. It was just like, ah,
don't scream. At the end of it, you're like, I'm not going to tell you bad news. OK,
I've been beaten over the head by this song saying over and over and over and it's so long
and it's just and it's a bunch of factory sounds and screaming. And it's just like it's so gothic
and dark and scared. And it's like, yeah, I get it. OK, it should be oppressive to a degree. But
it's just it's so funny how this movie fails to have fun at its core and fundamental level.
It tries so hard to think it is way smarter than it is by creating all of these like allegories
or these, you know, these metaphors out of what it what the this version's like settings are.
But my God, it is just so oppressive. And the songs, like you said, like from Motown,
none of these are like pop songs where it's like a supreme song where you're like, oh, yeah,
this is got a it's got a hook. It's a jam. You know, none of that really exists in this movie.
And it's just so crazy that all again, all of these things on paper should be good. And it just
comes out like this where it's yeah, it's quite the weight, the slog like I said.
Yeah, the same way the songs don't have a hook like the scenes themselves don't really in the
movie itself. And it doesn't have a hook and is designed for stage like all the sets are designed
for stage where it'd be fine if you had a couple scant little patches of thing and you're you're
sitting in this in the seats and you're in your watch and you're just focused on the person
singing and they're doing they're they're doing a fine job singing, they're doing to the back row.
And it's I can picture seeing the whiz in broad on Broadway and having a good time. And the way
that it is done here is grading and almost like forcing you to just sit there and listen to someone
just yell and scream for five minutes and they get flushed down a toilet like it was nothing and then
just move it like things would just move on in a way to the next portion of the movie.
In a way that was like assuming you that you knew the story of the first one and kind of
in a very unsatisfied way like okay, you get it she's it's water blah blah blah will move on
rather than like, oh, you could have done maybe a fresh take or made it interesting or just
kind of making letting the audience assume and then making these songs way too long as well.
I don't know it's a long it's a pretty fucking movie like over two hours. And then she gets
she gets back to the whiz they do that whole thing of like, oh, it's in you the whole time.
Like the scarecrow Michael Jackson pulling out those little fortune cookie things was kind of
fun. And I like that part at the end where she's like, well, who said that? I did.
That was that was kind of cute. I like that. Yeah, it's it is rewarding to have gone through this
journey, especially this one that seemed that was just so like, oh, I feel like I'm walking in cement
and I want to get through this and to get to the point of like, oh, okay, we're gonna we're
gonna realize all of these wonderful things that we had inside of us. And I Yeah, but then that gets
fucking cut in my mind and goes right into this whole like, the Wizard of Oz is this politician
from Atlantic City. And then you have to deal with all of Yeah, then it was I ran for dog catcher or
whatever. And and was dropping all the papers down below. Yeah, that shit. Oh, God, that old monologue.
And his voice was so high the whole time. It was like, why is he doing this thing? I was waiting
for it to drop back down into like a normal register. He's just doing that like, high,
high voice the whole time. But I think this is the last little song of hers.
Because you've had them all along. Scarecrow, you figured out how to find a yellow brick road
and destroy evil lean and every smart way because nothing really happens after this. No.
But lion, it's a reprise when Evelyn strung you up by your tail, I was gonna fast forward a little bit.
It's your
belief. There's a reason to be snooze.
Believe you can make time stand still. You know, from the moment you try, if you believe,
I know you will. If you believe in yourself,
if you believe in yourself, if you believe in yourself,
you believe in yourself.
There's this there's the part I think you I don't know if you you saw but the
I don't know the very end she just stares at the camera the whole time and it starts
like that and that's so sort of way but it just builds and builds and I just feel like her eyes
and emotion just gets more and more intense over three minutes and that I'm just in my seat just
like, Oh my god, her head's gonna explode. She's just like,
it just keeps getting louder and just like, Oh my god. And then all the all these like visions of
the lion and the tin man come floating behind her like pictures of their head floating pictures of
their head. And that's their way of like getting like, like, yeah, remember your your friends along
the way rather than her waking up in the bed and being like, Dorothy, are you okay, Dorothy, Dorothy?
And oh, you were in my dream and you and you none of that. It doesn't have to be but this one,
what they chose to do was just shoot floating heads by her as she's like screaming into the camera.
Oh, floating heads like this is fucking and then Glinda's song Oh my god, her eyes are, I don't know.
I assume cocaine was involved in this movie in some way but she she looks like she's like
really happy to be there. That's all I'll say. I don't know how to say it but
vibrating. Yeah, like her, her energy is just vibrating man. But let's let's see some reviews
from some some critics and see what they have to say about it. It's a 41% by the critics
on the old Ron tomatoes. Let's check out some little tidbits.
Let's go to Entertainment Weekly David Barber, Barboar. Whatever fun this is, he gives it a 16.
Precise David. Whatever fun this funked up Wizard of Oz had on Broadway is erased by
miscasting and a hideous design. Oz as a New York slum. Yeah. TV Guide Magazine 25.
Staff not credited and whatever. Sidney Lumet's overblown direction strips the story of its magic.
Ross is too old for the part and never quite captures Dorothy's innocence and prior is wasted
in a film ill suited to his talents. The New Yorker Pauline Kale. Kale 40. This film brings out all
the weaknesses of its director Sidney Lumet and none of his strengths. The whole production has
a stagnant atmosphere and the big dance numbers are freeform traffic jams.
Oh, bam. Time's back. John Scowell 50. So much wit and talent and energy crowd the scene, the
screen in this lavishly filmed variant of the Oz story that it is depressing to realize that the
production never had a chance. And that's what our critics have to say about that. Let's move on over
into audience territory and check out their side of things here. They gave it a 65. Let's check out
some. Yeah, 65 percent. 65 percent. Let me pull these pull these up here and give me one moment.
Sorry, folks. But the. But the better vamp. But the better better better. But the better.
Oh, my God, is it who I think it is? We have a blarge entering into the polarized zone
into the polar kingdom. All right. Well, he gets to he gets to witness the end of our whiz
whiz reviews. Let's we're whizzing in here. Blarge. Yeah, we've got a five star from a
Rotten Tomato person. It's a really good movie and totally iconic. Everyone remembers scenes
they saw once as a child. The performances by the entire cast are wonderful. If you dislike it,
you're just being stuck up. Yeah, that's me. Well, excuse me while I go get the stick out of my ass.
And this is another Rotten Tomato anonymous user five stars. If you don't like this movie,
you're anti black. Just kidding. But being from the generation Z, this is the only whiz I
acknowledge. The cast is amazing. The sets were beautiful. The soundtrack made me cry.
I watch this movie at least every four months because this is my favorite movie of all time.
Hello. Another Rotten Tomato user five stars. This movie way better than the original Wizard
of Oz, which will put you to sleep. Impressive for 1978. Relatable stories of life's pitfalls
and songs to get you out of them. Great kids movie. Kids movie. Not true. Not true. The opposite.
Lots of symbolism to update for the modern audience. Very on the nose with it could cut
30 minutes and would be better for it. Yeah. Yeah. But you left it. Yeah. Uh huh. OK. Can
you imagine your favorite movie? You're like, yeah, it doesn't need 30 minutes.
It doesn't need 30 minutes of it. Yeah. Five stars. This movie is an amazing art piece.
Truly underrated. It's one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen.
That is category five stars. Amazing. What a wonderful tribute to Black Lives Matter.
Ah, OK. All right. Oh, and we know when that was written.
Let's see. One of my favorite childhood movies. One of the greatest in black cinema history.
These are some of the some of the things people are saying. Five stars. This movie is both Diana
Ross and Michael Jackson. And the music is written by Quincy Jones. It's a trifecta of musical genius
and a must see for my family. For my family. The plot is based off of Wizard of Oz, so it will
likely be familiar to most audiences. But for me, the music is what makes this version more exciting
than the original. It has some subtle jokes, but maintains a dramatic feel throughout. I think it's
great musical and worth seeing. Hopefully you'll agree. I do not. And this is probably a good time
to move into our view. Should I kick it off? Actually, I need to go get something at the door,
but I don't know. I guess if you want to kick it off, you can. Or if you just. Yeah, I can just
start talking. OK. Brandon will be back. I'll give him a final score. Corey's somewhat here.
But yeah, I was not a fan of this movie. It was a drain of my energy and life force in many ways.
When I was looking forward to watching a fun musical, it ended up being two hours and 13 minutes
of kind of a slog. And the things that I did really enjoy, I was really stretching to find the
to find the reasons to and primarily that being what got me in the door, which was the cast of
Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. And they have. In arguably have. A whole bunch of fucking talent,
both of those people, so they're going to shine through no matter what you put them in.
But this was hard even for them to make their mark on and have it be successful,
because the songwriting wasn't wasn't there and there was no hooks for me to
remember and find catchy apart from the get on down the road song. And it's it was
it was a drag visually because it was so fucking dark. And for the original movie to be
revolving around its use of color in many ways, this one really messed up something so simple as
just color. And I can see certain things that were going on. I can hear others. And it was
unfortunate that they took something that had so much potential and didn't make full use of it.
And I think that's what makes it even more upsetting. If there was a movie that
that was going to be crap to begin with, then I'd be more maybe forgiving to some of the things
that they did well. But for them to not really find many things, they didn't really find
many things to do well. With so much good stuff going on there is is a real bummer. I'm curious
to see if the if the musical is a is a thing that I could see on stage, I would be interested in that.
But beyond that, it's going to be a do not recommend. It will be close to the rotten side of things.
I'm going to go with our brains not back yet, but I'm just going to go ahead and share my score.
It's going to be it's going to be a 30, I think a 30 25 to 30 hours.
I'll do 28. I'll do 28. It's gonna be 28 for me. While he is gone, I'm wondering if yeah,
we haven't listened to Eason down the road. So let's check that check that one out real quick.
I'm gonna take us home so we can start the other thing. So the whiz. My final thoughts on this is
that I think it was an enormous misstep to visually to have this movie be set in this dystopian New
York City. I know that it probably seems like a really like deep and insightful thing to do,
but it makes the movie seem so drab, hard to see at times and really, really unfun.
Again, like we were just riffing on is that we're just talking. The songs in this are so are
surprisingly, yeah, are shockingly boring and not and yeah, just not memorable. And that is
really, really sad. You have Michael Jackson and Diana Ross in your movie. None of these songs.
Like almost every other musical we've done, I have listened to a song from it after the fact,
there are no songs like and then not even that like just even like the the chorus or the hook
is in my head coming out of it for some of these songs and none of these songs do that for me.
So weird. It's so bizarre. And yeah, it just is makes for this movie being overall very long
and unfun. I'm going to give this movie a I'm going to give this movie a 16%. Yeah, that's me.
And that's the whiz. That's polarized. That's that's that's polarized. That's that's one where
we like, yeah, we were we delayed our recording of this podcast as well a couple of times,
because even to the point where like, man, we're almost kind of just like dreading going through
this. But I think as I've said in the past, it is cathartic to go through it and to know that
I'm not alone, whereas like, man, yeah, I should like this more than I than how I'm feeling. And
then just instead of being, yeah, super I was pretty upset, but also like unsettled and tired
and bored a lot during this and don't recommend. And that's unfortunate, but it is what it is.
I think I hope I pray I've seen this movie once before our next movie that we're that we're doing.
I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to Brandini checking it out. It is the last dragon.
And our last little Barry Gordy adjacent film that we will be discussing. Let me pull up those
numbies for all of you fine people before we send you on your way. It is a 59 percent from critics,
an 86 percent audience. And I'll read the description here on Rotten Tomatoes.
Leroy Green, a young martial artist living in New York City, trains tirelessly to attain
the same level of mastery as the great Bruce Lee. One night, his life changes forever when
he rescues television personality Laura Charles from evil businessman Eddie Arcadian. Impressed
by Leroy's bravery, Laura falls for Leroy, but to keep her safe, he will have to defeat a gang
leader named Shonuf, the self-styled shogun of Harlem. Fuck, it's so sad. No one's just moving.
It's not sad. We'll we'll be doing this one next week. If you want to reach us in the meantime,
Polarize Pod, www.twitch.tv slash Polarize Pod. If you want to watch this live,
Twitter, dot com, same place, Polarize Pod. If you want to send us an email,
polarize the pod at gmail dot com. Any movie ideas, segment ideas, fan mail, hate mail and
rate reviews, subscribe on Apple Podcasts. We love you all and we'll see you next time for The Last Dragon.