The 8th baby of Motown Productions, The Wiz, is truly a splendor to watch over & over. Too bad the now devolved de Passe Entertainment is most likely just managing royalties.
It's amazing to me how not too many big fantasy/sci-fi productions with an all black cast just don't get produced. I'm referring à la TBurton, PJackson, et al. There are virtually no sci-fi, middle ages, dynasty or whatever else that's popping into your head, of fantastical themes which have an all minority/majority cast.
Can't a cool script of a rich JZ type, with an inflated ego, almost like Alien be made? With his employees and family members an array of brown tones manning a spaceship? In the far distant future, can't there be a lunar bus belonging to a cool looking DWashington type be transporting a bad ass HBerry?
Thank God for Debra Martin Chase. Tho, she has been pigeon holed (remake Queen), but at least she is out there updating what many think the minority census longs for. Honestly, if done right and when good is good, I will lap up a sci-fi with an all people of color cast. I mean, lets face reality! We see all white casts ALL THE TIME? So what's up?
This is why I probably found The Wiz to be:
AWESOME
I mean - there's vouging in it! The Crows & that awesome lady in red! Cool grandiose dance sequences, glorious sets, amazing costumes, awesome singing & great music, (you know you are watching a musical scene in your mind's eye just as you're reading this. Don't play yourself)!
BUT
Back to my serious point. AArau's Like Water for Chocolate & GdToro's Pan's Labyrinth are non white fantasies, which are splendid. Let us not forget MGibson's Apocalypto, (thank you Mel). HOWEVER; It's insulting - at least to me - that there is MAJOR lacking in ALL BLACK AND/OR LATINO BOMBASTIC TBurton types of productions, which by now should be the norm.
It's just a constant reminder to me of the unspoken yet so obvious master & servant mentality. This is why Homogenic societies such as Asia have a VAST array of fantasy flicks. They don't have the major hang ups which plague America.
I mean, it's like we have been duped to believe all we care about are relationship psychodramas or musicals. As a close friend confided to me, "They think black men don't fly in their dreams.", as we glided down the Regal Theater's escalators at Union Square this past Spring.
Back to HoeWood: Don't get me wrong - I LOVE TBurton, RScott et al, and as defense to them, they can easily argue, "Well, I don't have all Black or Latino casts because I'm neither of them and I can't relate." Fair enough.
We can also easily argue - to truly take a creative stance in art is to delve into what is completely unknown to us. Film, after all, is truly one of the finest art forms. But the old ruling blokes are so back tracked they are still struggling with their Animus complex - hence their affinity for leading ladies as their far stretched choice in delving into their other side. That story is old all ready.
So who is at fault? The SLees & JSingletons, which most likely have been shot down when stepped out of the box? HoeWood? Us? The Jews? The WSmiths? Who should grow balls and take this leap? Are we enablers? I mean, do we boycott all? Or continue to just follow along?
Do we continue to take the BLATANT racism which
persists? You mean to tell me an all brown fairy land can't exist? No
wonder Mel lost it.
Will a small kid from Harlem - or wherever - grow up to be the next big thing, AND demand an almost all black cast for his major production film, set in an African back drop, his version of Prometheus or E.T. and say, "But this is what I identify with, this is the vision in my mind."? Are we not allowed to receive in trust - vasts amounts of money to produce as well? Just mini videos? Time Periods?
If an era of 10 back to back Latino films came into existence will they be considered exploitation films? Are the ridiculous "star power" JAnnistons & BPitts films an inverted form of exploitation or could they easily be called WhitExploitation?
Either way, The Wiz is a sad reminder of what gorgeousity an all "ethnic" fantasy, which is well directed, with a big budget can result in.
Until than your copy of the great fantasy/musical The Wiz will rest among some more musicals, remakes, melodramatic dramas & Soul Plane.
E V O L V E....it's a beautiful thing.
RIP: SLumet, TRoss, MKing, MJackson, NRussell, TMerritt, LHorne, RPryor, TCarpenter & Dancers. They are, most possibly, truly Whiz on Downing in the great road of PARADISE, cuz here is just a Mucky Mess.
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