While most people, no doubt, marked the passing of Michael Jackson by listening to their favorite songs of his or watching his videos on youtube, I chose to re-screen his movie debut in THE WIZ. It’s been 30 years since I last saw it and I’m sorry to report it’s every bit as bad as I remembered it. Nonetheless, it IS interesting to see Jackson in action long before he became the King of Pop or Wacko Jacko.

A mere 20 years old at the time, Jackson plays the Scarecrow in this updated, urban version of THE WIZARD OF OZ. He gets to sing a couple of songs, including a duet with Diana Ross, and dance around a lot in big production numbers. He also does a nice Ray Bolger imitation (tribute?) as he first wobbles his way down the yellow brick road.

In my mind, Bolger is just about perfect casting for a scarecrow and Jackson is physically adroit enough to also pull off the impression he’s a man without bone structure and full of stuffing. Bolger comes off the better actor, perhaps because he plays “older” to a young Judy Garland as Dorothy, whereas Jackson is clearly more of a “child” figure to the much older Diana Ross Dorothy. Jackson primarily is asked to play it broad and child-like and he pulls it off just fine. It’s just that there’s not much range or subtlety in the performance.

What’s most striking about his performance is his appearance. This is 1978, a year before he released his first solo album OFF THE WALL. In fact, he’s still performing as a member of THE JACKSONS (the more recent incarnation of THE JACKSON FIVE.) It’s also before he’s had a chance to start changing his appearance into the plastic surgery nightmare that became his fate.

We’re used to seeing the compare-and-contrast photos of a very young Jackson in the Jackson Five versus Jackson in his noodle-nose prime, but his THE WIZ days show a more adult Michael who was still surgery-free. Ironically, as Scarecrow, Jackson’s face is in full makeup. He’s given a double-chin for the part and his round nose is made almost bulbous. Compared to the way he came to look, it’s tempting to speculate that perhaps Jackson’s later fixation on paring down his facial features was in direct response to his exaggerated Scarecrow features.

When Jackson’s looks first began to change, many suggested he was trying to look more and more like his good friend (and his Dorothy) Diana Ross. But perhaps we’d got it wrong all along. Maybe it was Ray Bolger he was after.