Performance Review: Michael Jackson in The Wiz (1978)

As I move on to another, no quite so random Performance Review, I take a peculiar look at a performer not well associated with the medium of film. He's a somewhat recently deceased legend who has been one of largest icons of American music and overall culture with a near universal fan base. His contributions to pop culture and music were enormous, yet within the last twenty years he had been the butt of every perverted joke and had pretty much become a joke himself. But there was a different time once. A time when he made his only solid film appearance and was seen as a accomplished mature performer with some seriously unique talent -- both can be found in the imaginative, captivating performance given by...

...Michael Jackson in The Wiz (1978)

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Michael Jackson plays The Scarecrow, one of the first discoveries made by Dorothy (Diana Ross, sometimes surprisingly great in the role) once a blizzard sends her into the imaginary, bizarre world of Oz.

Dorothy finds Scarecrow in a big junk yard being harassed by a flock of creepy human-ish crows who surround the frightened man made out of garbage.

The crows tease and mock Scarecrow and ruin any shred of confidence he has left, as he wishes only to walk and experience an existence beyond being propped up on an old pole. And yet despite his dead-end situation, he quotes philosophers such as Socrates and Confucius (from his straw stuffing) looking for meaning and hope in his confusing, odd reality. He sings of his desperation in the catchy ballad, You Can't Win, before Dorothy offers him a helping hand.

She gives him a little confidence boost, suggesting that he can do anything he wants to with time and knowledge; but Scarecrow sadly admits that he doesn't have a brain. Dorothy asks for his company on her way to find The Wiz, as he can just maybe get Scarecrow the brain he always thought he never had.

So the two set off down the famous Yellow Brick Road, and get things pumpin' with the incredibly catchy Ease on Down the Road, singing and dancing all along the way. Jackson -- in his first and really only acting role -- seemed to be a interesting casting job. Only known for his hugely popular musical performances, Jackson was never really thought of as ever becoming an "actor", but rather a song and dance type of guy.

But this unusual, yet legendary role seems almost nearly tailor made for him. Jackson's once greatest gifts as a performer are used in full service to this childhood tale; superb musical talent, his unique child-like voice, his uncommonly vibrant charisma, and his limber physicality. When a big performer hits the screen, they usually have a bad habit of upstaging/or "scene-stealing" from both the other actors and the material -- none of this is ever even close to touching Jackson's performance. He is a prime example of the refreshing term known as a "scene-lifter"; when the actor prefers to elevate everything rather than take it all down with him. But still, Jackson actually acts in the film without coasting or wallowing in his charm, and the outcome is something simply extraordinary.

The novice actor puts so much feeling and texture into such a simple character that Scarecrow resonates in a surprising way. He even registers completely in scenes when the focus isn't totally on him; yet he still packs each close up or quick reaction shot in revelatory emotional states and character detail. Jackson's ever-consistent characterization works for his own arc as well as when actively interacting with the others around him. He's both always present "in the moment" and "in the character" and the heart, warmth, and dedication he pours into the role is visible in every frame.

Although nothing will ever best the original Wizard Of Oz, the Scarecrow character here is given more of a emotional journey as well as a intellectual one, and Jackson in every scene crafts his character's arc from this being who sees no hope to a new being who has experienced love and friendship as well as discovering his own gifted intelligence he had all along but just never saw it in himself.

It's all of this which make Scarecrow's last few moments so deeply touching, but there's still something else happening that extends beyond the actual film. The Wiz captures and showcases a time in Michael Jackson's own reality that is reflected in this soulful, emotionally textured performance -- a time that reflected the real Michael Jackson. The sweet, innocent and humble Jackson with the same radiant qualities infused into this character. Long before he became a controversial, creepy, living caricature of himself, who tried ever so hard to change who he was, because he missed or chose to ignore everything already had going for him; like the Scarecrow and his brain. The Wiz snapshots this truly genuine Michael at his most open and true, a time in his life that didn't last, but is forever frozen on celluloid. Something I don't think anyone could trade for. We are not just witnessing the Scarecrow's emotionally pungent transition, but the transitional loss of something beautiful and real.

Scarecrow recites one final line of true wisdom, not from a piece of paper, but from his heart:

"Success, fame, and fortune, they're all illusions.

All there is that is real is the friendship that two can share."

It's a beautiful statement, and one that couldn't have been more relevant to both the character and Jackson himself, as he lived a life filled with such illusions and emptiness until they overcame him to the point of no return. He had to rely on the tight bonds between he and others to keep going, and it only worked for so long. You can even hear such honesty in Jackson's voice -- as if he knows what's happening and just can't stop it.

Leave it to Michael Jackson and his actorly gifts to take an inanimate "object" and make him so poignantly human in nearly every way possible.

This is all why his performance isn't merely "special", but an extraordinary example of art, not simply imitating life, but beautifully reflecting it in cinematic form.