The 1978 movie Sidney Lumet always regretted making: “It was a disaster”
Most directors, even if they walk away from a project feeling satisfied, sometimes critical reception suggests that perhaps they shouldn’t have been so confident.
But can you let the opinions of critics affect you that much? For Sidney Lumet, it was the bitter reception to a movie he was really proud of that left him regretting that he’d ever made it. The director might’ve made his feature debut with the spectacular 12 Angry Men (quite the impressive feat), but his prolific filmmaking schedule, averaging around one new movie a year, was, of course, going to result in a release that critics were less than impressed with.
You can’t strike gold every single time, and while he stacked up a list of rather acclaimed movies, particularly in the ‘70s with the likes of Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network, there came a release that, more than anything, confused people.
You see, the filmmaker had become known for these rather masculine dramas, crime thrillers, and dark satires, so it was really confusing when, for his 1978 project, he picked an adaptation of a musical based on The Wizard of Oz, titled The Wiz, which gave the 1974 Broadway musical the silver screen treatment.
Lumet reimagined Dorothy as a 20-something-year-old teacher from Harlem who finds herself transported to Oz, a fantastical vision of New York, and it was one of the first major musicals with a predominantly Black cast, with the story commenting on the African American experience, particularly in New York, as well as the importance of community and the desire for freedom from systemic oppression.
Despite the success of the groundbreaking musical, Lumet’s version had a much more mixed reception, leading him to call it “a disaster”. His version featured two pop icons, Diana Ross as Dorothy, and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, the latter’s only screen role, and what’s more, it’s one of the few movies that actually used the inside of the World Trade Centre as a filming location.
You’d think that with a solid director and two mega stars, The Wiz would’ve been a success, but many people were actually critical of Ross’ performance, while Lumet’s grittier approach to the musical genre also raised some eyebrows. It was a new endeavour for the filmmaker, and he realised that he probably wasn’t as well-equipped for it as he had first thought.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, he said, “It was a disaster. I had this idea that a great fantasy could be made out of New York, that I could make Oz out of reality. We could have the lion statue in front of the New York Public Library come to life and turn into the Cowardly Lion and things like that. But that didn’t happen because I didn’t know enough technically.”
Despite the fact that Lumet has some regrets regarding the making of The Wiz, he didn’t let its disastrous outcome affect him too much, adding, “Generally, I’m pretty good about failure. I don’t go hog wild when things are going marvellously, and I don’t go into despair when they’re not”.
