The Wiz feels like a fever dream

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:02]So, let's talk about stuff. Everybody's talking about Michael Jackson right now, and of course, it's cuz the biopic just came out, and it's MJ, the King of Pop, so who doesn't want to talk about him?

[00:00:14]But one of his most interesting early performances comes from a film that most people hasn't revisited until just recently. It's not his concerts, of course. It's not his later music videos, but it's a film called The Whiz. On paper, it's a fantasy musical adaption of The Wizard of Oz, but in execution, it feels like something else entirely.

[00:00:33]Even though it's filmed in real locations across New York, the final result doesn't feel grounded in reality.

[00:00:38]It feels like a distorted emotional space, almost like a dream that's slightly out of sync with itself. So, let's talk about it.

[00:00:52]One of the most important things about The Whiz is that it doesn't build a fantasy world from scratch. Instead, it takes a real world New York locations and transform their emotional meaning.

[00:01:02]You recognize the spaces, but they don't behave like the spaces you know. Streets feel too empty, buildings feel too large, distances feel stretched in a way that doesn't match the reality. Even when characters are moving through recognizable environments, the environments feel detached from life. It creates this strange sensation where the film is not showing you a different world but showing you the same world through a distorted emotional lens. It feels like New York after everyone has left a ghost town basically. But the infrastructure of the city is still echoing its existence. That's what makes it unsettling. Not because anything is overtly scary, but because it feels abandoned in a way that doesn't make logical sense.

[00:01:40]The director of the film is Sydney Lumett, someone known for extremely grounded realistic storytelling in films like courtroom dramas and urban realism.

[00:01:48]Knowing that makes the context of this film a bit more unusual because instead of grounding the fantasy and realism, he does something closer to the opposite.

[00:01:57]He takes real environments and presents them in a way that feels slightly theatrical, slightly artificial, and emotionally exaggerated. The camera doesn't always behave like a neutral observer. It lingers in ways that feel intentional, sometimes uncomfortable.

[00:02:10]Wide shots emphasize isolation. Close-up emphasize emotional confusion rather than clarity. And the result is a film that feels carefully controlled but emotionally unstable. It doesn't fully commit to the realism and it doesn't fully commit to the fantasy. It exists in a tension between the two. That tension is what gives this film an entirely strange atmosphere.

[00:02:35]>> Boom.

[00:02:38]Halfway at the center of this is Michael Jackson. And I say halfway because the full center of this movie is, of course, Diana Ross, who plays Dorothy. But Michael Jackson is in this film as the Scarecrow. What makes this performance interesting is not just what it is, but where it exists in his career. He hasn't yet fully become the global figure people associate his name with. This is still early in his artistic identity, and that shows in how he moves and performs. His physicality is loose and expressive, but not yet fully refined.

[00:03:10]There are moments where his movement feels almost improvised, like he's discovering a rhythm and expression in real time rather than executing a perfectic style at the same time. The foundation of what he would later become is already visible. The musical timing, the instinct for physical storytelling, the emotional control in certain moments are all there, just not yet fully crystallized, if that makes sense. What makes it compelling is the contradiction. It's not a finished version of an icon, but it's not a beginner either. It's something in between. It feels like watching identity forming in real time.

[00:03:47]The way this film is structured is kind of weird because it doesn't behave like traditional storytelling. Scenes don't always transition in a smooth or logical way for that matter. Instead, they often feel like they're connected through emotion rather than narrative continuity. One moment leads into another, not because of cause and effect, but because of thematic or psychological association. This is why this film often feels dreamlike. In dreams, environments shift without explanation, and emotional states replace structured logic. The whiz operates the same way, kind of.

[00:04:19]Locations feel symbolic. The subway feels like fear and confrontation. The junkyard feels like abandonment and deconstruction. in the Emerald City feels like isolation. Nothing in this movie is strictly literal. Everything carries emotional weight beyond its surface meaning. This is what makes the film so hard to categorize. It doesn't fully behave like a traditional fantasy, and it doesn't fully behave like a traditional musical either. It behaves like an emotional experience disguised as a narrative.

[00:04:53]When our group of characters reach the Emerald City, the film intensifies visually and emotionally. Everything becomes brighter, faster, and more layered with movement. Costumes shift instantly. Colors dominate the frame.

[00:05:06]Choreography becomes constant motion rather than structured performances.

[00:05:09]Instead of feeling like arrival or resolution, it feels like escalation.

[00:05:13]The city overwhelms the viewer with stimulation rather than providing clarity. It's a space where identity is not stabilized but constantly reperformed. Characters are not just existing within the city. They are being visually reshaped by it. The Emerald City becomes less of a destination and more of a system that transforms perception itself. But at its core, the film is structured around characters searching for something they believe they are missing. But what they encounter throughout the journey is not simply the fulfillment of those desires.

[00:05:45]Instead, they are forced to confront the idea that what they are searching for is already connected to who they are. The scarecrow searches for intelligence. The Tin Man searches for emotion. And the lion searches for courage. But each journey reveals that these traits aren't absent. They're just unrecognized or uncknowledged. The world they move through reflects that internal confusion. It externalizes identity struggles into physical environments.

[00:06:08]The journey is not about reaching a place. It's about understanding the self through distortion.

[00:06:19]Comparing it to The Wizard of Oz is not really that challenging because this film takes a much less structured approach to storytelling. The originals film is built around clear symbolic progression and a defined emotional arc.

[00:06:33]Each location represents a distinct stage in that journey. The Whiz, on the other hand, removes a lot of that clarity and focuses more on atmosphere than structure. It emphasizes emotional experience over narrative precision.

[00:06:46]Instead of guiding the viewer through a clearly defined path, it immerses them in shifting environment where meaning is more fluid. It is less about following a story and more about inhabiting a feeling. The timing of this film adds another layer to its interpretation. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this film came before the off-the-wall era.

[00:07:06]So it's before his rise into global superstardom and before his identity as a fully defined cultural figure. What makes his performances here so significant is that it captures a moment of transition. It exists between stages of identity, not the beginning of his career and definitely not the peak of it but a phase where direction is still forming. That inbetween state mirrors the film itself which also exists between realism and fantasy structure and abstraction. So looking back at this film, The Whis stands out less as a traditional musical and more as a cinematic experience defined by atmosphere, emotion, and transitional identity. It doesn't fully align with the conventional expectations of its genre. And it doesn't really need to.

[00:07:50]Its value comes from how unusual it feels and how unstable the world is and how closely that instability reflects the emotional states of its characters.

[00:07:59]And in that sense, it becomes something more than just an adaptation. It becomes a feeling that is difficult to fully explain but easy to recognize once you've seen it. Thank you for watching.

[00:08:10]Love you guys. God bless and I will see you in the next video.